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Merten M. Hasse Prize

In 1986 an anonymous donor gave the Mathematical Association of America funds sufficient to support a prize honoring inspiring and dedicated teachers. The prize is to be named after Merten M. Hasse, who was a former teacher of the donor, and who exemplified these qualities of a fine teacher. The prize is designed to be an encouragement to younger mathematicians to take up the challenge of exposition and communication.

The Merten M. Hasse Prize is for a noteworthy expository paper appearing in an Association publication, at least one of whose authors is a younger mathematician, generally under the age of forty. The prize is to be $1,000, together with a certificate, and is to be awarded at Summer Meetings of the Mathematical Association of America in odd-numbered years. The award is to be made for material published during the four calendar years beginning January 1 five years prior to the time of the award. The prize may be given for a paper which has already been recognized by an Allendoerfer, Ford, or Pólya Award.

MAA members may recommend books to be considered for the Merten Hasse Prize by completing the brief survey here.

List of Recipients

2023

Matt Davis, Adam E. Parker, and Daniel A. N. Vargas
Being Rational About Algebraic Numbers,
The College Mathematics Journal, Vol. 52, no. 5, pp. 327–337.
doi.org/10.1080/07468342.2021.1967651

2021

Zvi Rosen, Jessica Sidman, and Louis Theran
Algebraic Matroids in Action
The American Mathematical Monthly, Vol. 127, no. 3, pp. 199–216.
DOI: 10.1080/00029890.2020.1689781

2019

David Treeby
Further Thoughts on a Paradoxical Tower
The American Mathematical Monthly, Vol. 125, no. 1, January 2018, pp. 44–60.

2017

Lasse Rempe-Gillen and Zhaiming Shen
The Exponential Map Is Chaotic: An Invitation to Transcendental Dynamics
The American Mathematical Monthly, Vol. 122, no. 10, December 2015, pp. 919-940

2015

Charles Doran and Ursula Whitcher
From Polygons to String Theory
Mathematics Magazine, Vol. 85, no. 5, December 2012, pp. 343-360

2013

Henryk Gerlach and Heiko von der Mosel
On Sphere-Filling Ropes
The American Mathematical Monthly, Vol. 118, no. 10, December 2011, pp. 863-876

2011

Alissa S. Crans, Thomas M. Fiore, and Ramon Satyendra
Musical Actions of Dihedral Groups
The American Mathematical Monthly, vol. 116, no. 6, June 2009, pp. 479-495.

2009

Andrew Bashelor, Amy Ksir, and Will Traves
Enumerative Algebraic Geometry of Conics
The American Mathematical Monthly, vol. 115, no. 8, October 2008, pp. 701-728.

2007

Franklin Mendivil
Fractals, Graphs, and Fields
The American Mathematical Monthly, Vol. 110, (2003), pp. 503-515.

2005

Maureen T. Carroll and Steven T. Dougherty
Tic-Tac-Toe on a Finite Plane
Mathematics Magazine, Vol. 77, No. 4, (2004), pp.260-274.

2003

Manjul Bhargava
The Factorial Function and Generalizations
The American Mathematical Monthly, Vol. 107, (2000), pp.783-799.

2001

Francis Edward Su,
Rental Harmony: Sperner’s Lemma in Fair Division
The American Mathematical Monthly, Vol. 106, (1999), pp. 930-942.

1999

Aleksandar Jurisic
The Mercedes Knot Problem
The American Mathematical Monthly, Vol. 103, (1996), pp. 756-770.

1997

Jonathan King
Three Problems in Search of a Measure
The American Mathematical Monthly, Vol. 101, (1994), pp. 609-628.

1995

Andrew J. Granville
Zaphod Beeblebrox's Brain and the Fifty-ninth Row of Pascal's Triangle
The American Mathematical Monthly, Vol 99, (1992), 318-331.

1993

David H. Bailey, Jonathan M. Borwein and Peter B. Borwein
Ramanujan, Modular Equations, and Approximations to Pi, or, How to Compute One Billion Digits of Pi
The American Mathematical Monthly, Vol. 96, (1989), pp. 201-219.

1991

Barry Cipra
An Introduction to the Ising Model
The American Mathematical Monthly, Vol. 94, (1987), pp. 937-959.

1989

Irl C. Bivens
What a Tangent Line Is When It Isn't a Limit
The College Mathematics Journal Vol. 17, (1986), pp. 133-143.

1987

Anthony Barcellos
The Fractal Geometry of Mandelbrot
The College Mathematics Journal, Vol. 15, (1984), pp. 98-114.