Melania Alvarez de Adem is a Mexican mathematics educator who works as the Education Coordinator at the Pacific Institute for the Mathematical Sciences (PIMS), and Outreach Coordinator for the Department of Mathematics at the

University of British Columbia The University of British Columbia (UBC) is a public research university with campuses near Vancouver and in Kelowna, British Columbia. Established in 1908, it is British Columbia's oldest university. The university ranks among the top thre ...

Vancouver Vancouver ( ) is a major city in western Canada, located in the Lower Mainland region of British Columbia. As the List of cities in British Columbia, most populous city in the province, the 2021 Canadian census recorded 662,248 people in the ...

Education

Alvarez grew up in

Mexico City Mexico City ( es, link=no, Ciudad de México, ; abbr.: CDMX; Nahuatl: ''Altepetl Mexico'') is the capital city, capital and primate city, largest city of Mexico, and the List of North American cities by population, most populous city in North Amer ...

, where she completed her undergraduate education at the National Autonomous University of Mexico. She later earned master's degrees in

economics Economics () is the social science that studies the production, distribution, and consumption of goods and services. Economics focuses on the behaviour and interactions of economic agents and how economies work. Microeconomics analyzes ...

and

anthropology Anthropology is the scientific study of humanity, concerned with human behavior, human biology, cultures, societies, and linguistics, in both the present and past, including past human species. Social anthropology studies patterns of be ...

from the

University of Wisconsin–Madison A university () is an institution of higher (or tertiary) education and research which awards academic degrees in several academic disciplines. Universities typically offer both undergraduate and postgraduate programs. In the United Stat ...

and in

operations research Operations research ( en-GB, operational research) (U.S. Air Force Specialty Code: Operations Analysis), often shortened to the initialism OR, is a discipline that deals with the development and application of analytical methods to improve decis ...

from Stanford University. In 2016 she completed a Ph.D. in

mathematics education In contemporary education, mathematics education, known in Europe as the didactics or pedagogy of mathematics – is the practice of teaching, learning and carrying out scholarly research into the transfer of mathematical knowledge. Although re ...

Simon Fraser University Simon Fraser University (SFU) is a public research university in British Columbia, Canada, with three campuses, all in Greater Vancouver: Burnaby (main campus), Surrey, and Vancouver. The main Burnaby campus on Burnaby Mountain, located ...

under the supervision of Peter Liljedahl.

Outreach

Alvarez gained interest in helping disadvantaged minorities with mathematics from an incident of racial discrimination that occurred in

Madison Madison may refer to: People * Madison (name), a given name and a surname * James Madison (1751–1836), fourth president of the United States Place names * Madison, Wisconsin, the state capital of Wisconsin and the largest city known by this ...

, where her sixth-grade son (who had inherited his mother's talent for mathematics) was placed in a lower-level mathematics track because of his Hispanic ethnicity. She moved to

in 2004, and began the PIMS Emerging Indigenous Scholars Summer School Program at

UBC The University of British Columbia (UBC) is a public research university with campuses near Vancouver and in Kelowna, British Columbia. Established in 1908, it is British Columbia's oldest university. The university ranks among the top three ...

in 2007. At

, Alvarez is known for the summer mathematics camps she developed to improve the mathematical education of

indigenous Indigenous may refer to: *Indigenous peoples *Indigenous (ecology), presence in a region as the result of only natural processes, with no human intervention *Indigenous (band), an American blues-rock band *Indigenous (horse), a Hong Kong racehorse ...

secondary-school students. She is the 2012 winner of the

Adrien Pouliot Award The Adrien Pouliot Award is presented annually by the Canadian Mathematical Society. The award is presented to individuals or teams in recognition of significant contributions to mathematics education in Canada. The inaugural award was presented ...

, given by the Canadian Mathematical Society for significant contributions to mathematics education in Canada. As well as her work with indigenous people, Alvarez has been active in organizing mathematics competitions, workshops, and fundraising for mathematics education among the general population.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Alvarez, Melania Year of birth missing (living people) Living people Mexican mathematicians Mexican women mathematicians Canadian mathematicians Canadian women mathematicians Mathematics educators National Autonomous University of Mexico alumni Stanford University alumni University of Wisconsin–Madison College of Letters and Science alumni Simon Fraser University alumni