We are pleased to recommend Dr. Elise Lockwood for the 2018 Selden Prize. Her publication record is impressive with twenty journal articles, six appearing in top-tier journals. Her work has been recognized through an NSF CAREER grant award and two RUME best paper awards. The nominators draw attention to Dr. Lockwood’s model of combinatorial thinking, its theoretical and empirical foundation, and its broad use within mathematics education research. Of particular note are Dr. Lockwood’s conclusions about the role of example-based reasoning that focuses on sets of outcomes in providing insights to combinatorics tasks.The nominators and the selection committee were also impressed with Dr. Lockwood’s efforts to share her work, reaching out to classroom teachers through NCTM practitioner journals and to mathematicians through Notices of the American Mathematical Society and PRIMUS. Overall, we find Dr. Lockwood to be an excellent researcher and well deserving of this recognition.

Response:

I am extremely honored to receive the Selden Prize. The RUME community has been tremendously formative in my professional development. I have felt encouraged and supported since the beginning of my career, and my RUME colleagues continue to challenge me to become a better researcher. I am grateful for the example that Annie and John Selden have set—their commitment to mentoring and their genuine love for the field is something I wish to emulate throughout my career. I want to thank my mentors, my collaborators, and my students, all of whom have inspired me, sharpened my thinking, and fueled my passion for the research we are lucky enough to conduct. I also want to thank my wonderful family and friends for the support, perspective, and fun that they bring to my life.

Bio:

Elise Lockwood is an Assistant Professor in the Mathematics Department at Oregon State University. She received her PhD in Mathematics Education from Portland State University and was a postdoctoral scholar at the University of Wisconsin-Madison. Her primary research interests focus on undergraduate students' reasoning about combinatorics, and she is passionate about improving the teaching and learning of discrete mathematics. In 2017 she was awarded an NSF Career Award, through which she will investigate ways that computational activities can be leveraged to help students solve counting problems more successfully. In her spare time, Elise enjoys traveling, running, cooking, cheering for the Portland Trail Blazers, and playing with her Ragdoll cats.