2021 Joint Policy Board for Mathematics Communications Award
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FROM THE AMS SECRETARY
2021 Joint Policy Board
for Mathematics
Communications Award
John Bailer, Richard Campbell, Rosemary Pennington, and Erica Klarreich were presented the 2021 Joint Policy
Board for Mathematics Communications Award at the Annual Meeting of the AMS, held virtually January 6–9, 2021.
Chapel Hill. He was a staff fellow at
the National Institute of Environmen-
tal Health Sciences before joining the
faculty at Miami University in 1988.
He is president of the International
Statistical Institute (2019–2021), and
he previously served on the Board of
Directors of the American Statistical
Association. He is a Fellow of the
American Statistical Association, the
Society for Risk Analysis, and the
American Association for the Ad -
John Bailer Richard Campbell Rosemary Pennington vancement of Science.
Citation: John Bailer, Richard Campbell, His research has focused on quan-
and Rosemary Pennington titative risk estimation, but he has also collaborated on
research addressing problems in toxicology, environmental
The 2021 JPBM Communications Award is presented to
John Bailer, Richard Campbell, and Rosemary Pennington health, and occupational safety. Promoting quantitative
for their engaging, entertaining, and enlightening Stats + literacy and enhancing connections between statistics and
Stories podcast that, for over six years, has brought “the journalism are more recent passions. The Stats + Stories
statistics behind the stories and the stories behind the podcast he developed with journalism colleagues grew out
statistics” to public radio and a broad podcast audience. of that interest.
Bailer has taught twenty-six different courses since
Biographical Sketch: John Bailer arriving at Miami, including a few that he designed.
John Bailer is a University Distinguished Professor and Team-teaching a course with a journalism colleague (News
founding chair of the Department of Statistics at Miami and Numbers) and another with a graphic design colleague
University in Oxford, Ohio. He is also an affiliate member (Advanced Data Visualization) are two of his favorite teach-
of the Departments of Biology, Media, Journalism, and ing experiences, and he is happiest when connecting his
Film, and Sociology and Gerontology and the Institute students to problems posed by external clients and helping
for the Environment and Sustainability. He received un- his students effectively communicate work to clients and
dergraduate degrees in mathematics and statistics and in the public. He enjoys hanging out with his family and kids,
psychology from Miami University and pursued his grad- walking his dog, reading fun fiction, traveling internation-
uate studies at North Carolina, where he received a PhD ally, or working on his Butler County donut trail passport.
in biostatistics from the University of North Carolina at
636 Notices of the American Mathematical Society Volume 68, Number 4
FROM THE AMS SECRETARY
Response from John Bailer University in the Radio-Television-Film department. He
I am deeply honored and delighted to be a recipient of this also worked as a print reporter and broadcast news writer
award. The notification was a complete surprise. It is truly in Milwaukee. In his forty-eight-year teaching career, he
humbling to have our work in the company of outstanding has also worked at Mount Mary College, the University of
communicators who previously won this prize, including Wisconsin, Milwaukee, Middle Tennessee State University,
John Allen Paulos, whose books A Mathematician Reads the and the University of Michigan. In addition to the Stats +
Newspaper and Innumeracy influenced my thinking about Stories podcast, his most recent projects include the digital
communicating mathematical and statistical concepts to Oxford Observer and Report for Ohio—initiatives aimed at
a general audience. Joint Policy Board for Mathematics— getting more young journalists real-world experience and
thank you for recognizing the Stats + Stories team with this hired to cover underreported areas in both rural and urban
tremendous honor.
communities. He is also the executive producer of Training
One of my first reactions to hearing about this award
for Freedom: How Ordinary People in an Unusual Time and Un-
was the recognition of the importance of partnering with
likely Place Made Extraordinary History, a 2019 documentary
good people. I’ve been blessed to collaborate with Rich-
ard Campbell for more than a decade and with Rosemary on Oxford’s role in the historic events of Freedom Summer
Pennington during the last six years. These colleagues are in 1964. A former high school English teacher and girls’
tremendous professionals, and I’ve learned much from basketball coach in the Milwaukee Public School system,
our work together. It really isn’t accurate to refer to this Campbell grew up in Dayton, Ohio, where in 2015 he
as “work”—the podcast has been a vocational avocation. served on the city’s planning committee for the twentieth
Coteaching a course on News and Numbers with Rich- anniversary of Dayton Peace Accords. In 2019, Campbell
ard in 2009 provided a connection with an amazing jour- received Miami’s Benjamin Harrison Medallion Award “for
nalism colleague and provided the proof-of-concept that Outstanding Contribution to the Education of the Nation.”
