Edward Bruce Burger (born December 10, 1964)Grondahl, Paul.

. ''Times Union''. October 16, 2005. Retrieved May 2, 2008. is an American mathematician and President Emeritus of

Southwestern University Southwestern University (Southwestern or SU) is a Private college, private Liberal arts colleges in the United States, liberal arts college in Georgetown, Texas. Formed in 1873 from a revival of collegiate charters granted in 1840, Southwester ...

in Georgetown, Texas. Previously, he was the Francis Christopher Oakley Third Century Professor of Mathematics at

Williams College Williams College is a Private college, private liberal arts colleges in the United States, liberal arts college in Williamstown, Massachusetts, United States. It was established as a men's college in 1793 with funds from the estate of Ephraim ...

, and the Robert Foster Cherry Professor for Great Teaching at

Baylor University Baylor University is a Private university, private Baptist research university in Waco, Texas, United States. It was chartered in 1845 by the last Congress of the Republic of Texas. Baylor is the oldest continuously operating university in Te ...

. He also had been named to a single-year-appointment as vice provost of strategic educational initiatives at Baylor University in February 2011. He currently serves as the president and CEO of St. David's Foundation. Burger has been honored as a leader in education. He has been a keynote speaker, invited special session speaker, or the conference chair at a number of

American Mathematical Society The American Mathematical Society (AMS) is an association of professional mathematicians dedicated to the interests of mathematical research and scholarship, and serves the national and international community through its publications, meetings, ...

Mathematical Association of America The Mathematical Association of America (MAA) is a professional society that focuses on mathematics accessible at the undergraduate level. Members include university A university () is an educational institution, institution of tertiary edu ...

, and the

National Council of Teachers of Mathematics Founded in 1920, The National Council of Teachers of Mathematics (NCTM) is a professional organization for schoolteachers of mathematics in the United States. One of its goals is to improve the standards of mathematics in education. NCTM holds an ...

conferences. During the late 1980s Burger was featured at a stand-up comedy club in Austin, Texas and also was an 'independent contractor', writing for Jay Leno. Today he has a weekly program on higher education, thinking, and learning produced by

NPR National Public Radio (NPR) is an American public broadcasting organization headquartered in Washington, D.C., with its NPR West headquarters in Culver City, California. It serves as a national Radio syndication, syndicator to a network of more ...

's Austin affiliate KUT called Higher ED.

Education

Burger graduated from

Connecticut College Connecticut College (Conn) is a Private college, private Liberal arts colleges in the United States, liberal arts college in New London, Connecticut. Originally chartered as Thames College, it was founded in 1911 as the state's only women's colle ...

in 1985, where he had earned

B.A. A Bachelor of Arts (abbreviated B.A., BA, A.B. or AB; from the Latin ', ', or ') is the holder of a bachelor's degree awarded for an undergraduate program in the liberal arts, or, in some cases, other disciplines. A Bachelor of Arts degree ...

, ''

summa cum laude Latin honors are a system of Latin phrases used in some colleges and universities to indicate the level of distinction with which an academic degree has been earned. The system is primarily used in the United States. It is also used in some Sout ...

'', with distinction in mathematics.Burger, Edward B
Faculty page
. Williams College. September 9, 1999. Retrieved May 1, 2008. In 1990, he was awarded his Ph.D. in mathematics from the

University of Texas at Austin The University of Texas at Austin (UT Austin, UT, or Texas) is a public university, public research university in Austin, Texas, United States. Founded in 1883, it is the flagship institution of the University of Texas System. With 53,082 stud ...

. He did his postdoctoral work at the

University of Waterloo The University of Waterloo (UWaterloo, UW, or Waterloo) is a Public university, public research university located in Waterloo, Ontario, Canada. The main campus is on of land adjacent to uptown Waterloo and Waterloo Park. The university also op ...

in Canada. In 2013 he was awarded an LL.D. from Williams College.

