Awards
Celebrating Excellence Across the MAA Community
The MAA Awards are presented each year to acknowledge our members' remarkable contributions to the MAA community and the field of mathematics. The award ceremony, held at MathFest, is a joyful celebration of our diverse and dynamic community and the incredible talent shaping the future of math.
Teaching Awards
Awarded For: Teaching effectiveness that has been shown to have influenced the honoree’s own institutions. Up to three awards are handed out yearly, and individuals may only win once.
Awarded Annually
Prizes: $1,000, partial support for travel to MAA MathFest, and a certificate of recognition
Recent Winners: (2024)
Candice Price, Smith College
Jan Rychtář, Virginia Commonwealth University
Malena Español
Guidelines and Nomination Form
Nomination Due: August 1
Awarded For: Distinguished teaching by a beginning mathematics faculty member
Awarded Annually
Prizes: $1,000 and up to $1,000 of MAA MathFest travel reimbursed
Recent Winners: (2024)
Shelby Stanhope
Dr. Haydee Lindo
Axel Brandt
Guidelines and Nomination Form
Nomination Due: October 1
Awarded For: Middle and high school mathematics teachers who have done outstanding work to motivate students in mathematics by participating in the MAA American Mathematics Competitions (AMC).
Awarded Annually
Prizes: $500 and free registration, housing, and travel expenses to MAA MathFest
Nomination Guidelines & Past Winners
Nomination Due: September 3
Research and Service Awards
Awarded For: Extraordinarily successful service to mathematics. It is the most prestigious award for service offered by the MAA
Awarded Annually
Prizes: $5,000
Recent Winner: (2024)
Guidelines and Nomination Form
Nomination Due: October 1
Awarded For: Significant, sustained work to broaden access to mathematics and advance MAA’s core value of inclusivity
Awarded Annually
Prizes: $2,500
Recent Winner: (2024)
Nomination Due: October 1
Awarded For: Bringing mathematical ideas and information to nonmathematical audiences
Prizes: $2,000
Recent Winners:
John Bailer, Richard Campbell, and Rosemary Pennington; and Erica Klarreich (2021)
Nomination Guidelines & Past Winners
Nomination Due: October 1
Awarded For: Special work of service associated with mathematics or the wider mathematical community. Awarded intermittently, when appropriate for recognition of outstanding service
Prizes: Certificate of Recognition
Nomination Guidelines & Past Winners
Nomination Due: April 1
Awarded For: Significant, sustained work to develop leadership within the mathematical sciences, cultivating and strengthening leadership skills among the next generation of math leaders.
Awarded Annually
Prize: $5,000
Recent Winner: (2024)
Guidelines and Nomination Form
Nomination Due: October 1
Awarded For: Performing significant, sustained work to broaden access to mathematics.
Awarded Annually
Recent Winners: (2024)
Julie Barnes
Roger Waggoner
Mark Sand
James T. Smith
David Housman
Guidelines and Nomination Form
Nomination Due: October 1
Awarded For: Distinguished contributions to the mathematical education of K-16 students by pure or applied mathematicians.
Prize: $5,000
Recent Winner: (2024)
Guidelines and Nomination Form
Nomination Due: October 1
Awarded For: Outstanding mathematical research by undergraduate students
A Joint Award Given Annually by the MAA, AMS, and SIAM
Prizes: $1,200
Recent Winner:
Ashwin Sah and Mehtaab Sawhney, MIT (2021)
Nomination Guidelines & Past Winners
Nomination Due: October 1
Awarded For: A significant record of published research in undergraduate mathematics education by an early-career researcher
Awarded Biennially
Prizes: $1,500
Recent Winner: (2024)
Nomination Guidelines & Past Winners
Nomination Due: October 1
Writing Awards
Awarded For: Made to authors of expository articles published in Mathematics Magazine.
Up to two awards annually
Prizes: $1,000
Recent Winners: (2024)
Alissa S. Crans, Glen T. Whitney
“Integral Tiling Pentagons,” Mathematics Magazine, 96:2, 130-140,
DOI: 10.1080/0025570X.2023.2176101.
John Chase, Matthew Wright
“Bacterial Growth: Not So Simple.” Mathematics Magazine 96, no. 4 (2023): 433–441.
Nomination Due: October 1
Awarded For: A noteworthy expository or survey paper. The pool of eligible papers shall be limited to expository or survey articles published in North American journals, and also all chapters in anthologies published by the Association, such as the books in the Studies series.