viewing ideas through the lens of statistics and the lens of
journalism was a worthwhile endeavor. The emergence of Response from Richard Campbell
the podcast from this connection seemed natural, and the I am stunned. I thought my numerical literacy prowess had
addition of a moderator, first Bob Long and then Rosemary peaked during my Dayton, Ohio, high school days when
Pennington, completed our panel for the podcast. Thanks I served as president of the sophomore math club. But to
are due to the many colleagues who helped make the “on the point: It has been an absolute pleasure working with
air” panel sound and look good (sound and recording en- our team on Stats + Stories. So much so that I keep doing it
gineers, web page support, and podcast/show production)
in retirement, still learning from the terrific guests we have
and to the College of Arts and Science at Miami University
had on the podcast over the years. At Miami, John Bailer
for facilities and other resources contributing to the pod-
cast. Sponsorship and other support from the American and I had worked together to get a quantitative literacy
Statistical Association allowed the podcast to go to a weekly requirement into our college’s curriculum. As part of that
release schedule, and the connection with Significance initiative, we team-taught an honors class called News and
magazine provided a means to connect to a larger pool of Numbers in 2009 and developed the podcast in 2013. As
potential guests with interesting stories. a one-time reporter and long-time journalism educator
During times when allegations of false news are com- (with some math phobia issues), I remember how nervous
mon and trust in science varies, there continues to be a call I was in that first class with John. But when he put up a
for a forum to consider the statistics behind the stories and data graph culled from a national newspaper and asked the
the stories behind the statistics, and I hope that our podcast students, “What’s the story here?”, I relaxed. Storytelling
can continue in this role. is something I knew about, and to realize this renowned
statistician expected a good data chart to tell a story put me
Biographical Sketch: Richard Campbell
at ease. John and I had common ground. I do recommend
Richard Campbell is a professor emeritus and founding
that every journalism student take statistics courses and
chair of the Department of Media, Journalism, and Film
that every math and stats major take journalism courses
at Miami University. He is the author of 60 Minutes and
the News: A Mythology for Middle America and coauthor of (plus, all our high schools should be requiring quantitative
Cracked Coverage: Television News, the Anti-Cocaine Crusade literacy classes). The ability for a mathematician or scientist
and the Reagan Legacy. For Bedford/St.Martin’s Press, he is to translate the complexities of her work into a story for a
the lead author of three textbooks, including Media and general audience is key to challenging the anti-science and
Culture: Mass Communication in a Digital Age, now in its anti-evidence strains running through our mediated cul-
12th edition. Campbell earned his BA in English from ture. John, Rosemary, and I are grateful for this prestigious
Marquette University and his PhD from Northwestern award ... and proud of our S + S work. Thank you, MAA.
April 2021 Notices of the American Mathematical Society 637
FROM THE AMS SECRETARY
Biographical Sketch: Rosemary Pennington Scientist, Science News, Wired, and other publications for a
Rosemary Pennington is an assistant professor of journal- general audience.
ism in Miami University’s Department of Media, Journal-
Biographical Sketch: Erica Klarreich
ism, and Film. Her research focuses on media representa-
tions of marginalized groups, with a specific focus on the Erica Klarreich has been writing about mathematics and
representations of Muslims. She is the coeditor of the books science for a popular audience for more than twenty years.
The Media World of ISIS and On Islam: Muslims and the Media She received a PhD in mathematics in 1997 from Stony
from Indiana University Press. Pennington received her Brook University and was a postdoc at the University of
PhD in mass communication from Indiana University in Michigan for three years. She is a graduate of the science
2015. In her pre-academic life, she worked as a broadcast communication program at the University of California,
journalist in the newsrooms of public broadcasters WOUB Santa Cruz.
and WBHM. While working at WBHM, Pennington’s sci- As a freelance journalist based in Berkeley, California,
ence and medical reporting helped her win the Alabama she has written hundreds of articles for a wide range of
Associated Press’s Best Specialized Reporter award two years publications, including Quanta Magazine, Nature, New
in a row and the Douglas L. Cannon Broadcast Award for Scientist, Science News, and Nautilus. Her articles for Quanta
Excellence in Medical Reporting three years in a row. have been syndicated in Wired, The Atlantic, and Scientific
American and have been translated into many languages.