Career

Research

His research interests include

algebraic number theory Algebraic number theory is a branch of number theory that uses the techniques of abstract algebra to study the integers, rational numbers, and their generalizations. Number-theoretic questions are expressed in terms of properties of algebraic ob ...

Diophantine analysis ''Diophantine'' means pertaining to the ancient Greek mathematician Diophantus. A number of concepts bear this name: *Diophantine approximation *Diophantine equation *Diophantine quintuple In number theory, a diophantine -tuple is a set of p ...

, ''p''-adic analysis,

geometry of numbers Geometry of numbers is the part of number theory which uses geometry for the study of algebraic numbers. Typically, a ring of algebraic integers is viewed as a lattice (group), lattice in \mathbb R^n, and the study of these lattices provides fundam ...

, and the theory of

continued fraction A continued fraction is a mathematical expression that can be written as a fraction with a denominator that is a sum that contains another simple or continued fraction. Depending on whether this iteration terminates with a simple fraction or not, ...

s.Press release:
Mathematician Edward B. Burger Named Gaudino Scholar at Williams
". April 23, 2008. Retrieved May 1, 2008. He teaches

abstract algebra In mathematics, more specifically algebra, abstract algebra or modern algebra is the study of algebraic structures, which are set (mathematics), sets with specific operation (mathematics), operations acting on their elements. Algebraic structur ...

, "The Art of Creating Mathematics", and Diophantine analysis.

Teaching

He has taught or has been a visiting scholar at

The University of Texas at Austin The University of Texas at Austin (UT Austin, UT, or Texas) is a public research university in Austin, Texas, United States. Founded in 1883, it is the flagship institution of the University of Texas System. With 53,082 students as of fall 2 ...

, Westminster College,

James Madison University James Madison University (JMU, Madison, or James Madison) is a public university, public research university in Harrisonburg, Virginia, United States. Founded in 1908, the institution was renamed in 1938 in honor of the fourth president of the ...

, the

University of Colorado at Boulder The University of Colorado Boulder (CU Boulder, CU, or Colorado) is a Public university, public research university in Boulder, Colorado, United States. Founded in 1876, five months before Colorado became a Federated state, state, it is the fla ...

Concordia University Texas Concordia University Texas is a private university in Austin, Texas, United States. The university offers undergraduate, Graduate school, graduate, and online degrees as well as an adult degree program for part-time and returning students. Conc ...

, and the

Macquarie University Macquarie University ( ) is a Public university, public research university in Sydney, New South Wales, Australia. Founded in 1964 by the New South Wales Government, it was the third university to be established in the Sydney metropolitan area. ...

in Australia. Burger is a pioneer in rich, multimedia Internet lectures that, together with written material, form an electronic textbook. Traub, James.
This Campus Is Being Simulated
. ''New York Times Magazine''. November 19, 2000. Retrieved May 1, 2008. Together wit
Thinkwell
Burger "crafted the first-ever virtual, CD-ROM video, interactive, mathematics texts/courses" published over the World Wide Web. Additionally, his lesson tutorial videos earned publishe
Holt, Rinehart and Winston
one of the 2007 ''Awards of Excellence''Poftak , Amy and Susan McLester
Awards of Excellence
. ''Technology & Learning''. December 15, 2007. Retrieved May 1, 2008. from ''Technology & Learning'', an academic publication. Burger has written and starred in number of educational videos, including the 24-lecture video series
Zero to Infinity: A History of Numbers
' and
An Introduction to Number Theory
'. He has delivered more than 400 lectures worldwide and has appeared on more than 40 radio and TV programs including ''

ABC News Now ABC News Live (a.k.a. ABCNL) is a U.S.-based streaming video news channel for breaking news, live events, newscasts, and longer-form reports and documentaries operated by ABC News since 2018. The channel is available through various streaming ...

