Michèle Artigue is a professor in the Mathematics Department and a member of the Doctorate School in Epistemology, Philosophy and Didactics of Sciences at the University Paris 7. After earning a Ph.D. in mathematical logic, she became involved in the activities of the Institute of Research for Mathematics Education at the University Paris 7; her research interests moved progressively towards the new field of didactic research in mathematics. Like most researchers in this area, she worked first at the elementary level on pupils’ conceptions of mathematics. However, she soon got involved, jointly with physicists, in experimental programs for undergraduate students at university and thus in didactic research at more advanced levels. Artigue’s main contributions deal with the didactics of calculus and analysis, the integration of computer technologies into mathematics education, and the relationships between epistemology and didactics. This research has led to her editing or co-editing of nine books and more than fifty articles or chapters in international journals and books. She is a member of the scientific committee or editorial board of several international journals and a member of the European network of excellence, Kaleidoscope. Since 1998, she has been vice-president of ICMI, the International Commission on Mathematical Instruction.

Current address: Equipe Didirem, Case 7018, Universit´e Paris 7, 75251 Paris Cedex 05, France (artigue@math.jussieu.fr)

Richard Askey retired after teaching mathematics at the University of Wisconsin for forty years. His work in mathematics was on special functions, and this has had an impact on his work in education which can be seen in two papers on Fibonacci numbers in Mathematics Teacher. He is interested in curriculum and the knowledge teachers need to be able to teach well. Both of these can be studied by looking at what is done in other countries, and what was done in the United States in the past. His interest in teaching mathematics started early as illustrated by his starting a tutoring program in high school which was run by the Honor Society.

Current address: University of Wisconsin– Madison, Mathematics Department, 480 Lincoln Drive, Madison WI 53706-1388, USA (askey@math.wisc.edu)

Deborah Lowenberg Ball is Dean of the School of Education and William H. Payne Collegiate Professor and Arthur F. Thurnau Professor at the University of Michigan. Ball’s work draws on her many years of experience as an elementary classroom teacher and teacher educator. Her research focuses on mathematics instruction, and on interventions designed to improve its quality and effectiveness. Her research groups study the nature of the mathematical knowledge needed for teaching and develop survey measures that have made possible analyses of the relations among teachers’ mathematical knowledge, the quality of their teaching, and their students’ performance. Of particular interest in this research is instructional practice that can intervene on significant patterns of educational inequality in mathematics education. In addition, she and her group develop and study opportunities for teachers’ learning. Ball’s extensive publications, presentations, and Web site are widely used.