Kalman Charitable Trust prizes and fellowships

Comments from 2021 Kalman Teacher Excellence Prize recipients 

Jo Patrick (Primary School Principal)

“We often focus on celebrating students at our assembly and presenting awards like this to teachers in that forum is so powerful for all. How wonderful that Margaret and John Kalman have put this award together for teachers."

Anika Potgieter

“Wow! I am actually speechless. Thank you very much for giving us this opportunity and for giving us recognition for our passion which is teaching Mathematics & Statistics."

Adele Croucher

“Thank you very much. I am looking forward to continuing to enrich my students and other teachers in the coming months."

Graeme Holden

“Many thanks to you Rachel and please pass on my thanks to the other members of the selection panel Steven and Robert. As I said in the application, I will be using the money to upgrade the Maths Centre website. I will inform you when this happens.”

Paul Crowhurst

“Wow. Thank you for this great news. I'm honoured.” 

Christina England

“Thank you so much - what a lovely email to get at the end of a challenging term!”

Suzannah Wood

“Thank you so much for this. I am completely blown away at being chosen as a recipient of the Kalman Excellence Teaching Prize. I have an amazing staff that I work with, so this prize is also
theirs!”

Amber Hobbs

“Many thanks to you and the panel for selecting me to receive this award. I am incredibly honoured and grateful. Such great news to receive today!”

Anzar Chida

“What wonderful news. This award means so much to me and my family. To the Margaret and John Kalman Charitable Trust, the AMA, and the University of Auckland, thank you so, so much. I am sure it was a tough decision, and I consider myself fortunate to be chosen for this year’s prizes.”

Ritesh Kumar

“It is indeed an honour to receive this award.”

About John Kalman

Emeritus Professor and former Head of Department John Arnold Kalman (1930-2007) obtained his MA in Law and Mathematics from the Auckland University College and PhD from Harvard (under George Mackey).

He joined the Department of Mathematics at the University of Auckland in 1955 as a research fellow and was a Professor with the Department for 30 years, until his retirement at the end of 1993.

Professor Kalman was a role model for his sincerity and dedication in all his tasks, and a fine mathematician, with a deep sense of care and hospitality towards his colleagues. 

He was noted for his careful and precise expository style and for his caring attitude to students. His research was originally in lattice theory, but he later became a specialist in automated reasoning with a well-received book entitled Automated reasoning with OTTER (Rinton Press, 2001), crowning his accomplishments in this field.

During his headship of the Department, John Kalman was instrumental in establishing the New Zealand Journal of Mathematics (then called The Mathematical Chronicle), in developing the curricula, in improving the quality of the mathematics section of the library, and most of all in appointing staff of international level.

Last but not least, during all his career in Auckland, he had an important role in creating a nice atmosphere in the Department. Those of us who were privileged to have him as a teacher will remember him fondly as a thorough teacher with two further amazing traits not mentioned so far:

• his writing was fast and clear (if you wanted to write down his work on the board then you would be writing at top speed the whole lecture);
• his memory was amazing (in Stage III analysis, a class of maybe 70, he walked around the class after the first assignment had been marked asking us our names and then giving us our assignment but thereafter he did the same omitting the question about our names.

(David Gauld)

Our thanks to the Margaret and John Kalman Trust for their generous, continuing and increasing support for this and several other schemes to increase awareness of mathematics at all levels.