Professor Seaman wins lifetime achievement award from Iowa Council of Teachers of Mathematics

February 24, 2011 - 12:00am

Walter Seaman, an associate professor in the Colleges of Liberal Arts and Sciences and Education, received a lifetime achievement award from the Iowa Council of Teachers of Mathematics (ICTM) in appreciation of his many contributions to mathematics education. He was honored February 18 at the ICTM meeting in West Des Moines.

Seaman’s efforts in the field of math education include the design and implementation of two mathematics classes for pre-service teachers and serving as a principal investigator on two consecutive Mathematics and Science Partnership grants delivering mathematics content and pedagogy professional development to local school teachers. He has helped run the UI Annual High School Mathematics Tournament events since 1997, and has been active in mathematics education-focused activities of the Iowa Mathematics and Science Partnership. He speaks frequently at the ICTM meetings on these activities.

Differential geometry is the focus of Seaman’s pure mathematics research. He earned his doctorate in mathematics from the University of Massachusetts at Amherst in 1982, joined the UI Department of Mathematics in 1983, and has held a joint appointment in the Department of Teaching and Learning since 2008. He visited Penn State University as an associate professor of mathematics education in 2000-02.