At the national conference of the American Mathematical Association of Two-Year Colleges (AMATYC) in November, SBCC Math professor Peter Georgakis received the Award of Appreciation for Outstanding Contributions and Dedicated Service to Two-Year College Mathematics Education. Georgakis is one of a few mathematics instructors at community colleges in the U.S. who also has a license to practice law. He was the lawyer and legal advisor to AMATYC for 30 years.
"I am extremely honored and humbled to receive this recognition from AMATYC," says Peter. "They represent over 1000 community colleges in the United States and Canada and they have been the leaders in the teaching of mathematics to all students in the first two years of college.
"My primary responsibility was negotiating contracts with the major hotels, city centers, and convention halls throughout the United States and Canada for national conferences. I also reconciled legal situations with NASA, the National Science Foundation, various book publishers, and some four year institutions.
"Most recently, I negotiated all our contracts to have clauses where AMATYC could rescind a contract without penalty where states passed laws that infringed on the rights of underrepresented groups and individuals."
