2016, 119 pages

To read the full text [PDF] of In the Beginning...and Beyond: Edward M. Landesman—Professor of Mathematics, UC Santa Cruz University of California's Escholarship site.

Edward Landesman was born in Brooklyn, New York, the son of Jewish immigrants from Eastern Europe. He and his parents and his twin brother moved to Los Angeles when Ed was two years old, the city which was to be his home through his undergraduate and then graduate education at the University of California, Los Angeles. Landesman was a first-generation college student, as his parents never had the opportunity to pursue higher education. He graduated from UCLA with a BA in mathematics in 1960, earned his MA in 1961, and his PhD in 1965, all from UCLA.

While at UCLA, Landesman discovered that he loved teaching, a passion to which he was to dedicate himself for the rest of his career. He was honored with several major teaching awards, including the UCSC Santa Cruz Alumni Distinguished Teaching Award in 1984, and the Mathematical Association of America Deborah and Franklin Tepper National Award for Distinguished University or College Teaching in 1996. However, his record is equally distinguished in pure mathematics research, and in research about mathematics education, both at the college and K-12 levels. And Landesman also made major contributions to administration and institution-building at UC Santa Cruz, where he taught from 1966 until 1994. He served on numerous Academic Senate committees, became UCSC’s first associate academic vice chancellor for undergraduate education, and was provost and senior preceptor for academic affairs at Crown College. He has also been a pioneer and leader in mathematics education on a statewide and national level.