Greg Hill
Professor of Mathematics

Fly fisherman for trout and salmon. Was president of Oregon Teachers of Teachers of Mathematics, which is fun to say. Teaches math for elementary teachers and algebra and statistics and complex analysis and integrated calculus and physics, this last with physics professor Tamar More, and he and More got money from the National Science Foundation to build jazzy new classrooms in Science Hall just for their co-class, which is not something that happens every day. “I am always looking for aha! moments in class,” says Hill, “moments when students discover things for themselves. That’s the ideal. Lecturing makes aha! hard so I hardly do it. We have lab experiences and talks in every class and then they seek to discover. Discovery defeats passivity. This is increasingly a sit-and-watch-and-receive culture and we battle that. Activity, creativity, discovery — those are the habits of mind I am trying to teach my students.”