George Pólya Awards

The George Pólya Award, established in 1976, is named after the renowned teacher and writer, and is given for articles of expository excellence published in The College Mathematics Journal.

Recepients in 2012

Leslie A. Cheteyan, Stewart Hengveld, and Michael A. Jones

Chutes and Ladders for the Impatient

The College Mathematics Journal, Vol. 42, no. 1, January 2011, pp. 2-8

T. S. Michael

Guards, Galleries, Fortresses, and the Octoplex

The College Mathematics Journal, Vol. 42, no. 3, March 2011, pp. 191-200

Recepients in 2011

Jonathan K. Hodge, Emily Marshall, and Geoff Patterson

Gerrymandering and Convexity

The College Mathematics Journal, Vol. 41, no. 4, September 2010, pp. 312-324

John Martin

The Helen of Geometry

The College Mathematics Journal, Vol. 41, no. 1, January 2010, pp. 17-27

Recipients in 2010

Andrew Barker

Evolutionary Stability in the Traveler's Dilemma

The College Mathematics Journal, Vol. 40, no. 1, January 2009, pp. 33-38

Curtis Feist and Ramin Naimi

Topology Explains Why Automobile Sunshades Fold Oddly

The College Mathematics Journal, Vol. 40, no. 2, March 2009, pp. 93-98

Recipients in 2009

Lawrence Brenton

Remainder Wheels and Group Theory

The College Mathematics Journal, Vol. 39, no. 2, March 2008, pp. 129-135

Greg N. Frederickson

Designing a Table Both Swinging and Stable

The College Mathematics Journal, Vol. 39, no. 4, September 2008, pp. 258-266

Recipients in 2008

Roland Minton and Timothy J. Pennings

Do Dogs Know Bifurcations?

The College Mathematics Journal, Vol. 38, (2007), pp. 356-361

Andrew J. Simoson

Pursuit Curves for the Man in the Moone

The College Mathematics Journal, Vol. 38, (2007), pp. 330-338

Recipients in 2007

Richard Jerrard, Joel Schneider, Ralph Smallberg, and John Wetzel

Straw in a Box

The College Mathematics Journal, Vol. 37, (2006), pp. 93-102

Allen Schwenk

Distortion of Average Class Size: The Lake Wobegon Effect

The College Mathematics Journal, Vol. 37, (2006), pp. 293-296

Recipients in 2006

Ezra Brown

Phoebe Floats!

The College Mathematics Journal, Vol. 36, (2005), pp. 114-122

James Sandefur

A Geometric Series from Tennis

The College Mathematics Journal, Vol. 36, (2005), pp. 224-226

Recipients in 2005

Brian Hopkins and Robin J. Wilson

The Truth About Königsberg

The College Mathematics Journal, Vol. 35 (2004), pp. 198-207

Stephen M. Walk

Mind Your ∃s and ∀s

The College Mathematics Journal, Vol. 35 (2004), pp. 362-369

Recipients in 2004

Greg N. Frederickson

A New Wrinkle on an Old Folding Problem

The College Mathematics Journal, Vol. 34 (2003) pp. 258-263.

Recipients in 2003

David L. Finn

Can a Bicycle Create a Unicycle Track?

The College Mathematics Journal, Vol. 33 (2002), pp. 283-292.

Dan Kalman

An Underdetermined Linear System for GPS

The College Mathematics Journal, Vol. 33 (2002), pp. 384-390.

Recipients in 2002

Tim Freeman

Conformality, the Exponential Function, and World Map Projections

The College Mathematics Journal, Vol. 32 (2001), pp. 334-342

Recipients in 2001

Ezra (Bud) Brown

Three Fermat Trails to Elliptic Curves

The College Mathematics Journal, Vol. 31 (2000), pp. 162-172).

Chip Ross and Jody Sorensen

Will the Real Bifurcation Diagram Please Stand up!

The College Mathematics Journal, Vol. 31, (2000), pp. 2-14.

