The department is proud to announce that Pat Devlin has been selected for this year’s Richard H. Brodhead ‘68 Prize, a university-wide award given to honor teaching excellence of non-ladder faculty. The citation for his award reads in part:
“Pat Devlin, lecturer in Mathematics, you are known for your inclusivity and approachability, which you exhibit in your classes, but also notably in other spaces. Your students tackle problem sets with your support in the Math Lounge, which you helped make accessible to students, and you are incredibly generous with your time. … You have inspired a community of students who aspire to be mathematicians, and you have inspired them in unique ways! You have incentivized the Putnam exam, dying your hair pink and then green when 100+ students signed up to take the exam. The Putnam Seminar you teach has provided yet another space for students to learn and mingle and your deliberate emphasis on diversity and inclusivity empowers your students. Your efforts have brought a tangible cohesiveness and strength to the math community at Yale over the past few years. …”
The department celebrates this recognition, and we are also proud to have so many other excellent faculty and staff dedicated to supporting our students and broader mathematical communities. Pat joins the ranks of other math faculty who have won this award including the beloved instructor Miki Havlickova, who won the award in 2016 and is currently the Nathan Jacobson Senior Lecturer in Mathematics and joint DUS for the department.
Pat has taught MATH 230/231 for the past eight semesters, and in fall 2021, he will be teaching MATH 225 as part of the department’s new introductory curricular design. MATH 225 is a rigorous but fully accessible proof-based linear algebra course suitable for any students interested in exploring or majoring in mathematics, and Pat remarks that he is particularly excited to be teaching it. In addition to this, he will also be continuing weekly problem-solving nights for students to get together, hang out, and work on fun Putnam-style math problems. Details about these meetings will be posted in the fall, and as always all are warmly invited to join!
A YaleNews article including the full citation text of Pat’s award is available at the link below.
https://news.yale.edu/2021/05/20/dedication-warmth-and-answers-prize-winning-teachers-have-it-all