Chellamuthu (PhD 2015) receives Alder Award for Distinguished Teaching

Our alumnus, Vinodh Kumar Chellamuthu (PhD 2015), received the Henry L. Alder Award for Distinguished Teaching by a Beginning College or University Mathematics Faculty at the August 2022 MAA Mathfest meeting in Philadelphia. The citation begins with "What Dr. Vinodh Chellamuthu has accomplished in the six years since he earned his PhD at the University of Louisiana at Lafayette is astounding. As a professor at Utah Tech University in Utah, an open enrollment university, he has helped to increase the number of majors in the math department by 30% by designing and implementing a B.S. in Applied and Computational Mathematics degree with emphases in Data Analytics, Actuarial Science, and Scientific Computing." Read more about Dr Chellamuthu and this award in this pdf or at the web link above.

Dr Chellamuthu is an associate professor of mathematics at Utah Tech University in St. George, Utah. He received his MS in applied mathematics from Tulane University and PhD in mathematics from the University of Louisiana at Lafayette. He is firmly committed to promoting quality education for future scientists by creating opportunity channels for career development through research as a high-impact teaching pedagogy. He has mentored several undergraduate research projects coming directly from business, industry, and government agencies. His work with students has been supported by MAA’s PIC Math and NREUP grants and funding from the Center for Undergraduate Research in Mathematics. In recognition of his success as a teacher-mentor, Dr. Chellamuthu has received the Early Career Mentoring Award from CUR, the Distinguished Teaching Award from the MAA’s Intermountain Section, and the Distinguished Teaching Award from Utah Tech University. Dr. Chellamuthu currently serves as a councilor on the Council on Undergraduate Research, Vice-Chair of Programs for BIG SIGMAA, Program Coordinator for UR SIGMAA, and Chair for the MAA Intermountain Section.

The Henry L. Alder Award for Distinguished Teaching by a Beginning College or University Mathematics Faculty Member was established in January 2003 to honor beginning college or university faculty whose teaching has been extraordinarily successful and whose effectiveness in teaching undergraduate mathematics is shown to have influence beyond their own classrooms. An awardee must have taught full time in a mathematical science in the United States or Canada for at least two, but not more than seven, years since receiving the PhD. Henry Alder was MAA President in 1977 and 1978 and served as MAA Secretary from 1960 to 1974.