National Science Foundation Awards Prestigious Grant to Assistant Professor Eric Hsu

Eric Hsu, assistant professor of mathematics at San Francisco State University, has been awarded the prestigious CAREER grant from the National Science Foundation. The award recognizes and supports the early career-development activities of teachers and scholars who are most likely to become the academic leaders of the 21st century.

Hsu, a Berkeley resident who leads workshops in education and instructs SFSU graduate students teaching mathematics, will apply his $489,000 award to a formal study on how teachers learn to teach and improve their teaching. By the end of the five-year project Hsu says he expects to find ways to "improve the culture of graduate student teaching not only at SFSU but elsewhere in the United States."

"Teachers working in schools and those studying to become teachers need to find ways to connect as a community," Hsu says. He plans to analyze data collected from practicing teachers and students and identify the best structural features of both online and live communities of practice.

"Eric Hsu plays a key role in our effort to make SFSU a national leader in mathematics and science education," says Sheldon Axler, Dean of SFSU's Science and Engineering College, "this award reflects Eric's potential to make further major contributions to mathematics education and to our students who will become teachers."

Contact: Denize Springer, 415/405-3803 denize@sfsu.edu