Two mathematicians have been recognised during 1995 with Bernhard H. Neumann Awards by the Australian Mathematics Trust. These Awards are determined annually by the Trust to recognise sustained commitment to mathematics enrichment projects.
Dr Kevin McAvaney , Senior Lecturer in Mathematics at Deakin University, was presented with his Award by Professor Neumann at a function at Deakin University presided by Deputy Vice Chancellor, Professor Daryl LeGrew on Wednesday 22 March, 1995. Dr McAvaney has run the mathematics sessions for several years at the Talented Children's Program run by Deakin University and the Barwon SW region of the Victorian Ministry of Education for students in the Geelong area.
Since 1989, he has organised the Deakin University Mathematics Contest. Based on the model of University of Canberra's Mathematics Day, this Contest started in 1989. It is for Year 10 students in the Geelong area, and has been so successful that Dr McAvaney is considering including the Warrnambool area via video link.
Through being a member of the school board of Belmont High School, Dr McAvaney has also helped implement a fast-track Year 7 to 12 program for talented students and has been part of a government initiative to establish a science and technology centre in Geelong.
Dr Neville de Mestre , Associate Professor of Mathematics at Bond University, was presented with his Award by Professor Neumann at a function at Bond University presided by Executive Chancellor, Professor Harry Messel on Monday 27 March. Dr de Mestre founded the ACT Maths Centre in 1977. This library contains mathematical tasks which children work on in pairs, sharing their ideas and the associated mathematical language. This later closed and had all its tasks transferred to the National Science and Technology Centre and incorporated into the Questacon Travelling Maths Centre which visits regions all ove Australia. He has arguably become Australia's leading expert on mathematical exhibitions. He developed the Magic of Maths show which features arithmetic, algebra, topolgy, patterns, number theory and mathematical modelling. This show has been performed at the USQ summer school for girls in maths and science as well as Bond University Open Days and numerous Queensland High Schools.
Since the early days of the Australian Mathematics Competition, the largest event in Australia with now over 500,000 entries annually Dr de Mestre organised a moderator group at RMC Duntroon (which continues without him) and Bond University which significantly contribute to the integrity of the question paper.
Dr de Mestre has developed in-service courses for high school
teachers on the topic Mathematics and Sport which is given
regularly at many centres around Australia.
With Professor Ernie Tuck, he wrote the first high school
text which introduced chaos theory, population dynamics and
computer experiments.
Dr de Mestre has twice been interviewed by Robyn Williams
on The Science Show , advised on the production of
The Innovators and is a member of the editorial panel
of The Australian Mathematics Teacher , writing a
regular feature called Discovery . He has also written
a number of articles on many aspects of mathematics enrichment.
Peter J Taylor
Australian Mathematics Trust