Ruth and Joel Spira Excellence in Teaching Mathematics Awards

These awards are made possible by a generous donation by Ruth and Joel Spira and have been established for excellence in mathematics teaching at Purdue.

Nominations

Nominations of mathematics faculty can be made via the Spira Award nomination form.

Past Spira award winners

2023-2024

Isaac Harris: Excellence in Graduate Teaching and Mentoring
Sally Ray: Excellence in Teaching Actuarial Science Courses
Margaret Thomas: Excellence in Undergraduate Teaching
Alexandria Volkening: Excellence in Undergraduate and Graduate Teaching

2022-2023

Rolando de Santiago: Excellence in Undergraduate Teaching and Mentoring
Greg Buzzard: Excellence in Graduate Teaching and Mentoring
Birgit Kaufmann: Excellence in Graduate Service Teaching
Laszlo Lempert: Excellence in Graduate Teaching

2021-2022

Trevor Wooley: Excellence in Graduate Teaching
Brooke Max: Excellence in Undergraduate Service Teaching
Kuan-hua "Joe" Chen: Excellence in Undergraduate Teaching and Administrative Support
Manuel Rivera: Excellence in Graduate Mentoring and Graduate Teaching

2019-2020

Steve Bell: Excellence in Graduate Teaching
David Norris: Excellence in Undergraduate Service Teaching
Thomas Sinclair: Excellence in Undergraduate Mentoring and Undergraduate Teaching
Bernd Ulrich: Excellence in Graduate Mentoring and Graduate Teaching

2018-2019

Donu Arapura: Excellence in Undergraduate Teaching and Graduate Service Teaching
Giulio Caviglia: Excellence in Undergraduate Teaching and Graduate Service Teaching
Philip Mummert: Excellence in Undergraduate Service Teaching and Administrative Support
Freydoon Shahidi: Excellence in Graduate Teaching and Mentoring

2017-2018

Kiril Datchev: Excellence in undergraduate teaching
Huimei Delgado: Excellence in undergraduate service teaching
Dominic Naughton: Excellence in calculus teaching and TA training
Jonathon Peterson: Excellence in graduate teaching

2016-2017

Johnny Brown: for Excellence in Undergraduate Teaching
Edinah Gnang: for Excellence in Undergraduate Teaching
Daniel Kelleher: for Excellence in Undergraduate Teaching
Rodrigo Bañuelos: for Excellence in Mentoring and Graduate Teaching

2015-2016

Tim Delworth: Excellence in Undergraduate Service Teaching
Veronica Quitalo: Excellence in Undergraduate Teaching
Priyam Patel: Excellence in Undergraduate Teaching
Ralph Kaufmann: Excellence in Graduate Mentoring and Graduate Teaching

2014-15

Zhilan Feng: Excellence in Graduate Teaching
Rachael Kenney: Excellence in Undergraduate Teaching
Uli Walther: Excellence in Undergraduate Teaching

2013-14

E. Lundberg: Excellence in Teaching by a Junior Faculty Member
L. Lipshitz: Excellence in Undergraduate Teaching
J. Beckley: Excellence in Undergraduate Teaching
B. McReynolds: Excellence in Graduate Teaching

2012-13

N. Garofalo: Excellence in Graduate Level Teaching
K. Matsuki: Excellence in Undergraduate Service Teaching
J. McClure: Excellence in Undergraduate Teaching
A. Weitsman: Excellence in Graduate Service Teaching

2010-11

D. Danielli: Graduate Teaching
E. Goins: Mentoring and Undergraduate Teaching
J. Chen: Elementary Service Teaching
B. Kaufmann: Advanced Service Teaching

2008-09

G. Buzzard: Outstanding Undergraduate Teaching
A. Petrosyan: Outstanding Undergraduate Teaching
B. Ulrich: Outstanding Graduate Teaching
D. Xiu: Outstanding Teaching by a Junior Faculty Member

2004-05

S. Bell: Undergraduate Service Teaching
A. Yip: Graduate Service Teaching

2003-04

G. Buzzard: Outstanding Undergraduate Course Teacher
L. Lempert: Outstanding Graduate Course Teacher
E.C. Zachmanoglou: Outstanding Calculus Lecturer

About Joel Spira

Joel S. Spira received a B.S. in Physics from Purdue in 1948. In 1961, he started Lutron Electronics, a privately held company that initially made light dimmers. Joel's insight into technology and manufacturing enabled him to build Lutron into a dominant force in the dimmer market. He pioneered the concept of mass customization in which customized dimmers could be produced at mass production costs. Joel was early to integrate semiconductor intelligence into his products. Today, Lutron offers sophisticated dimmers in several thousand product variations.

In 1998, Joel Spira was chosen for the Distinguished Alumnus Award from the Purdue College of Science.

Joel's commitment to excellence was not confined to his business. In 1988, he established an annual award of $1,000 for teaching excellence in the Department of Physics at Purdue at the same time that he set up similar awards at schools all over the country.

Joel Spira, founder, Chairman, and Director of Research of Lutron Electronics, passed away on Wednesday, April 8, 2015.