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Professor Eve Torrence |
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"Great Ball of Fire" is based on the third stellation
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1/23/13Randolph-Macon College
Mathematics Professor Eve Torrence is one of 12 recipients of the
2013 SCHEV/Dominion Resources Outstanding Faculty Award (OFA), the Commonwealth's highest honor for faculty at Virginia's public and private colleges and universities.
The State Council of Higher Education for Virginia (SCHEV) and Dominion Resources announced on January 23, 2013 the faculty members from Virginia’s public and private colleges and universities who were selected to receive awards. Torrence received an Outstanding Faculty Award for her teaching, research and public service.
“We could not be prouder of Eve for receiving this distinguished award,” says R-MC President Robert R. Lindgren. “Her commitment to Randolph-Macon and dedication to our students is extraordinary. She is most deserving of this honor and we extend our heartfelt congratulations.”
"It is a true honor to represent our outstanding faculty as a recipient of this award," says Torrence. "All my colleagues are incredibly talented and extremely supportive of one another. Randolph-Macon has a wonderful academic culture that has allowed me to evolve as a teacher and a scholar."
This year marks the 27th anniversary of the statewide awards program. The recipients were selected based on accomplishments that strongly reflect the missions of their respective institutions.
Provost William Franz described Professor Torrence as an incredible example of the blending of the liberal arts with solid teaching in a discipline.
“Eve Torrence is first and foremost an outstanding mathematician, a gifted teacher,” he said. He added, “Her ability to blend sophisticated mathematics with the medium of sculpture is a rare talent. Her artistic ability, coupled with the beauty of math, makes her work all the more special.”
In his supporting letter to SCHEV, R-MC Spanish Professor and Chair of the Committee on the Faculty Mark Malin wrote: “Eve Torrence is a veteran faculty member who has held key leadership positions in Randolph-Macon and in mathematics at regional and national levels. Hers is a leadership style that is collegial and persuasive, guided by a sense of humor and work ethic that make serving with her a joy. Eve’s research is a key facet of her career, but teaching is always the driving force of her leadership responsibilities as well as her professional work. Teaching is at the core of what we do at the college, and Eve is the quintessence of our mission as she epitomizes the work of a teacher scholar.”
Torrence joined the R-MC faculty in 1994. She is the president of Pi Mu Epsilon (PME), the National Mathematics Honor Society and has served on the national council of PME since 2002. She has also served as chair of the Maryland/District of Columbia/Virginia section of the Mathematical Association of America (MAA) and as chair of the Committee on the Faculty at Randolph-Macon College.
Torrence is the author of
Cut and Assemble Icosahedra: Twelve Models in White and Color (Dover, 2011) and, with R-MC Mathematics Professor Bruce Torrence,
The Student’s Introduction to Mathematica: A Handbook for Precalculus, Calculus, and Linear Algebra (Cambridge, 1st ed. 1999, 2nd ed. 2009).
She is also a co-recipient, with R-MC colleague Professor Adrian Rice, of the 2007 Trevor Evans Award for exceptional writing published in the MAA journal
Math Horizons. Torrence earned her B.A.
magna cum laude from Tufts University and her M.A. and Ph.D. degrees from the University of Virginia. Her
mathematical art has been displayed in the college’s
McGraw-Page Library as well as at international juried shows of mathematics such as the annual Joint Mathematics Meeting.
At a celebration at the Jefferson Hotel in February, the OFA recipients each received a cash award underwritten by the Dominion Foundation and a commemorative engraved award.