Awarded Annually
Prizes: $1,000 and certificate
Recent Winner: (2024)
Jeffrey Witmer, Oberlin College
Simpson’s Paradox, Visual Displays, and Causal Diagrams.” American Mathematical Monthly 128(7): 598-610.
Guidelines and Nomination Form
Nomination Due: October 1
Awarded For: A noteworthy expository paper appearing in an Association publication, at least one of whose authors is a younger mathematician, generally under the age of forty.
Awarded Biannually
Prizes: $1,000 and certificate
Recent Winner: 2023
Matt Davis, Adam E. Parker, and Daniel A. N. Vargas
Being Rational About Algebraic Numbers
The College Mathematics Journal, Vol. 52, no. 5, pp. 327–337.
doi.org/10.1080/07468342.2021.1967651
Guidelines and Nomination Form
Nomination Due: October 1
Awarded For: Presented to an author or authors of an exceptional article that is accessible to undergraduates and published during the preceding year in Math Horizons.
Awarded Annually
Prizes: $1,000
Recent Winners: (2024)
Megan Martin, Cornelia A. Van Cott, and Qiyu Zhang
“The Beauty of Halving It All.” Math Horizons 31, no. 2 (2024): 14–17.
Nomination Due: October 1
Awarded For: Given for articles of expository excellence published in The College Mathematics Journal.
Up to two awards each year
Prizes: $1,000
Recent Winners: (2024)
Damiano Fulghesu, James A. Sellers, Courtney K. Taylor
“Infinite Families of Infinite Series With Integer Sums” The College Mathematics Journal 54, no. 1 (2023).
“Bryn Mawr College Matriculation Exams from a Century Ago.” The College Mathematics Journal 54, no. 2 (2023): 83–89.
Nomination Due: October 1
Awarded For: Recognizes authors of articles of expository excellence published in The American Mathematical Monthly.
Up to four awards each year
Prizes: $1,000
Recent Winners: (2024)
“A Tale of Two by Two Matrices.” The American Mathematical Monthly 130, no. 4 (2023): 315–324.
Eli Hicks, R. Andrew Hicks, Ron Perline, and Sarah G. Rody
Frobenius Integrability, Automotive Blind Spots, Non-reversing Mirrors, an Panoramic Mirrors.” The American Mathematical Monthly 130, no. 1 (January 2023): 1–16.
What Is the Shape of a Cupola? The American Mathematical Monthly, 130:3, 222-238.
Judith B. Bruckner, Brian S. Thomson and Andrew M. Bruckner
Can One Visualize a Continuous Nowhere Differentiable Function? The American
Mathematical Monthly, 130:3, 214-221.
Nomination Due: October 1
Awarded For: Honors the author or authors of a paper reporting on novel research in algebra, combinatorics, or discrete mathematics. Papers are judged on quality of research, clarity of exposition, and accessibility to undergraduates.
Awarded every three years.
Prize: $5,000
Recent Winner: 2023
Samantha Dahlberg, Angèle Foley, and Stephanie van Willigenburg
Resolving Stanley’s e-positivity of claw-contractible-free graphs,
Eur. Math. Soc., (JEMS) 22(8), (2020), 2673-2696.
doi.org/10.4171/JEMS/974
Guidelines and Nomination Form
Nomination Due: October 1
Awarded For: Intended to recognize the author(s) of a distinguished, innovative book published by the MAA and to encourage the writing of such books.
The Committee determines the awarding schedule.
Prizes: $2,500
Recent Winner: (2024)
Guidelines and Nomination Form
Nomination Due: October 1
Awarded For: Intended to recognize authors of exceptionally well-written books with a positive impact on the public’s view of mathematics and to encourage the writing of such books. Eligible books include mathematical monographs at the undergraduate level, histories, biographies, works of fiction, poetry, collections of essays, and works on mathematics as it is related to other areas of arts and sciences.
Awarded Annually
Prizes: $2,000
Recent Winner: (2024)
Sarah Hart, Gresham Professor of Geometry, at Gresham College, London
Once Upon a Prime: The Wondrous Connections Between Mathematics and Literature. New York: Macmillan, 2023
Guidelines and Nomination Form
Nomination Due: October 1
Awarded For: Recognizes the author or authors of undergraduate mathematics teaching materials.
Awarded Annually
Prizes: $2,500
Recent Winner: (2024)
Nomination Due: October 1