'' on

WABC-TV WABC-TV (channel 7) is a television station in New York City, serving as the flagship of the ABC network. Owned and operated by the network's ABC Owned Television Stations division, WABC-TV maintains studios in the Hudson Square neighborhood ...

in New York and

National Public Radio National Public Radio (NPR) is an American public broadcasting organization headquartered in Washington, D.C., with its NPR West headquarters in Culver City, California. It serves as a national Radio syndication, syndicator to a network of more ...

. He starred in the "Mathletes" episode of NBC's "Science of the Winter Olympics" series shown on the Today Show and throughout the 2010 Winter Olympic Games. In recognition for his work in multimedia education technology, The Association of Educational Publishers awarded Burger with the 2007 ''Distinguished Achievement Award'' for Educational Video Technology.Burger, Edward B.
Honors and Awards
. Williams College. Retrieved May 1, 2008. Burger feels that "math trauma" is commonly inflicted upon America's elementary and middle-school students, particularly girls, having received a seventh-grade report card stating: "Eddie is a nice boy, but he'll never do well in math." He offers his students "challenging questions for which the solution is by no means apparent".Stern, Zelda
Can Creativity Be Taught?
''Williams Alumni Review''. June 2006. Retrieved May 1, 2008. For example, when teaching students about

topology Topology (from the Greek language, Greek words , and ) is the branch of mathematics concerned with the properties of a Mathematical object, geometric object that are preserved under Continuous function, continuous Deformation theory, deformat ...

, he asked students if it is "possible to take a cord of rope long and tie it snugly around your right ankle and your left ankle, take off your pants, turn them inside out, and put your pants back on without ever cutting the rope?" He proceeded to demonstrate the solution to that challenge, wearing huge

Boston Red Sox The Boston Red Sox are an American professional baseball team based in Boston. The Red Sox compete in Major League Baseball (MLB) as a member club of the American League (AL) American League East, East Division. Founded in as one of the Ameri ...

boxer shorts under his trousers, at the

Boston Public Library The Boston Public Library is a municipal public library system in Boston, Massachusetts, founded in 1848. The Boston Public Library is also Massachusetts' Library for the Commonwealth (formerly ''library of last recourse''), meaning all adult re ...

in the summer of 2005.Palmer, Lisa.
Mathematics made fun: Williams professor takes creative approach
. ''The Boston Globe''. October 16, 2005. Retrieved May 1, 2008. In addition to his math courses, Burger teaches a short course in comedy writing during the winter study program at Williams. Combining math with comedy comes from his days as a stand-up comic at th
Laff Stop Comedy Club
in

Austin Austin refers to: Common meanings * Austin, Texas, United States, a city * Austin (given name), a list of people and fictional characters * Austin (surname), a list of people and fictional characters * Austin Motor Company, a British car manufac ...

in the late-1980s.

Publications

Burger has written 12 books and has had more than 30 papers published in scholarly journals.Burger, Edward B.
Publications
". Williams College. Retrieved May 1, 2008. With Michael Starbird, he coauthore
''The Heart of Mathematics: An invitation to effective thinking''
for which they won a 2001 Robert W. Hamilton Book Award, and ''Coincidences, Chaos, and All That Math Jazz,'', a humorous look at mathematics filed under both ''math'' and ''humor'' in the

Library of Congress The Library of Congress (LOC) is a research library in Washington, D.C., serving as the library and research service for the United States Congress and the ''de facto'' national library of the United States. It also administers Copyright law o ...

catalog. Burger is also an associate editor for the

American Mathematical Monthly ''The American Mathematical Monthly'' is a peer-reviewed scientific journal of mathematics. It was established by Benjamin Finkel in 1894 and is published by Taylor & Francis on behalf of the Mathematical Association of America. It is an exposi ...

and a member of the editorial board for K Peters Publishing Some of the books and papers he has authored or co-authored include:Burger, Edward B.
Books authored by and videos starring E.B. Burger
. Williams College. Retrieved May 2, 2008.Burger, Edward B.

