Math Department Awards

Michael Bierbauer, chair of the math department, clearly enjoys giving out the Douglass Frank Award every year.

Douglass Frank Award

“There is no way anybody is going to know who is getting it because it is such a different kind of award from any of the others being given out. The student receiving the award is always flabbergasted!” said Bierbauer.

The award, a cash gift from the family of Douglass Frank, is given to honor the memory of Frank, a student who struggled in math while at Greeley, but through his conscientious efforts, improved and found success in the subject, becoming a student of which any parent or teacher would be proud, explained Bierbauer.

“Our Doug Frank Award winner is someone who exemplifies the spirit that Doug showed throughout his math courses here,” Bierbauer stated at the assembly.

“The Doug Frank Award is given each year to celebrate the success of a student who has impressed the math department with his or her striving to be the best possible math student, starting off perhaps in the lower tracks, but always pushing the limits of ability, and usually ending his or her high school career at a level that might not have been expected four years earlier.”

“This year’s winner started in our ’03 courses, but when it was recognized that she was capable of so much more, she moved to a higher level, did wonderfully there, aced the Math A Regents exam, and ended her time at Greeley excelling in Math 305, where I had the privilege of teaching her.”

“The Doug Frank Award this year goes to Aram Sung.”

Outstanding Achievement in Math Awards

“The two recipients of the Outstanding Achievement in Mathematics award are true lovers of math,” Bierbauer announced at the assembly. “They show tremendous promise in the field of mathematics and pure science, and we can expect to hear of their accomplishments in these fields in the decades to come.”

“The first winner is Sudesh Kalyanswamy, who through all his years at Greeley has never been satisfied with simply taking the highest level courses we offer and excelling in all of them. No, he has gone beyond our curriculum and learned mathematics on his own both formally and informally off our campus. I’ve seen some of the original work he has done, and it shows an amazing understanding of what real mathematics is all about.”

“Our second winner is Rishi Khanna. Rishi is an immensely gifted math student. It goes without saying that he did well throughout his math career in the accelerated track. But more than that, he shared his love of math with others as he encouraged his fellow students to participate in math contests and was a central figure in their organization. By his example, he shows how a gentleman competes at the highest levels.”

The students in the highest levels of math at Greeley participate in several important math competitions throughout the year. Many math teachers contribute their time and effort as advisors to help these students compete. Glenn Wong works with students for the Continental Math League. Michael Frengs helps students prepare for the New York Math League competition. Margaret Breen works with students for individual and team competition for the Benoit Mandelbrot Award. (He is the genius who invented fractals, a new area of math 15 years ago, which is used in MRI imaging, according to Bierbauer.)