Adrien Pouliot Award

The Adrien Pouliot Award was inaugurated to recognize individuals or teams of individuals who have made significant and sustained contributions to mathematics education in Canada. Such contributions may be interpreted in the broadest possible sense and might include community outreach programmes, the development of new programmes in either an academic or an industrial setting, publicising mathematics so as to make mathematics accessible to the general public, developing mathematics display materials, and supporting mathematics conferences and competitions for students, etc. The first award was presented in 1995.

Recipients

• 2010 Prize : Call for Nominations (deadline: April 30, 2010)
• 2009 Prize : Dr. Walter Whiteley
• 2008 Prize : Dr. Harley Weston
• 2007 Prize : Dr. Richard Nowakowski
• All recipients

Selection:

In cooperation with the CMS Executive Office, the Committee ensures bilingual promotional materials and application forms related to the Adrien Pouliot Award are produced and that appropriate information is distributed and that calls for nominations appear in the February and March issues of the CMS Notes (with April 30 as the deadline for applications).

The Education Committee receives copies of all applications and selects the recipient for the Adrien Pouliot Award, at least six months in advance of the meeting at which the Award will be presented.

Copies of applications for those nominees not selected for the Adrien Pouliot Award are maintained at the Executive Office for a period of three years (two more competitions from the time of the original nomination).

Biographical Information:

Adrien Pouliot was born on January 4th, 1896, in Saint-Jean, Île d'Orléans, near Québec city. At a young age, his taste for mathematics and science lead him to register in Montreal's École Polytechnique. In 1919, after obtaining a B.A. in applied sciences, he moved to Québec city and started giving private lessons in mathematics while he worked for some time as a public works engineer. When the school of chemistry was founded in 1922, he was hired by Laval University to teach mathematics, which he did for... 50 years! Working under heroic conditions, this brilliant man taught while taking very successful seminars at the Sorbonne (where he was granted a "licence" in mathematical science), and spent part of every summer from 1929 to 1939 at the University of Chicago. Later in his career, he was also granted four honorary doctorates. He didn't have time to become a creative mathematician strictly speaking, busy as he was with a heavy teaching load, his sustained action at all levels in favour of mind-enhancing instruction methods, his continuous defence of mathematics and science in a society mostly oriented towards humanism and religion, and finally with his extraordinary effort to build Laval's science and engineering faculty. He was very active in the mathematical community of his time, mainly as president of the Canadian Mathematical Society from 1949 to 1953. In her book titled Adrien Pouliot, un homme en avance sur son temps (Boréal Express, Montreal, 1986), Danielle Ouellet admirably describes Adrien Pouliot as a builder, an innovator, a man who changed people's way of thinking and enhanced their spirit, a culture advocate, a world-class ambassador for science and mathematics, a great educator, an outstanding popularizer, a great humanist, and even an anecdotal and legendary figure.

Adrien Pouliot died in 1980.