Edward Burger

Edward Bruce Burger (born December 10, 1964) is an American mathematician and President Emeritus of Southwestern University in Georgetown, Texas. Previously, he was the Francis Christopher Oakley Third Century Professor of Mathematics at Williams College, and the Robert Foster Cherry Professor for Great Teaching at Baylor University. He also had been named to a single-year-appointment as vice provost of strategic educational initiatives at Baylor University in February 2011. He currently serves as the president and CEO of St. David's Foundation.

Burger has been honored as a leader in education. He has been a keynote speaker, invited special session speaker, or the conference chair at a number of American Mathematical Society, Mathematical Association of America, and the National Council of Teachers of Mathematics conferences.

During the late 1980s Burger was featured at a stand-up comedy club in Austin, Texas and also was an 'independent contractor', writing for Jay Leno. Today he has a weekly program on higher education, thinking, and learning produced by NPR's Austin affiliate KUT called Higher ED.

Education Burger graduated from Connecticut College in 1985, where he had earned B.A., summa cum laude, with distinction in mathematics. In 1990, he was awarded his Ph.D. in mathematics from the University of Texas at Austin. In 2013 he was awarded an LL.D. from Williams College.

Career

Research His research interests include algebraic number theory, Diophantine analysis, p-adic analysis, geometry of numbers, and the theory of continued fractions. He teaches abstract algebra, "The Art of Creating Mathematics", and Diophantine analysis. Together with Thinkwell, Burger "crafted the first-ever virtual, CD-ROM video, interactive, mathematics texts/courses" published over the World Wide Web. Additionally, his lesson tutorial videos earned publisher Holt, Rinehart and Winston one of the 2007 Awards of Excellence from Technology & Learning, an academic publication.

Burger has written and starred in number of educational videos, including the 24-lecture video series Zero to Infinity: A History of Numbers and An Introduction to Number Theory. He has delivered more than 400 lectures worldwide and has appeared on more than 40 radio and TV programs including ABC News Now on WABC-TV in New York and National Public Radio.

Burger feels that "math trauma" is commonly inflicted upon America's elementary and middle-school students, particularly girls, having received a seventh-grade report card stating: "Eddie is a nice boy, but he'll never do well in math." For example, when teaching students about topology, he asked students if it is "possible to take a cord of rope long and tie it snugly around your right ankle and your left ankle, take off your pants, turn them inside out, and put your pants back on without ever cutting the rope?" He proceeded to demonstrate the solution to that challenge, wearing huge Boston Red Sox boxer shorts under his trousers, at the Boston Public Library in the summer of 2005.

In addition to his math courses, Burger teaches a short course in comedy writing during the winter study program at Williams. Combining math with comedy comes from his days as a stand-up comic at the Laff Stop Comedy Club in Austin in the late-1980s. With Michael Starbird, he coauthored The Heart of Mathematics: An invitation to effective thinking, for which they won a 2001 Robert W. Hamilton Book Award, and Coincidences, Chaos, and All That Math Jazz,, a humorous look at mathematics filed under both math and humor in the Library of Congress catalog. , 1993 "Pleasures vs. Problems", February 2000 Exploring the Number Jungle: A Journey into Diophantine Analysis (Student Mathematical Library, V. 8), , July 2000 "'Math Forum'—I couldn't keep my distance: A mathematical seduction, February 2002 The Joy of Thinking: The Beauty and Power of Classical Mathematical Ideas: Part 1 & 2 (The Great Courses – Science & Mathematics), Making Transcendence Transparent: An intuitive approach to classical transcendental number theory, , July 2004 , , 2004 Coincidences, Chaos, and All That Math Jazz: Making Light of Weighty Ideas, , August 2005 Matematicas, , 2007 Mathematics: Course 2, Holt, , January 2007 Algebra 1, Holt, , January 2007 Extending the Frontiers of Mathematics: Inquiries into proof and argumentation, , March 2007 Algebra 2, Holt, , August 2007 The 5 Elements of Effective Thinking, (with Michael Starbird) published by Princeton University Press in September 2012,

Additionally, Burger has created virtual video textbooks on CD-ROM and on the web for Thinkwell on the topics of "College Algebra", 2000; "Pre-Calculus", 2000; "Calculus", 2001; "Intermediate Algebra", 2001; "Beginning Algebra", 2004; "Trigonometry", 2006; "Prealgebra", 2007; and "Algebra II", 2011.

Professional positions Burger has held the following professional positions: University of Texas at Austin Visiting lecturer, Summer 1990; Visiting Assistant Professor, Fall 1994; Visiting Scholar, Summer 1997 University of Waterloo, Canada Postdoctoral fellow, 1990–1991 Williams College Assistant professor, 1990–1996; associate professor, 1997–2000; professor of mathematics, 2001–2013; chair of the Department of Mathematics and Statistics, 2003–2006; Gaudino Scholar, 2008–2010; Lissack Professor for Social Responsibility and Personal Ethics, 2010–2012; Francis Christopher Oakley Third Century Professor of Mathematics, 2012–2013 James Madison University; Macquarie University, Australia Visiting fellow, summer 1999 Westminster College Genevieve W. Gore Distinguished Resident, March 2001 Mass Interaction Mathematics consultant, summer 2001 Texas Christian University Cecil and Ida Green Honors Professor, fall 2001 American Mathematical Monthly Associate editor, 2002–present The Educational Advancement Foundation Member of the board of trustees, 2004–2008 AK Peters Publishing Member of the editorial board, 2005–present NUMB3RS in the Classroom Project, CBS-TV/Paramount Studios/Texas Instruments Mathematics advisor, 2005–2007 The Thomas S. Kenan Institute for the Arts at the University of North Carolina School of the Arts Member of the board, 2009–present Baylor University Robert Foster Cherry Professor for Great Teaching, 2010–2012 Vice provost for strategic educational initiatives, 2011–2012 Southwestern University 15th president, 2013–2020 St. David's Foundation President and CEO 2013 Awarded an Honorary Degree (Doctor of Laws) from Williams College. 2013 Fellow of the American Mathematical Society. 2012 "Global Hero in Education", Named by Microsoft Corporation 2003 Residence Life Academic Teaching Award, University of Colorado at Boulder 2001–2003, George Pólya lecturer; 2004, Chauvenet Prize; and 2006, Lester R. Ford Award