Patricia Frazer Lock (born 1953) is an American mathematician, mathematics educator, statistician, statistics educator, and textbook author whose research interests include

social network A social network is a social structure consisting of a set of social actors (such as individuals or organizations), networks of Dyad (sociology), dyadic ties, and other Social relation, social interactions between actors. The social network per ...

s and

quantum logic In the mathematical study of logic and the physical analysis of quantum foundations, quantum logic is a set of rules for manipulation of propositions inspired by the structure of quantum theory. The formal system takes as its starting p ...

. She is the Cummings Professor of Mathematics at

St. Lawrence University St. Lawrence University is a private liberal arts college in the village of Canton in St. Lawrence County, New York. It has roughly 2,100 undergraduate and 100 graduate students. Though St. Lawrence today is nonsectarian, it was founded in 1 ...

Education and career

Lock is the daughter of J. Ronald Frazer, a hockey player and business school professor at

Clarkson University Clarkson University is a private research university with its main campus in Potsdam, New York. Clarkson has additional graduate programs and research facilities in the New York Capital District. It was established in 1896 and enrolled over 4 ...

. She graduated from

Colgate University Colgate University is a Private university, private college in Hamilton, New York, United States. The Liberal arts colleges in the United States, liberal arts college was founded in 1819 as the Baptist Education Society of the State of New York ...

in 1975, with a bachelor's degree in mathematics, and went on to graduate study at the

University of Massachusetts Amherst The University of Massachusetts Amherst (UMass Amherst) is a public land-grant research university in Amherst, Massachusetts, United States. It is the flagship campus of the University of Massachusetts system and was founded in 1863 as the ...

where she earned a master's degree in 1978 and completed her Ph.D. in 1981. Her dissertation, ''Categories of Manuals'', was supervised by

David J. Foulis David James Foulis (July 26, 1930- April 3, 2018) was an American mathematician known for his research on the algebraic foundations of quantum mechanics. He spent much of his career at the University of Massachusetts Amherst,. retiring in 1997 but ...

. After working for a term as an instructor at the

United States Naval Academy The United States Naval Academy (USNA, Navy, or Annapolis) is a United States Service academies, federal service academy in Annapolis, Maryland. It was established on 10 October 1845 during the tenure of George Bancroft as United States Secre ...

, she joined St. Lawrence University in 1981. She became full professor in 1994 and Cummings Professor in 2002. She has served 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 A university () is an educational institution, institution of tertiary edu ...

as chair of its Special Interest Group on Statistics Education for 2015–2016.

Books

With Deborah Hughes Hallett,

Andrew M. Gleason Andrew Mattei Gleason (19212008) was an American mathematician who made fundamental contributions to widely varied areas of mathematics, including the solution of Hilbert's fifth problem, and was a leader in reform and innovation in teaching a ...

, and others, Lock is one of the co-authors of the Harvard Calculus Consortium series of textbooks. She is also a co-author with her husband and three children, all professional mathematicians and statisticians, of a statistics textbook, ''Statistics: Unlocking the Power of Data''.

Recognition

In 2016 the Seaway Section of the Mathematical Association of America gave Lock their Clarence Stephens Distinguished Teaching Award. In 2017 Lock won the Dexter C. Whittinghill III Award of the Mathematical Association of America Special Interest Group on Statistics Education for her work on incorporating visualizations of big data into introductory statistics courses.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Lock, Patti Frazer Living people 20th-century American mathematicians 21st-century American mathematicians American mathematics educators American statisticians American women statisticians Statistics educators Colgate University alumni University of Massachusetts Amherst alumni United States Naval Academy faculty St. Lawrence University faculty 1953 births 20th-century American women mathematicians 21st-century American women mathematicians