. Williams College. Retrieved May 2, 2008. * , 1993 *
Pleasures vs. Problems
, February 2000 * ''Exploring the Number Jungle: A Journey into Diophantine Analysis'' (Student Mathematical Library, V. 8), , July 2000 *
'Math Forum'—I couldn't keep my distance: A mathematical seduction
February 2002 * ''The Joy of Thinking: The Beauty and Power of Classical Mathematical Ideas: Part 1 & 2'' (The Great Courses – Science & Mathematics), * ''Making Transcendence Transparent: An intuitive approach to classical transcendental number theory'', , July 2004 * , , 2004 * ''Coincidences, Chaos, and All That Math Jazz: Making Light of Weighty Ideas'', , August 2005 * ''Matematicas'', , 2007 * ''Mathematics: Course 2'', Holt, , January 2007 * ''Algebra 1'', Holt, , January 2007 * ''Extending the Frontiers of Mathematics: Inquiries into proof and argumentation'', , March 2007 * ''Algebra 2'', Holt, , August 2007
''The 5 Elements of Effective Thinking''
(with Michael Starbird) published by Princeton University Press in September 2012, Additionally, Burger has created virtual video textbooks on CD-ROM and on the web fo
Thinkwell
on the topics of "College Algebra", 2000; "Pre-Calculus", 2000; "Calculus", 2001; "Intermediate Algebra", 2001; "Beginning Algebra", 2004; "Trigonometry", 2006; "Prealgebra", 2007; and "Algebra II", 2011.

Professional positions

Burger has held the following professional positions:Burger, Edward B.

. Williams College. Retrieved May 1, 2008. ;

: Visiting lecturer, Summer 1990; Visiting Assistant Professor, Fall 1994; Visiting Scholar, Summer 1997 ;

Canada Canada is a country in North America. Its Provinces and territories of Canada, ten provinces and three territories extend from the Atlantic Ocean to the Pacific Ocean and northward into the Arctic Ocean, making it the world's List of coun ...

: Postdoctoral fellow, 1990–1991 ;

: Assistant professor, 1990–1996; associate professor, 1997–2000; professor of mathematics, 2001–2013; chair of the Department of Mathematics and Statistics, 2003–2006; Gaudino Scholar, 2008–2010; Lissack Professor for Social Responsibility and Personal Ethics, 2010–2012; Francis Christopher Oakley Third Century Professor of Mathematics, 2012–2013 ;

;

Australia Australia, officially the Commonwealth of Australia, is a country comprising mainland Australia, the mainland of the Australia (continent), Australian continent, the island of Tasmania and list of islands of Australia, numerous smaller isl ...

: Visiting fellow, summer 1999 ; Westminster College : Genevieve W. Gore Distinguished Resident, March 2001
Mass Interaction
: Mathematics consultant, summer 2001 ;

Texas Christian University Texas Christian University (TCU) is a private university, private research university in Fort Worth, Texas, United States. It was established in 1873 by brothers Addison Clark, Addison and Randolph Clark as the AddRan Male & Female College. It i ...

: Cecil and Ida Green Honors Professor, fall 2001 ;

: Associate editor, 2002–present
The Educational Advancement Foundation
: Member of the board of trustees, 2004–2008
AK Peters Publishing
: Member of the editorial board, 2005–present ;

NUMB3RS ''Numbers'' (stylized as ''NUMB3RS'') is an American crime drama television series that originally aired on CBS from January 23, 2005, to March 12, 2010, with a total of six seasons consisting of 118 episodes. The series was created by Nico ...

in the Classroom Project, CBS-TV/Paramount Studios/Texas Instruments : Mathematics advisor, 2005–2007 ; The Thomas S. Kenan Institute for the Arts at the University of North Carolina School of the Arts :Member of the board, 2009–present ;

:Robert Foster Cherry Professor for Great Teaching, 2010–2012 :Vice provost for strategic educational initiatives, 2011–2012 ;

