Contact:  Rick Peterson, Manager of News Services, 920/832-6590
For Immediate Release                          
June 11, 2000

Two Lawrence University Professors Cited for Outstanding Teaching


     APPLETON, WIS. -- Lawrence University faculty members Bruce
Pourciau and Brigetta Ledvina were honored for their teaching
contributions Sunday at the college's 151st commencement.
     Pourciau, professor of mathematics, received the Excellence in
Teaching Award, while Ledvina, director of music education and
instructor in music, was presented the Outstanding Young Teacher Award.
     A specialist in optimization theory and the philosophy of
mathematics, Pourciau joined the Lawrence faculty in 1976 and was
promoted to rank of full professor in 1994.
     He was one of three international mathematicians honored in 1998
for expository excellence, receiving the Lester R. Ford Award from the
Mathematical Association of America for his article, "Reading the
Master: Newton and the Birth of Celestial Mechanics." It was the second
time Pourciau's writing was rewarded with the Ford Award, which he first
earned in 1980.
     In presenting the award, Lawrence President Richard Warch cited
Pourciau's lectures as "models of clarity and organization, your
classroom manner open and engaging. 
     "While your students often struggle to meet the high standard to
which you hold them, they see in your teaching and your scholarly
efforts that you hold yourself to a standard equally high," said Warch.
     Originally from New York, Pourciau earned his bachelor's degree in
mathematics  at Brown University and his Ph.D. in mathematics at
University of California-San Diego.
     A 1989 graduate of Lawrence, Ledvina returned to her alma mater in
the fall of 1996 as a faculty member in the conservatory of music. 
     A flutist by training, Ledvina also specializes in music education,
teaching classes in music methodology for early childhood, elementary
and secondary school levels.  In addition, she provides on-site
supervision of student teachers emphasizing choral and instrumental
instruction.
     She has served as the state multicultural chairperson of the
Wisconsin Music Educators Association and has performed with the White
Heron Chorale, the Appleton Boy Choir and the Wisconsin State Children's
Honor Choir and has written several published articles on multicultural
education.
     Warch hailed Ledvina's "vigor, methodological sophistication and
attention to the needs of an increasingly diverse and complex American
society.
     "Few members of our community have brought to their teaching a more
powerful and abiding commitment to the recognition and celebration of
diversity," said Warch.  
     Ledvina is a native of Tigerton and a graduate of Bowler High
School.