Recipients in 2000

Martin Gardner

The Asymmetric Propeller

The College Mathematics Journal, Vol. 30 (1999), pp. 18-22.

Ezra (Bud) Brown

Square Roots From 1; 24, 51, 10 to Dan Shanks

The College Mathematics Journal, Vol. 30 (1999), pp. 82-95.

Recipients in 1999

David Bleecker and Larry Wallen

The World’s Biggest Taco

The College Mathematics Journal, Vol. 29 (1998), pp. 2-17.

Aaron Klebanoff and John Rickert

Studying the Cantor Dust at the Edge of Feigenbaum Diagrams

The College Mathematics Journal, Vol. 29 (1998), pp. 189-198.

Recipients in 1998

Aimee Johnson and Kathleen Madden

Putting the Pieces Together: Understanding Robinson’s Nonperiodic Tilings

The College Mathematics Journal, Vol. 28 (1998), pp. 172-181.

Kevin Kirby

Of Memories, Neurons, and Rank-One Corrections

The College Mathematics Journal, Vol. 28 (1997), pp. 2-19.

Recipients in 1997

Leon Harkleroad

How Mathematicians Know What Computers Can’t Do

The College Mathematics Journal, Vol. 27 (1996), pp. 37-42.

Chris Christensen and Shreeram S. Abhyankar

Newton’s Method for Resolving Affected Equations

The College Mathematics Journal, Vol. 27 (1996), pp. 330-340.

Recipients in 1996

James G. Simmonds

A New Look at an Old Function, e^iθ

The College Mathematics Journal, Vol. 26 (1995), pp. 6-10.

John Ewing

Can We See the Mandelbrot Set?

The College Mathematics Journal, Vol. 26 (1995), pp. 90-99.

Recipients in 1995

Paulo Ribenboim

Prime Number Records

The College Mathematics Journal, Vol. 25 (1994), pp. 280-290.

Anthony P. Ferzola

Euler and Differentials

The College Mathematics Journal, Vol. 25 (1994), pp. 102-111.

Recipients in 1994

Dan Kalman

Six Ways to Sum a Series

The College Mathematics Journal, Vol. 24 (1993), pp. 402-421.

Charles Groetsch

Inverse Problems and Torricelli’s Law

The College Mathematics Journal, Vol. 24 (1993), pp. 210-217.

Recipients in 1993

Dana N. Mackenzie

Triquetras and Porisms

The College Mathematics Journal, Vol. 23 (1992), pp. 118-131.

Les Lange and James W. Miller

A Random Ladder Game: Permutations, Eigenvalues, and Convergence of Markov Chains

The College Mathematics Journal, Vol. 23 (1992), pp. 373-385.

Recipients in 1992

Howard Eves

Two Surprising Theorems on Cavalieri Congruence

The College Mathematics Journal, Vol. 22 (1991), pp. 118-124.

William Dunham

Euler and the Fundamental Theorem of Algebra

The College Mathematics Journal, Vol. 22 (1991), pp. 282-293.

Recipients in 1991

Mark F. Schilling

The Longest Run of Heads

The College Mathematics Journal, Vol. 21 (1990), pp. 196-207.

William B. Gearhart and Harris S. Shultz

The Function sin(x)/x

The College Mathematics Journal, Vol. 21 (1990), pp. 90-99.

Recipients in 1990

Israel Kleiner

Evolution of the Function Concept: A Brief Survey

The College Mathematics Journal, Vol. 20 (1989), pp. 282-300.

D. Neidinger

Automatic Differentiation & APL

The College Mathematics Journal, Vol. 20 (1989), pp. 238-251.

Recipients in 1989

Edward Rozema

Why Should We Pivot in Gaussian Elimination?

The College Mathematics Journal, Vol. 19 (1988), pp. 63-72.

Beverly L. Brechner and John C. Mayer

Antoine’s Necklace or How to Keep a Necklace from Falling Apart

The College Mathematics Journal, Vol. 19 (1988), pp. 306-320.

