Cameron Cunningham (Cami) Sawyer is an American mathematician who has worked in New Zealand at

Massey University Massey University ( mi, Te Kunenga ki Pūrehuroa) is a university based in Palmerston North, New Zealand, with significant campuses in Albany and Wellington. Massey University has approximately 30,883 students, 13,796 of whom are extramural or ...

and the Ministry of Education. Trained in

algebraic topology Algebraic topology is a branch of mathematics that uses tools from abstract algebra to study topological spaces. The basic goal is to find algebraic invariant (mathematics), invariants that classification theorem, classify topological spaces up t ...

, her work in New Zealand has focused on mathematics education,

educational technology Educational technology (commonly abbreviated as edutech, or edtech) is the combined use of computer hardware, software, and educational theory and practice to facilitate learning. When referred to with its abbreviation, edtech, it often refer ...

, distance learning, and the needs of

Māori Māori or Maori can refer to: Relating to the Māori people * Māori people of New Zealand, or members of that group * Māori language, the language of the Māori people of New Zealand * Māori culture * Cook Islanders, the Māori people of the C ...

students in mathematics.

Education and career

Sawyer has a postgraduate diploma in teaching from Texas State University, and completed a PhD in 1999 at the University of North Texas. Her dissertation, ''On the Cohomology of the Complement of a Toral Arrangement'', was supervised by J. Matthew Douglass. She had already visited New Zealand under a Rotary Scholarship in the 1980s, and in the early 2000s emigrated there with her husband and children. She became a secondary school teacher before joining the Massey University staff as a senior tutor in mathematics in the Institute of Fundamental Sciences. Since 2015, she has also been associated with the Pūhoro STEM Academy, a program hosted by Massey for encouraging secondary-school Māori to continue their science and technology education. In 2021 she moved from Massey to the Ministry of Education, as Learning Area Lead of Mathematics and Statistics.

Recognition and service

Sawyer is a Fellow of the New Zealand Mathematical Society (NZMS), and has chaired the NZMS Education Group. In 2019 she won a Sustained Excellence in Tertiary Teaching award in the Te Whatu Kairangi awards of the Ako Aotearoa National Centre for tertiary teaching excellence, a government-funded organisation for the support and promotion of tertiary-level education.

References

External links

Staff profile at Massey
{{DEFAULTSORT:Sawyer, Cami Year of birth missing (living people) Living people American mathematicians American women mathematicians New Zealand mathematicians New Zealand women mathematicians American emigrants to New Zealand Mathematics educators Texas State University alumni University of North Texas alumni Academic staff of Massey University