Response from Rosemary Pennington Her work has been reprinted in the 2010, 2011, 2016, and
This is perhaps the most surprising thing to have happened 2020 volumes of The Best Writing on Mathematics and
to me in my professional life! Thank you, Joint Policy Board in the Quanta Magazine anthology “The Prime Number
for Mathematics, for this honor and for the recognition of Conspiracy.”
our work. I once counted myself among those who pro- She was the journalist in residence at the Mathematical
fessed to hate math—born more out of frustration with Sciences Research Institute in Berkeley in 2002 and at the
how it was taught than any real feelings about the subject Simons Institute for the Theory of Computing at the Uni-
itself. As a working journalist, I carved out a niche as a versity of California, Berkeley, in 2016. She has appeared
science and medical reporter, which helped me develop a on the Numberphile YouTube series and was the narrator for
deep appreciation for all that math can help us understand two mathematics documentaries by ZALA Films: Secrets of
about our world; it was an appreciation that only grew the Surface, about the life and work of Maryam Mirzakhani,
during my graduate studies. Sometimes, all it takes is the and Counting from Infinity, about Yitang Zhang’s work on
right story, or the right storyteller, to unlock the beauty of the twin primes conjecture.
math for someone who may have struggled with it in the
past. (That was certainly the case for me.) One of the things Response from Erica Klarreich
I have loved about my work with Stats + Stories is that I learn It is a great honor to join the ranks of the previous recip-
so much with each interview. Hearing our guests tell the ients of this prize, whom I deeply admire. It has been my
stories of their research, field, or methodology has made a privilege to tell the stories of mathematics over the past
subject that, in my youth, felt very abstract feel very acces- two decades, and I look forward to the stories the coming
sible. It’s really been a privilege to be part of this program, years will bring. Many people helped me reach the point
and I am truly honored that our work on Stats + Stories has where I could share these stories, and I’d like to mention
been recognized in this way. a few: my parents, Emily and Paul Klarreich, both math
teachers, who taught me the family trade from my ear-
Citation: Erica Klarreich liest days; my PhD adviser, Yair Minsky, who introduced
The 2021 JPBM Communica- me to one of the most beautiful areas of mathematics,
tions Award is presented to three-dimensional hyperbolic geometry; my professors at
Erica Klarreich for her work as a UC Santa Cruz (especially Robert Irion), who helped turn
writer and popularizer of math- me from a mathematician into a journalist; and my editor
ematics and science. She writes at Quanta Magazine, Thomas Lin. When he feels that one
about mathematics and theo- of my drafts needs improvement, he sends me a list of
retical computer science, and suggestions that always contains at least three impossible
her writing has been chosen for tasks. Then I figure out how to do them, and my article
and reprinted in Best Writing on is immeasurably better. It’s been more than twenty years
Mathematics in four different since I did any mathematics research of my own. But I am
years. Her work has appeared in constant conversation with research mathematicians,
Erica Klarreich in Quanta, The Atlantic, New and sharing in their excitement about their work is one of
the most delightful parts of my job.
638 Notices of the American Mathematical Society Volume 68, Number 4
FROM THE AMS SECRETARY
I have found over the years that the stories that resonate About the Prize
the most with readers are those with a powerful human The JPBM Communications Award is presented annually
element. My readers want to understand mathematics, but to reward and encourage journalists and other communi-
they also want to understand you: the people who have cators who, on a sustained basis, bring mathematical ideas
dedicated your lives to the pursuit of mathematical beauty and information to nonmathematical audiences. JPBM
and discovery. They want to know about your struggles and
represents the American Mathematical Society, the Amer-
your triumphs, your disappointments and your flashes of
ican Statistical Association, the Mathematical Association
joy.
of America, and the Society for Industrial and Applied
I believe that even those readers who found their own
math education mind-numbing or traumatic still feel, on Mathematics. The award carries a cash prize of US$2,000.
some level, that mathematics is an inextricable component A list of past recipients of the JPBM Communications
of the human experience. And when the human element Award can be found at https://www.ams.org/prizes
in a story is compelling, my readers are willing to dive -awards/pabrowse.cgi?parent_id=20.
into the hardest research areas at the frontiers of modern
Credits
mathematics.
Photos of John Bailer, Richard Campbell, and Rosemary Pen-
Many of my most successful stories have come about
nington are courtesy of Miami University.
because some mathematician told me about something Photo of Erica Klarreich is courtesy of Erica Klarreich.
amazing that was happening in their field. So I’d like to
end with an invitation: When you hear about a beautiful
new advance, please share it with me or other mathematics
communicators, so that we can share it in turn with the
broader public. Reading about your stories gives people
an opportunity to see the world through your eyes, catch
a glimpse of the mathematical beauty that motivates you,
and emerge with an enlarged sense of human potential.
April 2021 Notices of the American Mathematical Society 639You can also read