Recipients in 1988

V. Frederick Rickey

Isaac Newton: Man, Myth, and Mathematics

The College Mathematics Journal, Vol. 18, (1987), pp. 362-389.

Dennis Luciano and Gordon Prichett

Cryptology: From Caesar Ciphers to Public-Key Cryptosystems

The College Mathematics Journal, Vol. 18 (1987), pp. 2-17.

Recipients in 1987

Constance Reid

The Autobiography of Julia Robinson

The College Mathematics Journal, Vol. 17 (1986), pp. 2-21.

Irl Bivens

What a Tangent Line Is When It Isn’t a Limit

The College Mathematics Journal, Vol. 17 (1986), pp. 133-143.

Recipient in 1986

Philip J. Davis

What Do I Know? A Study of Mathematical Self-Awareness

The College Mathematics Journal, Vol. 16 (1985), pp. 22-41.

Recipients in 1985

Anthony Barcellos

The Fractal Geometry of Mandelbrot

The College Mathematics Journal, Vol. 15 (1984), pp. 98-114.

Kay Dundas

To Build a Better Box

The College Mathematics Journal, Vol. 15 (1984), pp. 30-36.

Recipients in 1984

Ruma Falk and Maya Bar-Hillel

Probabilistic Dependence between Events

The College Mathematics Journal, Vol. 14 (1983), pp. 240-247.

Richard J. Trudeau

How Big is a Point?

The College Mathematics Journal, Vol. 14 (1983), pp. 295-300.

Recipients in 1983

Warren Page and Vedula N. Murty

Nearness Relations among Measures of Central Tendency and Dispersion: Part 1

The College Mathematics Journal, Vol. 13 (1982), pp. 315-327.

Douglas R. Hofstadter

Analogies and Metaphors to Explain Gödel’s Theorem

The College Mathematics Journal, Vol. 13 (1982), pp. 98-114.

Paul R. Halmos

The Thrills of Abstraction

The College Mathematics Journal, Vol. 13 (1982), pp. 243-251.

Recipients in 1982

Peter Renz

Mathematical Proof: What It Is and What It Ought to Be

The College Mathematics Journal, Vol. 12 (1981), pp. 83-103.

John Mitchem

On the History and Solution of the Four-Color Map Problem

The College Mathematics Journal, Vol. 12 (1981), pp. 108-116.

Recipients in 1981

Ennis D. McCune, Robert G. Dean and William D. Clark

Calculators to Motivate Infinite Composition of Functions

The College Mathematics Journal, Vol. 11 (1980), pp. 189-195.

Don Chakerian

Circles and Spheres

The College Mathematics Journal, Vol. 11 (1980), pp. 26-41.

Recipients in 1980

Hugh Ouellette and Gordon Bennett

The Discovery of a Generalization: An Example in Problem Solving

The College Mathematics Journal, Vol 10 (1979), pp. 100-106.

Robert Nelson

Pictures, Probability and Paradox

The College Mathematics Journal, Vol. 10 (1979), pp. 182-190.

Recipients in 1979

Richard Plagge

Fractions without Quotients: Arithmetic of Repeating Decimals

The College Mathematics Journal, Vol. 9 (1978), pp. 11-15.

Richard L. Francis,

A Note on Angle Construction

The College Mathematics Journal, Vol. 9 (1978), pp. 75-80.

Recipients in 1978

Frieda Zames

Surface Area and the Cylinder Area Paradox

The College Mathematics Journal, Vol. 8 (1977), pp. 207-211.

Allen H. Holmes, Walter J. Sanders and John W. LeDuc

Statistical Inference for the General Education Student-It Can Be Done

The College Mathematics Journal, Vol. 8 (1977), pp. 223-230.

Recipients in 1977

Julian Weissglass

Small Groups: An Alternative to the Lecture Method

The College Mathematics Journal, Vol. 7 (1976), pp. 15-20.

Anneli Lee

Linear Algebra, a Potent Tool

The College Mathematics Journal, Vol. 7 (1976), pp. 3-15.