We’re thrilled to congratulate our Professor of Teaching, Bruce Dunham, for receiving the 2021 PIMS Education Prize.
The PIMS Education Prize, presented by the Pacific Institute of Mathematical Sciences, is “awarded to a member of the PIMS community who has made a significant contribution to education in the mathematical sciences.” Given Bruce’s ongoing contributions, this prize is certainly well earned.
An internationally respected expert in statistics education, Bruce has greatly contributed to education in the mathematical sciences not just at UBC but also provincially and nationally.
At UBC, Bruce is well known for his development and distribution of educational resources. For example, he has played major roles in the widely used automatic grading platform WeBWorK. His work includes developing over 300 statistics questions for the Open Problem Library. It also includes leading a project called WeBWorkiR, which integrated the programming package R into WeBWorK, greatly increasing WeBWorK’s usefulness. Bruce has also been a lead participant in the UBC Flexible Learning Project, developing and assessing open-source resources that appear on StatSpace.
At the provincial level, Bruce has significantly contributed to the new BC Statistics 12 high-school course through his longstanding work with the British Columbia Committee on the Undergraduate Program in Mathematics (BCcupms) and as the chair of the BCcupms Statistics sub-committee. Not only has Bruce helped define the vision of the BC Statistics 12 course and helped develop the curriculum, he also continues to support and train teachers.
At the national level, Bruce has served in various roles in the Statistical Society of Canada, where he is a past president and now president-elect of the SSC's Education Section.
PIMS recognizes Bruce’s contributions with the following:
The evaluation committee was particularly impressed by the direct public impact of his curriculum work in the BC school system, and the development of free software for the community. Dr. Dunham is a tremendous advocate for mathematics and statistics, his leadership contributes to public awareness, fostering communication among various groups concerned with mathematical training. We are very pleased to celebrate him, and his achievements with the PIMS Education prize.