Edward A. Friedman honored as Foreign Fellow of the Union of Bulgarian Mathematicians

HOBOKEN, N.J. - Dr. Edward A. Friedman, director of Stevens' Center for Improved Education in Science and Engineering (CIESE), was honored in September with the title of Foreign Fellow by the Union of Bulgarian Mathematicians (UBM). The honor was bestowed in the Bulgarian summer resort of Borovets during the Congress organized by MAthematical Society of SouthEastern Europe (MASSEE) and the Institute of Mathematics and Informatics of the Bulgarian Academy of Sciences. The guiding theme of the congress was the revival of the traditional collaboration in Mathematics and Informatics (or, in a broader sense, Computer Science) among the Southeastern-European countries.

In the proclamation certified by Dr. Stefan Dodunekov, president of the UBM, Dr. Friedman was cited "for his outstanding contributions to the exchange of the Best Practices in Math and Science Teaching between the American and Bulgarian educators."

Honored with Friedman as Foreign Fellows were Acad. Blagoj Popov (Macedonian Academy of Sciences and Art, Republic of Macedonia) and HE Sten Ask (Swedish Ambassador to Bulgaria).

Dr. Friedman has a long-established professional relationship with Bulgarian science and math educators growing out his work with CIESE, which seeks to cultivate new technologies and methods for teaching science, math and engineering principals to K-12 students. (Please visit ciese.org.) CIESE has developed numerous national and international partnerships with schools around the globe; and more recently, CIESE has begun to form alliances with institutions of higher learning. During the MASSEE Congress, Friedman delivered a talk titled Unique and compelling applications of Internet in science education.

Friedman first visited Bulgaria in 1991, to deliver a paper on Stevens' alumnus and founder of scientific management, Frederick Winslow Taylor, whose impact has been worldwide. In 1992, Friedman was a Fulbright visitor at the Institute of Mathematics of the Bulgarian Academy of Sciences, during which time he performed a comparative analysis of US and Bulgarian educational methods. Soon after, he began to promote exchange programs of best educational practices, with workshops conducted between the two countries. These exchanges continue on an occasional basis.

In 2000, Friedman was awarded a Doctor of Philosophy degree, Honoris Causa, in Mathematics by Sofia University. At the special ceremony he delivered a talk comparing American and Bulgarian culture that was published by the Bulgarian Academy of Sciences.

Currently, a number of Bulgarian schools are participating in Internet science projects that are designed and administered by CIESE as worldwide collaborative student curricula.

About UBM

The UBM organizes and co-organizes scientific events which cover a wide range of directions in Mathematics and Computer Science. Among the most noteworthy are the National Seminar on Education in Mathematics and Computer Science, the National Colloquium on Mathematics, the Computer Science Seminar, the Stochastics Seminar, the Seminar on Problems of Education at Technical Higher Schools. In the period 1968-2003 more than 200 scientific conferences, summer schools, symposia, and seminars were held, with over 30,000 attendants from more than 40 countries.

One of the major activities of the UBM is work with talented students and their teachers. Through its team for out-of-school work in Mathematics and Computer Science, which includes scholars from the Bulgarian Academy of Sciences, university lecturers and outstanding school teachers, the UBM provides the scientific guidance of all National Olympiads and competitions.

About Stevens Institute of Technology

Founded in 1870, Stevens Institute of Technology is one of the leading technological universities in the world dedicated to learning and research. Through its broad-based curricula, nurturing of creative inventiveness, and cross disciplinary research, the Institute is at the forefront of global challenges in engineering, science, and technology management. Partnerships and collaboration between, and among, business, industry, government and other universities contribute to the enriched environment of the Institute. A new model for technology commercialization in academe, known as Technogenesis®, involves external partners in launching business enterprises to create broad opportunities and shared value.

Stevens offers baccalaureates, master’s and doctoral degrees in engineering, science, computer science and management, in addition to a baccalaureate degree in the humanities and liberal arts, and in business and technology. The university has a total enrollment of 2,150 undergraduate and 3,500 graduate students, with about 250 full-time faculty. Stevens’ graduate programs have attracted international participation from China, India, Southeast Asia, Europe and Latin America. Additional information may be obtained from its web page at www.stevens.edu.  

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