At last week’s Education Committee, Fellow Dr Orsola Rath Spivack was chosen as the recipient of the Terri Apter Prize for Teaching, usually awarded by the College every two years.
Orsola joined Newnham as a Fellow in 2021, after 25 years as a Fellow at Lucy Cavendish, as an expression of her long-standing commitment to supporting the careers of women in Maths. Since joining the Fellowship, she has been a Tutor and a Director of Studies, most recently for all years in the Tripos during Professor Maria Ubiali’s leave. She is an applied mathematician whose research is in wave scattering and inverse problems.
Orsola supervises our students in Mathematical Methods and in Differential Equations in all years. She makes a particular effort to secure the success of women students through working with colleagues at Murray Edwards to form stronger groups and more visible cohorts. A particular reason for this prize award, is her enthusiastic support of summer schools and access programmes to encourage women and BAME students to apply to the Cambridge degree course.
Orsola organises programmes for the Sutton Trust, for Girls in Maths, supports the Emmy Noether Society and has a range of maths videos on the Maths YouTube channel. Perhaps unsurprisingly, she is her Faculty’s Admissions Officer, and her website states that she “always tries to inspire others to appreciate and enjoy maths in all its beautiful forms.”