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Learning Technologies and
Mathematics Middle East Conference Invited Speakers
Dr. Kamal Abouchedid, Director of the Office of Tests, Measurement
and Evaluation at Notre Dame
University, Lebanon. Dr. Abouchedid is a leading Lebanese expert on education
theory and practice in the Arab world.
He received his Ph.D. in Education from the University of Manchester, U.K. in 1997.
Further, he was a visiting Fulbright scholar at the University of Florida, Gainesville, Florida
where he had worked for 8 months at the Department of Sociology under the supervision
of Professor Joe R. Feagin. Center for Applied Research in Education (CARE) Notre Dame University P. O. Box: 72, Zouk Mosbeh, Lebanon Office: +961-9-218950 (ext: 2128) Fax: +961-9-218771 Email: kabouchedid@ndu.edu.lb Professor Bruno Buchberger, Johannes
Kepler University, Austria. Bruno
Buchberger is professor of Computer Mathematics at the
Research Institute for Symbolic Computation (RISC), Johannes Kepler
University, Austria. Prof. Buchberger is a Member of the European
Academy of Science.
with three honorary doctorates. He is founding editor of the Journal of Symbolic Computation.
He is founder of the Research Institute for Symbolic Computation (RISC), the Software Park Hagenberg, Austria.
and the International School for Informatics, Hagenberg, Austria. Prof. Buchberger is the inventor of the theory and method of Grobner
bases:
His current main research activity is to initiate and direct the Theorema Project for formal mathematics (automated mathematical proving and formal theory exploration). He presented 150 keynote and invited talks at international conferences in Europe, US, Asia, Australia. Professor Nabil Fares, has taught a variety of engineering courses at several universities. Before starting his own consulting company, he was a professor at Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute in Troy, New York, and then at Polytechnic University in Brooklyn, New York, for a combined period of about 10 years. As a certified instructor for Wolfram Research, Fares has taught "M101: A First Course in Mathematica" since 2001. Fares has used Mathematica since 1988 in both teaching and research. In teaching, he has developed and demonstrated Mathematica packages to illustrate engineering analysis methods. In research, he has developed advanced engineering software for clients, an experience that has enhanced his teaching abilities. Professor Michael Gage, University of Rochester, USA. Michael Gage received his B.S. from Antioch College and his Ph.D. in mathematics from Stanford University in 1978. His thesis in differential geometry was supervised by Robert Osserman. He has held visiting positions at Michigan State University, the University of Delaware, the University of Pennsylvania, Case Western Reserve University, l'Institute des Hautes Etudes Scientific (Paris) and the University of California at San Diego. He is currently a full professor at the University of Rochester. Prof. Gage has worked on a range of problems in differential geometry, including isoperimetric inequality problems such as a proof of Gehring's conjecture on linked spheres and eigenvalue estimates on Riemannian manifolds. Prof. Gage was the recipient of the MAA Seaway section Distinguished Teaching Award for 1996-97 and also received the University of Rochester's prestigious Goergen Award for Distinguished Achievement and Artistry in Undergraduate Teaching in October 1997. Beginning in 1996, Prof. Gage and Prof. Arnold Pizer began development at the University of Rochester of a web-based system for checking homework and providing immediate feedback for students using the World Wide Web. Called WeBWorK, and supported by a grant from the NSF, the system is now in use at over 100 universities and colleges. Prof. Gage has been active in promoting co-curricular mathematics activities for undergraduates. He was the faculty advisor for SUMS (Society for Undergraduate Mathematics Students) from its inception until 2001. He also serves as the department's liaison to the MAA (Mathematics Association of America). Professor Deborah Hughes Hallett, University of Arizona, USA. Deborah Hughes Hallett, a Professor in the University of Arizona Department of Mathematics and Adjunct Professor of Public Policy at the Kennedy School of Government, Harvard University, is an international authority on the teaching of mathematics. She is the author of several college-level mathematics texts and is a member of the College Boards Committee reviewing the new Math-SAT. She has recently completed a National Academy of Science report on Advanced Study in American High Schools. She has received the Louise Hay Prize, and was elected Fellow of the American Association for the Advancement of Science, for her contributions to mathematics education. In 2004, she received the MAA Award for Distinguished Teaching. In 2005, Prof. Hughes Hallett won the University of Arizona's College of Science "Award for