The Mathical selection panel is drawn from librarians, teachers, mathematicians, early childhood experts, and others. The jury selects winners in five grade-level categories: PreK, K-2, 3-5, 6-8, and 9-12.
2016 Prize Co-Chairs
- Dr. Jordan Ellenberg (co-chair) is the John D. MacArthur Professor of Mathematics at the University of Wisconsin-Madison, and the author of the New York Times best-seller How Not To Be Wrong: The Power of Mathematical Thinking.
- Dr. Rebecca Goldin (co-chair) is a professor of mathematical sciences at George Mason University. Goldin is the director of STATS.org, a nonprofit, non-partisan project to analyze and explain numbers and statistics in the news and to promote statistical literacy in the media and society.
- Jon Scieszka (co-chair) is the creator of guysread.org and author of Math Curse and many other favorites. He was the inaugural National Ambassador for Young People’s Literature.
2016 Prize Selection Panel
- Robin Adelson is the Managing Director of the Jefferson Awards Foundation and former Executive Director of the Children’s Book Council and Every Child A Reader.
- Betsy Bird is the Collection Development Manager of the Evanston Public Library system, and the former Youth Materials Specialist of the New York Public Library system. In addition to reviewing for Kirkus and the New York Times, Bird is the creator of the School Library Journal blog, A Fuse #8 Production. She is the author of the picture book Giant Dance Party and a co-author on the very adult Wild Things: Acts of Mischief in Children’s Literature.
- Jon Colman is the director of the Children’s Book Council.
- Dr. David Eisenbud is the director of the Mathematical Sciences Research Institute (MSRI) and a professor of mathematics at the University of California, Berkeley.
- Dr. John Ewing is the president of Math for America.
- Dr. Herbert Ginsburg is the Jacob H. Schiff Foundations Professor of Psychology & Education at Teachers College, Columbia University. He has conducted basic research on the development of mathematical thinking, with particular attention to young children, disadvantaged populations, and cultural similarities and differences. He has drawn on cognitive developmental research to develop mathematics curricula (Big Math for Little Kids) and storybooks for young children, tests of mathematical thinking, and video workshops to enhance teachers’ understanding of students’ mathematics learning.
- Jeff Goodby is co-chairman of Goodby, Silverstein & Partners, selected as “Agency of the Decade” by Adweek Magazine in 2010. Several of his campaigns, such as “got milk?”, the Budweiser frogs and lizards, and the NBA’s “I Love This Game” are in the permanent collection of the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York. His illustrations have appeared in Time and Mother Jones.
- Katie Hendrickson is a secondary mathematics teacher at Athens Middle School in Athens, Ohio and a doctoral student in mathematics education at Ohio University. She was a 2014-2015 Albert Einstein Distinguished Educator Fellow, serving at the National Science Foundation. Hendrickson is interested in Math Teachers’ Circles, teacher professional development, and education policy. She co-leads the Southeast Ohio Math Teachers’ Circle and tweets @HendricksonKA.
- Jeanne Petarra-Weeks is a third grade teacher in the Cleveland Metropolitan School District.
- Dr. Candice Price is an assistant professor in the Department of Mathematical Sciences at the United States Military Academy West Point.
- Dr. Ivelisse Rubio is Professor in the Computer Science Department, University of Puerto Rico, Río Piedras. She co-founded MSRI-UP, which brings undergraduates from under-served backgrounds into the mathematics Ph.D. pipeline, and is a member of the US National Committee for Mathematics and the American Mathematical Monthly’s editorial board.
- Dr. Joel Spencer is a professor of mathematics and computer science at New York University. He helped design and served as the first chair of the American Mathematics Society’s Young Scholars Awards Committee, which funds summer math camps for high school students. He has served as judge in the Siemens Competition in Math, Science & Technology National Finals for many years and he has mentored numerous students for this and other competitions. His Erdös number is one.
- Dr. Kara Stern is head of school at Woodstock Day School in Woodstock, New York and former director of Math for America’s New York program.
- Roger Strauch is the chair of the MSRI Board of Trustees and chairman of The Roda Group. Strauch is a venture capitalist, an entrepreneur, and a philanthropist. His passion for education shines through when he talks about mathematics.
- Eleanor Terry Vierling is a math teacher and college advisor at the High School of Telecommunication Arts and Technology in Brooklyn, New York.