Dr. Yolanda Wiersma

The Departments of Biology and Mathematics and Statistics are jointly thrilled to announce that our colleague, Dr. Amy Hurford has been awarded the Dean of Science Distinguished Teaching Award. Dr. Hurford is a mathematical biologist who has been spearheading efforts to integrate more quantitative training across the Biology curriculum. The award recognizes her leadership in Curriculum Development, together with her commitment to using a broad range of approaches in her teaching. In the Mathematics and Statistics Department, Dr. Hurford teaches math modelling and students apply their math skills to practical problems with societal relevance. These links between theory and application are evident in her teaching, research and outreach. Dr. Hurford was a member of the provincial COVID modelling team, and has spoken about this work in her classes, and to the public via media interviews on CBC, CP24, NTV and VOCM and has been featured in articles in the Gazette, The Telegram, the CBC , the New York Times, and Canadian Press.

You can read more about Dr. Hurford’s teaching and research here: https://bit.ly/3Sof4qO 

For a recent pre-print paper on her COVID work (including modelling an outbreak in Mount Pearl): https://bit.ly/3zqo4Tr