Math professor Jeffry Phan awarded American Mathematical Society Congressional Fellowship

WHITEWATER ­ Fellowships in Congress are designed to provide a unique public
policy learning experience by allowing faculty to make connections with the
wider community. Faculty are able to demonstrate the value of higher
education-government interaction, and to bring technical backgrounds and
external perspectives to the decision-making process in Congress while
gaining exposure and expertise.

Jeffry Phan, a first-year, tenure-track mathematical and computer sciences
professor at the University of Wisconsin-Whitewater has been awarded the
2007-08 American Mathematical Society (AMS) Congressional Fellowship.

In recent years UW-Whitewater¹s mathematical and computer sciences
department has been very successful in hiring some of the best and brightest
minds available.  

³Dr. Phan is representative of the quality of individual we have been able
to bring to UW-Whitewater,² Department Chair of Mathematical and Computer
Sciences Bennette Harris said.

The AMS Fellowship is run in collaboration with the well-established
American Academy of Advanced Sciences (AAAS) Science and Technology Policy
Fellowship Program. As the AAAS-AMS fellow, Phan will work for a member of
Congress or for a congressional committee as a special legislative
assistant. Typically, the fellows are assigned a portfolio of policy areas
and are responsible for researching the potential impact of bills that are
proposed in these areas and then writing policy briefs about the
legislation.

Phan came to UW-Whitewater with a broad range of leadership experience in
mathematics education, including work with the National Science Foundation
GK-12 program and work with the American Museum of Natural History in New
York.  He has received numerous other awards and fellowships.

He was hired to coordinate and teach in the mathematics education major and
minors in the department, work that requires creating and maintaining close
ties with UW-Whitewater¹s College of Education and the Wisconsin Department
of Public Instruction.

³The kind of experience he will gain in Washington this next academic year
will prove invaluable in this effort. We are all very pleased and excited
that he has won this honor,² Harris said.

Founded in 1888 to further mathematical research and scholarship, the
American Mathematical Society fulfills its mission through programs and
services that promote mathematical research and its uses, strengthen
mathematical education and foster awareness and appreciation of mathematics
and its connections to other disciplines and to everyday life.