Dr. Bonita “Bonnie” Lawrence began her career in 1994, as an Assistant Professor of Mathematics at North Carolina Wesleyan College.  Just two short years later, she was selected as that institution’s Professor of the Year.  From North Carolina, she moved to the University of South Carolina Beaufort; eventually coming to Marshall as Assistant Professor in 2001.  Continuing her award winning tradition, she received the 2002 Marshall University Distinguished Artist and Scholar Award (MU DASA) for Excellence in all Fields by a Junior Faculty.  Promoted to Associate Professor in 2004 and Full Professor in 2007, Dr. Lawrence has continued to excel, winning the Marshall and Shirley Reynolds Outstanding Teacher Award in 2005 and the MU DASA Team award (with Dr. Ralph Oberste-Vorth) in 2007.  She was most recently selected as the 2008 Charles E. Hedrick Outstanding Faculty Award winner. 

Dr. Lawrence, a prolific author and lecturer, received her Bachelor of Science degree in Mathematics from Cameron University in Oklahoma, her Master of Arts degree from Auburn University and her Ph.D. from the University of Texas at Arlington.  She has been invited to lecture at 36 regional, national, and international conferences and is the author of 22 journal articles and a book, The Keys to Linear Algebra:  Applications, Theory, and Reasoning. 

In her spare time, Dr. Lawrence likes to write grants, of which she has been awarded 12 since 1989.  Two of those grants, received in 2005 helped to fund the Marshall Differential Analyzer Project conducted by Dr. Lawrence and her Differential Analyzer Team, comprised of graduate and undergraduate mathematics students.  This project resulted in the creation of, “the only working publicly accessible differential analyzer in the country”.   However, perhaps the most important result of the project was that Dr. Lawrence was able to actively engage students in the practical application of an abstract mathematical concept; the idea of “math in motion”.  This result illuminates Dr. Lawrence’s teaching philosophy, which states that, “understanding conceptual ideas and the relationships that link these ideas together is the key to understanding and practical application of ideas”.  

Plenary Abstract

Title:  Enthusiasm: Spread the Epidemic 

For each of us there was something that sparked us to complete an in depth in our chosen field.  It may have been pure talent for the discipline that you exhibited at an early level of your education that may have been accompanied by encouragement from someone you highly respected.  It may have been born of your desire to learn as much as you could about something that sparked your interest.   Perhaps this spark came from an inspirational professor or classroom teacher who gave you a firm foundation and an idea, or the spirit of an idea, of how you can make your own contribution to the education of the generations that follow.   

In this presentation and discussion I will talk about the experiences my students and I have had investigating the history of my field and the results that have followed.  My goal is to talk about my experience and learn from you about similar experiences you have had in your own classroom or lab that have created a spark that served to illuminate the concepts you are presenting.