Solomon "Sol" Garfunkel born 1943, in Brooklyn, New York, is an American

mathematician A mathematician is someone who uses an extensive knowledge of mathematics in their work, typically to solve mathematical problems. Mathematicians are concerned with numbers, data, quantity, mathematical structure, structure, space, Mathematica ...

who has dedicated his career to

mathematics education In contemporary education, mathematics education, known in Europe as the didactics or pedagogy of mathematics – is the practice of teaching, learning and carrying out scholarly research into the transfer of mathematical knowledge. Although ...

. Since 1980, he has served as the executive director of the award-winning

non-profit organization A nonprofit organization (NPO) or non-profit organisation, also known as a non-business entity, not-for-profit organization, or nonprofit institution, is a legal entity organized and operated for a collective, public or social benefit, in co ...

Consortium for Mathematics and Its Applications A consortium (plural: consortia) is an Voluntary association, association of two or more individuals, companies, organizations or governments (or any combination of these entities) with the objective of participating in a common activity or pool ...

", working with teachers, students, and business people to create learning environments where mathematics is used to investigate and model real issues in our world. Garfunkel is best known for hosting the 1987

PBS The Public Broadcasting Service (PBS) is an American public broadcaster and non-commercial, free-to-air television network based in Arlington, Virginia. PBS is a publicly funded nonprofit organization and the most prominent provider of ed ...

series titled "For All Practical Purposes: An Introduction to Contemporary Mathematics", followed by the 1991 series, "Algebra: In Simplest Terms", both often used in classrooms.

Early life

At the age of 24, Garfunkel received his

PhD PHD or PhD may refer to: * Doctor of Philosophy (PhD), an academic qualification Entertainment * '' PhD: Phantasy Degree'', a Korean comic series * ''Piled Higher and Deeper'', a web comic * Ph.D. (band), a 1980s British group ** Ph.D. (Ph.D. albu ...

Mathematical Logic Mathematical logic is the study of formal logic within mathematics. Major subareas include model theory, proof theory, set theory, and recursion theory. Research in mathematical logic commonly addresses the mathematical properties of formal ...

from the

University of Wisconsin–Madison A university () is an institution of higher (or tertiary) education and research which awards academic degrees in several academic disciplines. ''University'' is derived from the Latin phrase ''universitas magistrorum et scholarium'', which ...

. While in attendance he worked with Howard Jerome Keisler, Michael D. Morley, and Stephen Kleene. Garfunkel then worked at

Cornell University Cornell University is a private statutory land-grant research university based in Ithaca, New York. It is a member of the Ivy League. Founded in 1865 by Ezra Cornell and Andrew Dickson White, Cornell was founded with the intention to ...

and the

University of Connecticut The University of Connecticut (UConn) is a public land-grant research university in Storrs, Connecticut, a village in the town of Mansfield. The primary 4,400-acre (17.8 km2) campus is in Storrs, approximately a half hour's drive from H ...

at Storrs. Garfunkel continued his work advocating for the improvement of mathematics in public school systems. He coauthored the article "How to Fix Our Math Education"Op Ed
Published: August 24, 2011 in the

New York Times ''The New York Times'' (''the Times'', ''NYT'', or the Gray Lady) is a daily newspaper based in New York City with a worldwide readership reported in 2020 to comprise a declining 840,000 paid print subscribers, and a growing 6 million paid ...

with

David Mumford David Bryant Mumford (born 11 June 1937) is an American mathematician known for his work in algebraic geometry and then for research into vision and pattern theory. He won the Fields Medal and was a MacArthur Fellow. In 2010 he was awarded ...

, emeritus professor of mathematics at Brown University. Since published, this article has been credited with successfully bringing new awareness to the topic. The article has become a topic for a vast number of blogs, and has been translated into several languages. Garfunkel has served as project director for several

National Science Foundation The National Science Foundation (NSF) is an independent agency of the United States government that supports fundamental research and education in all the non-medical fields of science and engineering. Its medical counterpart is the National ...

curriculum projects, and in 2009 was awarded the Glenn Gilbert National Leadership Award from the National Council of Supervisors of Mathematics. Most recently, Garfunkel co-founded the

International Mathematical Modeling Challenge The International Mathematical Modeling Challenge (IMMC or sometimes IM2C) is an international mathematical modeling competition for high school students in team mathematical modeling co-sponsored by COMAP and the NeoUnion ESC Organization. Teams ...

References

External links

*https://web.archive.org/web/20060902004846/http://itech.fgcu.edu/faculty/fmaa/1998program/plenary.html *http://www.comap.com/product/?idx=746 For All Practical Purposes hosted by Sol *http://www.learner.org/resources/series66.html Algebra Video Course hosted by Sol 1943 births 20th-century American mathematicians 21st-century American mathematicians American logicians University of Wisconsin–Madison alumni Living people {{US-mathematician-stub