CU educators take honors for authoring textbook

Briggs

A textbook authored by two professors with University of Colorado connections, along with two other academicians from Washington state, was awarded the 2011 Textbook Excellence Award (Texty) in the college level Mathematics/Statistics category.

The Text and Academic Authors Association (TAA) honored the first edition of "Briggs/Cochran: Calculus" by William Briggs, Lyle Cochran, Bernard Gillett and Eric Schulz. The book is published by Pearson Education/Addison-Wesley.

Briggs was on the mathematics faculty at the University of Colorado Denver for 23 years, teaching throughout the undergraduate and graduate curriculum with a special interest in applied mathematics. He developed the Quantitative Reasoning course for liberal arts students at CU Denver. He is the author of five other textbooks and monographs, and is a University of Colorado President's Teaching Scholar.

Gillett is a senior instructor at CU-Boulder. He has earned five teaching awards over the span of a 20-year career. He has been active in the publishing industry since 1993, working at that time as a developmental editor for a software package that accompanied a college mathematics textbook series. He has published a number of books, including several student and instructor manuals for math texts, and four rock climbing guides for the mountains in and around Rocky Mountain National Park.

Cochran is a professor of mathematics at Whitworth University in Spokane, Wash., and Schulz has been on the mathematics faculty at Walla Walla Community College in Walla Walla, Wash., since 1989.

The Texty Award, created in 1992, recognizes current textbooks and learning materials. Judges are published textbook authors. "Briggs/Cochran: Calculus" was one of seven textbooks to receive the award. For a list of winners, visit http://www.taaonline.net/awards/2011winners.html

The awards will be presented during a luncheon at the 24th annual TAA Conference in Albuquerque on June 25.

The TAA is the only nonprofit membership association dedicated solely to assisting textbook and academic authors. TAA's overall mission is to enhance the quality of textbooks and other academic materials, such as journal articles, monographs and scholarly books, in all fields and disciplines, by providing its textbook and academic author members with educational and networking opportunities.