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The Yueh-Gin Gung and Dr. Charles Y. Hu Award for Distinguished Service to Mathematics is the most prestigious award for service offered by the MAA.  First presented in 1990, this award consists of a cash prize of $5,000, a citation, and the recognition of the American mathematical community. Nominations are due by  October 1 each year.

The Gung and Hu Award is the endowed successor to the MAA’s Award for Distinguished Service to Mathematics, first presented in 1962. It is to be made for service to mathematics that has been widely recognized as extraordinarily successful.  The period of service may be long or short, and the award may be made on the basis of one or several activities.  The contribution should be such as to influence the field of mathematics or mathematical education in a significant and positive way on a national scale. The recipient must be a member of the Association who is a resident of the United States or Canada and who has not received the MAA's Dolciani Award within the last five years.  

The initial endowment was contributed by husband and wife Dr. Charles Y. Hu and Yueh-Gin Gung. It is worth noting that Dr. Hu and Yueh-Gin Gung were not mathematicians, but rather a professor of geography at the University of Maryland and a librarian at the University of Chicago, respectively. They contributed generously to our discipline because, as they wrote, “We always have high regard and great respect for the intellectual agility and high quality of mind of mathematicians and consider mathematics as the most vital field of study in the technological age we are living in.”

This award consists of a cash prize of $5,000, a citation, and the recognition of the American mathematical community. Nominations are due by October 1 each year. The Gung and Hu Award is made for service to mathematics that has been widely recognized as extraordinarily successful. The period of service may be long or short, and the award may be made on the basis of one or several activities. The contribution should be such as to influence the field of mathematics or mathematical education in a significant and positive way on a national scale.

Submit completed nomination form and required attachments to secretary@maa.org by October 1.

Gung and Hu Award Guidelines and Regulations

  1. This award is the Association’s most prestigious one for service. It is to be made for service to mathematics that has been widely recognized as extraordinarily successful. The period of service may be long or short, and the award may
    be made on the basis of one or several activities. The contribution should be such as to influence the field of mathematics or mathematical education in a significant and positive way on a national scale.
  2. The recipient must be a member of the Association who is a resident of the United States or Canada and who has not received the MAA’s Dolciani Award within the last five years.
  3. No more than one award should be made each year.
  4. The award is to consist of $5,000, a silver cup, and a certificate.

5. The award shall be made at an annual meeting of the Association.

6. The recipient of the award is to be recommended by a standing committee appointed by the President of the Association. The committee is to consist of six members each to serve for a non-renewable term of three years. The terms are staggered (i.e., two new members each year) and former members of the committee are eligible for reappointment after an interim of three years, except that members appointed to fulfill an unexpired term of one year may be reappointed for a full term.

7. The recommendation of the committee requires confirmation by the Board of Directors.

8. The Committee shall publish annually in Focus and on the MAA website a request for suggestions of individuals worthy of consideration for the Award. A list of names under consideration will be carried over from each selection cycle to the next.

9. Any member of the MAA may contact the association’s secretary to suggest an individual for consideration by the Committee.

10. The Committee should submit a nominee to the Secretary in time for inclusion in the agenda of the spring meeting of the Board of Directors. A brief nominating statement should be prepared to support the nominee. The committee is reminded that a nomination is confidential until approved by the Board and announced by the Secretary.

11. The name of the recipient shall be announced prior to the annual meeting so that the recipient’s friends can plan to attend the prize session at the annual meeting. Appropriate publicity should be given in the home-town and college (or institutional) papers. Furthermore, the Secretary of the Association shall inform the head of the recipient’s institution of the honor received.

12. After the Board has approved the recipient of the Gung and Hu Award, the Committee will prepare an article on the awardee to appear in the February or March issue of the Monthly following the Joint Meetings at which the Award is presented. The committee chair shall contact the Editor of the Monthly immediately after the nomination has been confirmed by the Board of Directors (usually at the summer meeting). The committee chair shall confirm that pages are being reserved in the February or March issue for this purpose and ascertain the deadline for receipt of the Editor of a photograph suitable for publication and final copy of the citation. At the same time, the draft of the citation shall be circulated for editing by the Secretary and the awardee (to read for accuracy) before submission to the Editor of the Monthly. The committee chair and the principal writer(s) of the citation shall be listed as authors in the Monthly. The members of the committee shall be listed in a footnote at the end of the citation. The citation will be widely read, and should be composed with extraordinary care.

Past Recipients

2023

Victor J. Katz, Professor of Mathematics emeritus at the University of the District of Columbia

2022

Barbara Faires, Westminster College

2021

Deanna Haunsperger, Carleton College

2020

Gerald J. Porter, University of Pennsylvania

2019

Philip Uri Treisman, The University of Texas at Austin

2018

David Bressoud, Macalaster College

2017

Martha J. Siegel, Towson University

2016

George Berzsenyi

2015

W. James Lewis, University of Nebraska

2014

Joan Leitzel

2013

William A. Hawkins, Jr., University of District of Columbia

2012

John Ewing, Indiana University

2011

Joseph Gallian, University of Minnesota Duluth

2010

Kenneth A. Ross, University of Oregon

2009

Robert Megginson, University of Michigan

2008

Lida Barrett, University of Tennessee

2007

Lee Lorch, York University in Toronto

2006

Hyman Bass, University of Michigan

2005

Gerald L. Alexanderson, Santa Clara University

2004

T. Christine Stevens, Saint Louis University

2003

Clarence F. Stephens, SUNY at Potsdam

2001

Manuel P. Berriozabal, University of Texas at San Antonio

2000

Paul R. Halmos, Santa Clara University

1999

Leonard Gillman, University of Texas at Austin

1998

Alice T. Schafer, Wellesley College

1997

Deborah Tepper Haimo, University of California at San Diego

1996

Andrew Gleason, Harvard University

1995

Anneli Lax, New York University

1994

J. Sutherland Frame, Michigan State University

1993

Henry O. Pollak, Columbia University

1992

Lynn A. Steen, St. Olaf College

1991

Shirley Hill, University of Missouri-Kansas City

1990

Leon Henkin, University of California- Berkeley

1989

Ivan Niven, University of Oregon

1988

Murray S. Klamkin, University of Alberta

1987

Gail S. Young, Ossining, NY

1986

Arnold E. Ross, Ohio State University

1985

Everett Pitcher, Lehigh University

1984

(no award given)

1983

Edwin F. Beckenbach (posthumously), University of California- Los Angeles

1982

Thornton C. Fry, Carmel, CA

1981

Ralph P. Boas, Northwestern University

1980

Henry L. Alder, University of California-Davis

1979

Otto Neugebauer, Brown University

1978

Richard D. Anderson, Louisiana State University

1977

Victor Klee, University of Washington

1976

Leon W. Cohen, University of Maryland

1975

Saunders Mac Lane, University of Chicago

1974

RH Bing, University of Texas-Austin

1973

R.L. Wilder, University of Michigan

1972

Carl B. Allendoerfer, University of Washington

1971

Burton W. Jones, University of Colorado

1970

G. Baley Price, University of Kansas

1969

Edward G. Begle, Stanford University

1968

A.W. Tucker, Princeton University

1967

W.L. Duren, University of Virginia

1966

Harry M. Gehman, State University of New York at Buffalo

1965

Richard Courant, New York University

1964

E.J. McShane, University of Virginia

1963

George Pólya, Stanford University

1962

Mina S. Rees, Hunter College-City University of New York