Okay this is probably old news, but it is new to me.
I received the Winter 2009 CACHE newsletter in my mailbox today. I learned that Brice Carnahan had won the 2009 CACHE award for Excellence in Computing. Here is a pdf link to the citation, and previous award winners.
The news is interesting to me because I was in Brice's second-to-last numerical methods class as a graduate student at Michigan. I had never taken a numerical methods class before, and this class was taught with an amazing mix of analysis and practice. His authoritative textbook "Applied Numerical Methods" (with Jim Wilkes, another great retired professor at Michigan - I was in his last fluid mechanics class) has more than stood the test of time. In fact, I am teaching a numerical analysis class myself this term, and still use my copy of the old book more regularly than any other source.
Another reason I remember Brice very fondly is that he was the graduate coordinator at the time I was accepted into the PhD program. It is always heart-warming when nice self-effacing people get the awards they deserve.
2 comments:
Some of the newer faculty in that department could stand to learn something from Wilkes and Carnahan's combination of humility and excellence.
Well, I left in UM 2006, and so wouldn't know who you have in mind, but Carnahan and Wilkes were really a class act. I am in reasonably good touch with Larson and Ziff, and in my opinion, they have humility + excellence too.
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