Innovation" in recognition of "outstanding educational innovation developed and applied in the classroom." Professor Edamana V. Krishnan, Sultan Qaboos University. Professor E.V. Krishnan received his Ph.D. degree in Mathematics from Indian Institute of Science, Bangalore, in 1979. He is currently working as an Associate Professor in Applied Mathematics in the Department of Mathematics and Statistics at the Sultan Qaboos University. He has been associated with Sultan Qaboos University since November, 1987, and has been both participant and observer to the events and developments that have greatly transformed the shape of this institute since its inception. Also, he has been the Deputy Head of the Department since September, 2004. Professor William McCallum, University of Arizona. Prof. McCallum is a University Distinguished Professor of Mathematics at the University of Arizona. Born in Sydney, Australia in 1956, he graduated with honors and a University Medal from the University of New South Wales in 1977, and received his Ph.D. in Mathematics from Harvard University in 1984, under the supervision of Barry Mazur. After spending two years at the University of California, Berkeley, and one at the Mathematical Sciences Research Institute in Berkeley, he joined the faculty at the University of Arizona in 1987. In 1989 he joined the Harvard calculus consortium, and he is the lead author of the consortium's multivariable calculus and college algebra texts. In 1993-94 he spent a year at the Institut des Hautes Etudes Scientifiques, and in 1995-96 he spent a year at the Institute for Advanced Study on a Centennial Fellowship from the American Mathematical Society. In 2005 he received the Director's Award for Distinguished Teaching Scholars from the National Science Foundation. His professional interests include arithmetic algebraic geometry and mathematics education. He has received grants and written articles, essays, and books in both areas. He is currently director of the Institute for Mathematics and Education at the University of Arizona. Professor Walter Piegorsch, University of Arizona. Professor Piegorsch earned an M.S. and a Ph.D. Statistics at the Biometrics Unit, Cornell University. He was a Statistician with the U.S. National Institute of Environmental Health Sciences from 1984 to 1993, then moved to the University of South Carolina, Columbia, where he was Professor and Director of Undergraduate Studies in Statistics. Walter has co-authored or co-edited two books, Statistics for Environmental Biology and Toxicology with A. John Bailer, and Case Studies in Environmental Statistics with Douglas W. Nychka and Lawrence H. Cox. He also serves or has served as a member of the Editorial Board of Environmental and Molecular Mutagenesis and Mutation Research, the Editorial Review Board of Environmental Health Perspectives, and as an Associate Editor for Environmetrics, Environmental and Ecological Statistics, Biometrics, and the Journal of the American Statistical Association. Walter is a Fellow of the American Statistical Association, an elected member of the International Statistical Institute, and has received a Distinguished Achievement Medal from the American Statistical Association Section on Statistics and the Environment. He has served as Vice-Chair of the American Statistical Association Council of Sections Governing Board, as Program Chairman of the Joint Statistical Meetings, and as Secretary of the Eastern North American Region of the International Biometric Society. He has also served and continues to serve on advisory boards and peer review groups for governmental agencies including the U.S. National Toxicology Program, the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, and the U.S. National Science Foundation. Dr. Webster West, Texas A&M University. Webster West is an associate professor of statistics, Dept. of Statistics, Texas A&M university. He is also the founder and CEO of Integrated Analytics LLC. Professor West has published extensively in computational and graphical statistics and is considered one of the pioneers in learning via the World Wide Web. In fact, Professor West is the developer (with Todd Ogden of Columbia University) of DoStat, an online course management system. He also created WebStat and StatCrunch, which are data analysis softwares for the Web. Professor West has written many applets to help statistics students learn interactively. Dr. Lotfi Hermi, University of Arizona. Dr. Hermi received his PhD in Mathematics from the University of Missouri, Columbia in 1999. He has been at the University of Arizona since 2000. Dr. Hermi lead the Mathematics for Business Decisions workshop at the Third International Conference on the Teaching of Mathematics at the Undergraduate Level in Istanbul, Turkey (July 2006), and has used technology in the classroom since 1993 (Mathematica, Excel, Winplot). Together with Professors Hughes Hallett and McCallum, he developed materials for exploring apportionment procedures around the world. |