Departmental Awards

Undergraduate Students

Richard J. Larsen Award for Achievement in Undergraduate Mathematics

The Richard J. Larsen Award for Achievement in Undergraduate Mathematics is presented each spring to the senior math major judged by the faculty to have excelled in all aspects of undergraduate mathematics.

Richard Larsen was a member of the faculty of the Department of Mathematics from 1970 to 2005. He also served as an associate dean in the College of Arts and Science from 2002 to 2005. Over the years, he held the post of faculty adviser to six different student organizations, and served on the athletic committee, the administering committee for the VU Medical School Early Admissions Program, the advisory committee to the Center for Teaching, and many more. He was also actively involved in molding the curriculum standards for the college, from the earliest days of the CPLE to the revisions leading to the AXLE program.

Richard’s primary focus in the department was undergraduate education and administration. He served as the director of undergraduate studies for 17 years. During that time, he worked with a number of different chairs to make undergraduate teaching a real strength of the department. His dedication to his students reached well beyond the classroom. In recognition of his exceptional rapport with students both in and out of the classroom, he received the Ingalls Award for Excellence in Classroom Teaching in 1976, the ODK Alumni Award for Contributions in Improving Student-Faculty Relations in 1978, the Chancellor’s Cup in 1984, and the Ernest A. Jones Advisor Award in 1986.

When Professor Larsen retired in the spring of 2005, the department established the Richard J. Larsen Award for Achievement in Undergraduate Mathematics in his honor. Awardees also receive a check for $500.

Graduate Students

B.F. Bryant Award for Excellence in Teaching

The B. F. Bryant Prize for Excellence in Teaching is awarded annually to a graduate teaching assistant in the Department of Mathematics. The B.F. Bryant Award was established in 1987 in honor of Billy F. Bryant, professor of mathematics, emeritus, who taught at Vanderbilt from 1948 to 1986. The award is given each spring to a graduate teaching assistant who has demonstrated concern for and accomplishments in teaching, qualities that characterized the career of Bryant.

Bryant received a bachelor’s degree from the University of South Carolina, a master’s degree from Peabody College, and a doctoral degree from Vanderbilt. During his 38-year career in the department, he directed the research in topology for seven Ph.D. students and received the Sarratt Award for Excellence in Undergraduate Teaching and the Thomas Jefferson Award for service in the governance of the University. He served as the department chair from 1970 to 1976.

Bjarni Jónsson Prize for Research

The Bjarni Jónsson Prize for Research is awarded each year to a graduate teaching assistant in the Department of Mathematics for exceptional research in math, as well as for outstanding research potential. The prize was established in honor of Bjarni Jónsson, distinguished professor of mathematics, emeritus, who taught at Vanderbilt from 1966 to 1992.

Professor Jónsson came to Vanderbilt in 1966 as the university’s first distinguished professor. A native of Iceland, he earned his bachelor’s and doctoral degrees from the University of California at Berkeley. Jónsson’s area of specialization is lattice theory and universal algebra. Fourteen students earned their Ph.D.’s under Jónsson’s direction, seven of them at Vanderbilt. He received Vanderbilt’s Harvie Branscomb Distinguished Professor Award in 1974 and the Earl Sutherland Prize in 1982.

Richard F. Arenstorf Scholarship

The Richard F. Arenstorf Scholarship is awarded to a select group of primarily incoming graduate students each year to offset educational expenses. The award is an endowed scholarship made possible by a generous gift of the late Richard Arenstorf, a professor of mathematics at Vanderbilt University from 1969 to 1997.

After earning his bachelor’s and master’s degrees from the University of Goettingen in 1952 and 1954, respectively, and a Ph.D. from the University of Mainz in 1956, Arenstorf moved to the United States to work at the Army Ballistics Missile Agency in Huntsville, Alabama. In 1960, he began working with NASA, and, after the first successful manned moon landing, he joined the Department of Mathematics at Vanderbilt University.

Professor Arenstorf made significant contributions to mathematics and to the Vanderbilt Department of Mathematics. His primary area of research was in celestial mechanics. His work on the “three-body problem” led to his discovery of what are now known as the “Arenstorf Periodic Orbits,” which were important in the planning of the Apollo Lunar Landing Missions. He was awarded the NASA Medal for Exceptional Scientific Achievement in 1966 for his groundbreaking contributions to the space program.

As a faculty member in the department, he introduced and offered a number of new graduate courses and was an adviser to several graduate students studying number theory. He also served on the university’s Computer Resources Committee, Patent Review Committee, Graduate Faculty Council, and Traffic Committee. He was a member of the American Mathematical Society, Society for Industrial and Applied Mathematics, and the National Space Institute.

Professor Arenstorf became an emeritus professor with the department in 1997. He passed away on September 18, 2014.

Postdoctoral Scholars

The Samir Aldroubi and Amira Azhari Prize for Excellence in Postdoctoral Research

The Samir Aldroubi and Amira Azhari Prize for Excellence in Postdoctoral Research is awarded every two years to recognize the research achievements of current and recent postdoctoral fellows in the department. It was established by mathematics professor Akram Aldroubi in honor of his parents, Samir Aldroubi and Amira Azhari.

Samir Aldroubi was a professor of philosophy and psychology and dean at the University of Damascus. He later moved to Abu Dhabi and became the general director of the Abu Dhabi Chamber of Commerce, United Arab Emirates. He died in 2007.

Amira Azhari is a retired professor of psychology. She currently lives in Damascus, Syria. She taught in the Department of Psychology and Education at the University of Damascus, Syria, and later worked at the Ministry of Education of the United Arab Emirates in Abu Dhabi, where she was the director of curriculum development for preschools.

The first Aldroubi-Azhari Prize was presented in May 2010 to Romain Tessera, who was a postdoc in the department from 2006 to 2009. Tessera is now a researcher at the CNRS (French National Center for Scientific Research) in Lyon, France. His research interests are in the areas of geometric group theory and analysis on metric spaces.

Candidates for the Aldroubi-Azhari Award are nominated by the faculty of the department, and the recipient is selected by a departmental committee. The chosen mathematician receives $1,000 and is invited to Vanderbilt to deliver a mathematics colloquium reflecting his or her research interests.