OTTAWA, Ontario - The Canadian Mathematical Society has awarded the 2007 Distinguished Service Award to Dr. Graham P. Wright of the University of Ottawa. The Distinguished Service Prize is given annually in recognition of sustained and significant service to the CMS or the Canadian mathematical community.

Graham Wright has been Executive Director of the CMS since 1979 and throughout that time has profoundly influenced and shaped the Society. His skillful and dedicated service to the CMS has been a major factor in the dramatic growth and transformation of the Society. Dr. Wright has been a key part of virtually all aspects of the Society's operations, including his service as Managing Editor of many of the CMS's scientific publications, his ongoing work as an organizer of Math Camps and Mathematics Competitions (notably his work for the 1995 International Mathematical Olympiad held in Toronto), and his tireless efforts in support of the Society's committees and scientific meetings. He has helped the Society develop its web-based electronic services, and has guided the outreach and fundraising activities of the Society. His work in building up and overseeing the CMS Executive Office in Ottawa, as well as other CMS editorial offices, helped establish the highly professional permanent infrastructure that supports the work of the Society's many volunteers. The CMS would not have its current impact on the professional mathematical community, nor its current wide range of programs in research, publication, and mathematics education, without the extraordinary contributions of Graham Wright.

Indeed, the singular nature of Dr. Wright's contributions to the Society has led the CMS Board of Directors to announce its intention to rename its Distinguished Service Award, as of 2008, as the Graham Wright Award for Distinguished Service.

Dr. Graham Wright was born in England and obtained his B.Sc Honours Degree at the University of Surrey in 1967. He earned his Ph.D. in 1971, also from the University of Surrey, under the supervision of Professor Felix Arscott. After one year as a visiting graduate student at the University of Calgary, Wright joined the Department of Mathematics at the University of Ottawa in 1970. In 1975, he received an Ontario Confederation of University Faculty Associations (OCUFA) Teaching Award for Outstanding Contributions to University Teaching. His research interests are in doubly-periodic differential equations.

Graham Wright has been a Co-organizer of the CMS-University of Ottawa Math Camps since 2000 and of the Math Horizons Day for Ottawa area high school students since 2002.

Graham Wright, together with Dr. Mayer Alvo, was responsible for the establishment of two co-operative education programs in Mathematics and Computing. These programs, established in 1980, were the first co-op programs offered at the University of Ottawa. Wright was a past-chair of the NSERC Grant Selection Committee for Scholarly Publications, the Assistant Chief Operating Officer for the 36th International Mathematical Olympiad which was held in Canada in 1995. Since 1994 he has served on the Selection Committee for the Prime Minister's Awards for Teaching Excellence.

For more information, contact:

Dr. Thomas S. Salisbury
President, Canadian Mathematical Society
Telephone: 416-736-2100, ext. 33921
president@cms.math.ca