Posted Monday 22 March 2010

The International Commission on Mathematical Instruction (ICMI) has announced that its prestigous Felix Klein Medal for 2009 will be awarded to Australia's Gilah Leder. Gilah, now Distinguished Professor and Professor Emerita at La Trobe University, has, in addition to her normal large publication base, written a number of papers with various Australian Mathematics Trust personnel. Her citation reads:

It is with great pleasure that the ICMI Awards Committee hereby announces that the Felix Klein Medal for 2009 is given to IAS Distinguished Professor and Professor Emerita Gilah C. Leder, La Trobe University, Bundoora, Victoria, Australia, in recognition of her more than thirty years of sustained, consistent, and outstanding lifetime achievements in mathematics education research and development. With a background as a highly recognised secondary teacher of mathematics, Gilah Leder moved, through a number of steps, into research in mathematics education, with a particular emphasis - from the very beginning of her research career - on gender success and equity in mathematics education, but also more broadly on students' affects, attitudes, beliefs, and self-concepts in relation to mathematics education, at educational levels ranging from school to university. To a very high degree her work has contributed to shaping these areas and made a seminal impact on all subsequent research. Moreover, Gilah Leder has done significant work with regard to assessment in mathematics education, mathematically able students, research methodology, supervision of graduate students, and teacher education. A characteristic feature of Gilah Leder's work - published in almost two hundred scholarly publications - is its application of perspectives and theories from sociology and psychology along with mathematical perspectives.

Gilah Leder's achievements include a remarkable amount of work for national, regional, and international mathematics education communities in a leadership role, as well as a committee or board member, an editorial board member for several journals and book series, as a mentor and supervisor of graduate students, as a visiting scholar in several countries, and as an invited key note speaker at numerous conferences in all continents.

Gilah and Trust Executive Director Peter Taylor have recently been analysing AMC gender differences over a 5-year period and written a paper on this, currently under submission. They have also been working on the profiles of gifted students who have won AMC medals, and held an ARC research grant at one time.