:15th president, 2013–2020 ;St. David's Foundation :President and CEO

Selected honors and awards

Some of the honors and awards Burger has received include: * 2014 Elected t
The Philosophical Society of Texas
*2013 Awarded an Honorary Degree (Doctor of Laws) fro
Williams College
* 2013 Fellow of the

.List of Fellows of the American Mathematical Society
retrieved 2012-11-10. * 2012 "Global Hero in Education", Named b
Microsoft Corporation
ref name="Honors" /> * 2010 Telly Award, for the "Mathletes" episode of the NBC-Universal television series "The Science of the Olympic Winter Games" (the entire series won a 2011 Emmy Award) * 2010 ''Game Changer'', Named by

The Huffington Post ''HuffPost'' (''The Huffington Post'' until 2017, itself often abbreviated as ''HPo'') is an American progressive news website, with localized and international editions. The site offers news, satire, blogs, and original content, and covers p ...

; "HuffPost's Game Changers salutes 100 innovators, visionaries, mavericks, and leaders who are reshaping their fields and changing the world." * 2010 '' Robert Foster Cherry Award for Great Teaching'' from

* 2007 ''Award of Excellence'', for "educational mathematics videos that break new ground", ''Technology & Learning'' magazine * 2007 ''Distinguished Achievement Award'', for Educational Video Technology, The Association of Educational Publishers * 2006 "100 Best of America", Listed in

Reader's Digest ''Reader's Digest'' is an American general-interest family magazine, published ten times a year. Formerly based in Chappaqua, New York, it is now headquartered in midtown Manhattan. The magazine was founded in 1922 by DeWitt Wallace and his wi ...

Annual Special Issue as Best Math Teacher * 2006

Lester R. Ford Award ''The American Mathematical Monthly'' is a peer-reviewed scientific journal of mathematics. It was established by Benjamin Finkel in 1894 and is published by Taylor & Francis on behalf of the Mathematical Association of America. It is an expositor ...

for the expository article ''A Tail of Two Palindromes'' * 2003 Residence Life Academic Teaching Award, University of Colorado at Boulder * 2001 Robert W. Hamilton Book Award, for "''The Heart of Mathematics''" * 1988 Mathematics Teaching Award, The University of Texas at Austin Burger is the Francis Christopher Oakley Third Century Professor of Mathematics and was the Lissack Professor for Social Responsibility and Personal Ethics (2010–2012) and the Gaudino Scholar (2008–2010) at

, where he was also awarded the 2007 '' Nelson Bushnell Prize'' for Scholarship and Teaching. Burger has been honored by

The Mathematical Association of America The Mathematical Association of America (MAA) is a professional society that focuses on mathematics accessible at the undergraduate level. Members include university, college, and high school teachers; graduate and undergraduate students; pure a ...

on several occasions: 2001, Deborah and Franklin Haimo Award for Distinguished College or University Teaching of Mathematics; 2001–2003,

George Pólya George Pólya (; ; December 13, 1887 – September 7, 1985) was a Hungarian-American mathematician. He was a professor of mathematics from 1914 to 1940 at ETH Zürich and from 1940 to 1953 at Stanford University. He made fundamental contributi ...

lecturer;The Mathematical Association of America's ''George Pólya Lecturers''
/ref> 2004, ''

Chauvenet Prize The Chauvenet Prize is an annual award given by the Mathematical Association of America in recognition of an outstanding expository article on a mathematical topic. It consists of a prize of $1,000 and a certificate. The Chauvenet Prize was the ...

''; and 2006, ''

''The Mathematical Association of America's ''The Lester R. Ford Award''
. Retrieved May 1, 2008.

References

External links

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Burger, Edward B. 1964 births Living people 20th-century American mathematicians 21st-century American mathematicians Connecticut College alumni University of Texas at Austin College of Natural Sciences alumni Williams College faculty Fellows of the American Mathematical Society People from Georgetown, Texas