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Holly Middleton-Spencer wins prestigious MAA Award

Holly Middleton-Spencer wins MAA Award for top expository mathematical writing.

Holly and co-writer James Christian's article titled 'On the Nth Roots of –1 and Complex Basin Boundaries: Fractals from Newton–Raphson' has won the 2021 George Pólya Award for articles of expository excellence published in The College Mathematics Journal.

Holly and James's article shows the complexity that's exposed when using the Ralph-Navison Method to solve a simple root-finding problem. For winning the award, Holly and James win a prize of $1,000 and their names recorded as George Pólya winners for 2021. 

Holly Middleton-Spencer

On winning the award, Holly and James said: 

'We are profoundly grateful to CMJ for seeing fit to publish our work in the first place, and to the Mathematical Association of America for bestowing the George Pólya Award upon us. It is indeed an honour and a privilege to have our paper selected in the midst of so many superb articles that inspire and enthuse the mathematics students of the day. We hope we have given them something new to think about, and we thank CMJ for the opportunity to be part of its readership’s educational experience.'

 

Congratulations to Holly on this excellent achievement! 

The award announcement, as well as a full list of winners for 2021, is listed on the Mathematical Association of America's website

It is indeed an honour and a privilege to have our paper selected in the midst of so many superb articles that inspire and enthuse the mathematics students of the day. We hope we have given them something new to think about...

Holly Middleton-Spencer and James Christian