Joaquin Bustoz

Arizona State University | Tempe, AZ | 1996

Joaquin Bustoz Portrait Photo

The official biography below was current at the time of the award. Awardees may choose to provide their latest biographical information on their profile page.

Bustoz is Professor of Mathematics at the Arizona State University (ASU). One of 27 Mexican American Ph.D. holders in the Nation in Mathematics, Bustoz has demonstrated outstanding breadth and depth in improving mathematics and science education for underrepresented students. He has established and/or provided: Mentoring programs for underrepresented minority precollege students living in urban areas and on Arizona reservations to study mathematics -- his outreach has grown from ten students in 1985 to currently over 200 minority students participating in the ASU Mathematics/Science Honors Program (MSHP) each summer, with over 1,000 students having completed MSHP since 1985; Significant individual and institutional impact -- one-third of mathematics majors at Arizona State University are minorities (primarily Native Americans and Hispanics), an unusually high rate, especially since 86% of the students are non-minority; ASU now leads the nation in the number of minority mathematics majors; approximately one-half of his students have obtained degrees in mathematics, science, or engineering fields; from the initial effort with MSHP, Bustoz has created additional outreach programs that are now housed collectively in the Institute for Strengthening Math and Science (SUMS) Enhancement programs for American Indian teachers and teacher aides -- e.g. Pimas and Papagos Gila River Indian Reservation, and Navajos from Window Rock where he directs a Young Scholars Project, now in its seventh year; Activities to increase the ranks of minority teachers, such as encouraged use of Arizona s Alternative Certification -- approximately 10 minority mathematics majors enter the teaching profession annually and return to the high schools from which they graduated, including some of the lowest income schools in Phoenix; Role models for Spanish-speaking students -- by bringing Spanish- speaking mathematicia ns and graduate students from the U.S. and abroad to study and teach at ASU; Technical advice to mathematicians to replicate and adapt his work, e.g., replication of MSHP in South Dakota, where recruitment from a nearby Sioux Reservation takes place; and Advice to launch the Strengthening Underrepresented Minorities in Mathematics Program of the Mathematics Association of America.