ATOMIC extends congratulations to Charlene Tate Nichols, CT SDE Math Consultant, for being named the 2012 Balomenos Memorial Lecturer. At the NCTM Regional Conference in Hartford, Charlene delivered a talk filled with humor, humility, the cold hard facts, and lots of inspiration for meeting the challenges we all face.
Here is the history of the honor, taken from the ATMNE website, as submitted by Claire Zalewski Graham.
On December 30, 1986, Dr. Richard H. Balomenos and his wife, Georgia, died tragically in an automobile accident in Dover, New Hampshire. Dr. Balomenos, who was Chairman of the Department of Mathematics at the University of New Hampshire at the time of his death, was a devoted mathematics educator throughout his twenty-five year career. He served as President of the Association of Teachers of Mathematics in New England from 1980 to 1982, and as Editor of the ATMNE Newsletter from 1979 through 1986. His death represents a profound loss for the mathematics education community in New England.
We will remember Richard for his dedication to his profession, and his belief that mathematics teachers could accomplish great things, given appropriate resources and support. He humbly went about the business of improving mathematics education by promoting solid mathematics background for teachers and students, and he did so with infectious enthusiasm and humor. Richard offered strong opinions, and by so doing, encouraged the rest of us to defend and justify our own positions on educational issue. He initiated and influenced countless curriculum development and teacher education program in New England that have touched us all in various ways. His students and colleagues now share the responsibility for carrying forward his ideals.
At the May 1987 meeting of the ATMNE Board, the Annual Richard H. Balomenos Memorial Lecture was established as a featured session at all future ATMNE Fall Conferences. The speaker selected for the session will, in some way, exemplify Richard’s approach to mathematics education. That is, we expect that the speaker will offer the type of strong, and possibly controversial points of view, that spark us to think carefully about the improvement of mathematics education.