2008 Recipient: Bruce Yoshiwara

Bruce Yoshiwara's address at the Fall 2008 Section Meeting

Dr. Bruce Yoshiwara, Professor of Mathematics at Pierce College, has been selected as the winner of the MAA's Award for Distinguished College or University Teaching for 2008 in the Southern California-Nevada Section. Professor Yoshiwara received his B.A., M.A., and Ph.D. in Mathematics from UCLA. He has been teaching mathematics at Pierce for the past 18 years, including a year in England on a Fulbright Scholarship. The Selection Committee was impressed by his successful use of technology as both a content delivery tool and a pedagogical tool, which when combined with the "beautifully clear lecture notes and examples he provides" surely contributed to his being the frequent recipient of the "Golden Apple Award" given out each year by students to their favorite professors. Professor Yoshiwara motivates and inspires his students to pursue their education even farther than they may have originally planned, caring enough to expose them to such diverse areas as life sciences, history, and foreign language as woven into the fabric of mathematics, and skillfully using his knowledge and perspective on the history of mathematics to capture the minds of his students. His students value his classes not just for their educational benefit, but for the overall experience which includes Yoshiwara's playful sense of humor, selection of (sometimes hilarious) classroom objects for visual aids to enhance the learning environment, and a striking energy level which communicates to his students that there is nothing else in the world he would rather be doing than teaching community college mathematics students. Examples abound of his inspiration of students to continue on in advanced work in mathematics.

Outside the classroom, Yoshiwara is a leader in curriculum development, and a knowledgeable and respected mathematician in the mathematics education community. He has co-authored a number of highly regarded algebra and pre-algebra textbooks with his wife (and principal author) Kathy Yoshiwara, is an associate editor for the Journal of Online Mathematics and its Applications, and is actively involved in a number of different programs of the American Mathematical Association of Two Year Colleges (AMATYC). He works with UCLA's Mathematics Content Program for Teachers, consults for Project NExT and Project ACCCESS (Advancing Community College Careers: Education, Scholarship, Service), is the L.A. Pierce Mathematics Department liaison for both the MAA and CMC3 (California Mathematics Council Community Colleges), and is on the board for the CMC3-Southern branch. Please join the Selection Committee in congratulating Professor Yoshiwara at the upcoming Fall Meeting Oct. 11 at Scripps College, when he gives the invited luncheon address, "The Weapon of Choice," on his experiences with technology in the classroom.

The five members of the Selection Committee were Michael Frantz (Chair) of the University of La Verne, Mario Martelli of Claremont McKenna College, Jackie Dewar of Loyola Marymount University, Robert Brown of UCLA, and Satish Bhatnagar of UNLV.