LEO JONKER TO RECEIVE THE FIRST CMS EXCELLENCE IN TEACHING AWARD

[Graham Wright]

For release: IMMEDIATE (February 24, 2004)
Attention: Education Reporter, City Desk

LEO JONKER TO RECEIVE THE FIRST CMS EXCELLENCE IN TEACHING AWARD

Ottawa Ontario (February 24, 2004) - The winner of the Canadian
Mathematical Society's first Excellence in Teaching Award is Dr. Leo
Jonker from the Department of Mathematics and Statistics at Queen's
University.  The award will be presented at the Society's 2004 Summer
Meeting in Halifax (June 13-15).

Thomson Nelson, a leading Canadian publisher, and Thomson Brooks/Cole,
a Thomson Higher Education brand and premier provider of educational
materials for mathematics and science - both part of The Thomson
Corporation - have partnered with the CMS to create the Excellence in
Teaching Award for post-secondary undergraduate teaching in
mathematics. The award recognizes sustained and distinguished
contributions in teaching at the post-secondary undergraduate level at
a Canadian institution.

"Excellence in research and development starts with excellence in
education. The CMS Excellence in Teaching Award focuses on the
recipient's merit as a teacher and his or her impact on generations of
students, scientists and future teachers," said Christiane Rousseau,
CMS President.

"It is an honor for us to partner with the Canadian Mathematical
Society in sponsoring this prestigious award," said George Bergquist,
president of Thomson Nelson. "The award is an excellent vehicle for
recognizing the critical role teachers play in bringing to life the
learning resources publishers create, using them to meaningfully touch
the lives of their students."

Leo Jonker's performance in teaching is exceptional and his teaching
of engineers and of elementary school teachers is particularly
remarkable.  One of his great successes is the Introductory
Engineering calculus course.  Using a combination of strategies
(well-trained tutors, carefully planned tutorials, superb lectures,
and interactive course notes specially developed for the course),
Jonker succeeded in raising the students' enthusiasm for mathematics.
Particularly successful was his switch to undergraduate students as
tutors in this large course.   For this work, Leo Jonker has been
awarded the Applied Science First Year Teaching and learning Award
four times since 1998.

A second great success is Leo Jonker's work with elementary school
students and prospective elementary school teachers.  More than 20
years ago he started working with students in a local area elementary
school.  Over the years he has built up a series of enrichment tasks
which have since appeared in two volumes.  These books, aimed at grade
7 and 8 students, are intended to open the students' eyes to the
beauty and power of mathematical ideas.  More recently, Leo Jonker
decided to combine his enrichment work with his concern for
mathematics anxiety among elementary school teachers to establish a
new course, Fundamental Concepts in Elementary Mathematics for
Teachers.  The audience of this course, consisting almost entirely of
students with little or no university mathematics, very quickly grew
to over 50 students.  At the same time, his contacts in the elementary
schools enabled him to find placements in which these students conduct
enrichment classes, in pairs.  Former students all say that the course
has transformed their vision of mathematics.  "He essentially changed
us from a bunch of non-math minded students who lacked confidence in
our abilities to teach it effectively, to a group of people who were
excited and eager to go into our schools every week and teach math to
our students" said Ryanne Flattery, one of his enthusiastic students.

Leo Jonker summarizes his teaching objectives as follows: "Love of the
subject, love of its beauty and its power, should be the primary
motivation for all mathematics education and the basis of all
communication between teacher and student.  The beauty of the subject
can be equally evident at all levels of the education system."  One of
his first year engineers wrote of his classroom experience: "It is
like painting an entire picture for us rather than just drawing one
object in the middle of the canvas. It helps us understand the
concepts behind the method we are using and the very nature of the
problem itself. I walk out of his lectures thinking to myself - Wow! I
understand this!"

Leo Jonker completed his undergraduate and graduate studies at the
University of Toronto, where he obtained his Ph.D. in 1967. Following
a postdoctoral position at the University of California, he has been
at Queen's University since 1969. He was Head of the Department from
1990 to 1995. His field of research is dynamical systems and he has
combined an active research career, including the supervision of
several graduate students, with his commitment to education. He is
regularly invited to give talks on pedagogy. Leo Jonker has received a
number of Teaching Awards at Queen's University, including the 1997
W.J. Barnes Teaching Excellence Award, the 1999 Alumni Teaching Award,
and the Engineering Society's Golden Apple in 2000.  In 2000, he was a
recipient of the Ontario Confederation of University Faculty
Associations' Award for Excellence in Teaching.

About the Canadian Mathematical Society

Founded in 1945, the Canadian Mathematical Society is the main
national organization whose goal is to promote and advance the
discovery, learning, and application of mathematics. The Society's
activities cover the whole spectrum of mathematics: scientific
meetings and publishing of research material, education at all levels,
popularization of mathematics. The education activities include
competitions, mathematics camps in all provinces, posters for
students, meetings, etc. The CMS organizes national Fora in
mathematical education. For more details: (www.cms.math.ca).

About Thomson Corporation, Thomson Nelson and Thomson Brooks/Cole

The Thomson Corporation (www.thomson.com), with 2003 revenues of $7.6
billion, is a global leader in providing integrated information
solutions to business and professional customers.  Thomson provides
value-added information, software tools and applications to more than
20 million users in the fields of law, tax, accounting, financial
services, higher education, reference information, corporate training
and assessment, scientific research and healthcare.  With operational
headquarters in Stamford, Conn., Thomson has approximately 43,000
employees and provides services in approximately 130 countries.  The
Corporation's common shares are listed on the New York and Toronto
stock exchanges (NYSE: TOC; TSX: TOC). Its learning businesses and
brands serve the needs of individuals, learning institutions,
corporations and government agencies with products and services for
both traditional and distributed learning. Thomson Nelson
(www.nelson.com) is a leading provider of books and online resources
for the educational market in Canada, maintaining over 30 interactive
Web sites and publishing a wide range of core and supplemental
electronic products. Thomson Brooks/Cole (www.brookscole.com) is a
leading provider of higher education textbooks, software, and Internet
materials for mathematics, science, and statistics.

Media Contacts

Graham Wright			Adam Gaber 		Gabrielle Zucker
SMC	 			Thomson			EuroRSCG
(613) 290-3046			(203) 425-1363 		(212) 699-2736
directeur at smc.math.ca		Adam.gaber at thomson.com