The Association for Women in Mathematics (AWM) will present the Eighth Annual M. Gweneth Humphreys Award to Erica Flapan, Lingurn H. Burkhead Professor of Mathematics at Pomona College at the Joint Mathematics Meetings in San Diego, CA in January 2018. This award is named for M. Gweneth Humphreys (1911–2006). Professor Humphreys graduated with honors in mathematics from the University of British Columbia in 1932, earning the prestigious Governor General's Gold Medal at graduation. After receiving her master's degree from Smith College in 1933, Humphreys earned her PhD at age 23 from the University of Chicago in 1935. She taught mathematics to women for her entire career, first at Mount St. Scholastica College, then for several years at Sophie Newcomb College, and finally for over thirty years at Randolph-Macon Woman's College. This award, funded by contributions from her former students and colleagues at Randolph-Macon Woman's College, recognizes her commitment to and her profound influence on undergraduate students of mathematics.
Flapan’s dedication to her students is exceptional, and she has received awards for teaching and advising at her home institution as well as at the national level. She has also devoted many of her summers to teaching in mathematics programs and institutes, most often at the Summer Program for Women at Carleton College. She has served as mentor to more than sixty female undergraduates, many of whom have gone on to receive their doctorates and have careers in mathematics.
Students describe Dr. Flapan as a role model who serves as a champion for undergraduate women in mathematics. She inspires confidence in her students, yet her “pragmatism and directness are refreshing.” She has been described as having a special talent for identifying when students may need extra support, and she “listens with kindness and magnanimity.” As one student wrote, “Knowing that I essentially still had an advisor, even after I graduated, meant the world to me.”
In the classroom, Flapan has high expectations and demands rigor, but is also known as someone who tells “hilarious stories” and organizes community-building activities. As one student wrote, “Erica Flapan singlehandedly changed my perception of mathematics, mathematicians, and my place within the field.” Another student shared a message from Dr. Flapan that resonated with her profoundly: “There is a place in mathematics for all of us.”
Erica Flapan exemplifies the tradition of Gweneth Humphreys, and the AWM is proud to pay tribute to her devotion to mentoring and advising female undergraduate mathematics students.