Stories

Distinguished alumnus Stephen DeBacker has returned to campus as teacher and mentor.

Stephen DeBacker, SCU class of 1990, spent Winter/Spring 2024 as our Paul R. and Virginia P. Halmos Visiting Professor. DeBacker, an Arthur F. Thurau Professor at the University of Michigan, is the first alumnus to hold this distinguished position. DeBacker taught a specialized undergraduate course in real analysis and mentored both students and faculty in the department. He delivered our annual Alexanderson Lecture, as well as a talk in our BAMA lecture series (Bay Area Mathematical Adventures). DeBacker also gave an invited address for the meeting of the Golden Section of the MAA at Santa Cruz in February, and the Bay Area Discrete Mathematics conference, in honor of our colleague and friend, Rick Scott.

In all these talks, DeBacker drew on his experiences in the department, especially his work with Professors Halmos and Alexanderson.

“DeBacker is arguably the most distinguished alumnus from our department,” says Frank Farris, past chair of the Department of Mathematics and Computer Science. “His achievements in mathematics are extraordinary, but he is also well known as a force for improving mathematics education at the University of Michigan.”

“I have been very fortunate to have had many great math teachers,” says DeBacker. “At Santa Clara these included Jerry Alexanderson and Paul Halmos. I learned quite a bit of math from both, but I also learned a fair amount about the art of teaching from them. In particular, Paul Halmos was a pioneer in the Inquiry Based Learning (IBL) pedagogy. I have used the IBL approach in my own teaching with good results, and it works whether you are teaching middle schoolers about the basic principles of addition and multiplication or graduate students about derived functors. Teaching a class in this style at Santa Clara will bring the teaching part of my academic career full circle.”

DeBacker has an impressive track record, both throughout his career and during his time as an undergraduate at SCU. Before graduating in 1990 with a degree in Mathematics and Physics, DeBacker was awarded several of Santa Clara’s most prestigious department prizes. These included the First-Year Mathematics Prize (1987), the IBM Corporation Prize in Physics (1988), the Orella Prize in Science (1990), and the George W. Evans Memorial Prize in Mathematics (1989-90). DeBacker was also awarded the Presidential Scholarship during his time on campus and was involved in the Santa Clara Community Action Program (SCCAP), which contributed to his lifelong engagement with local community outreach programs.

After graduating from Santa Clara, DeBacker went on to receive his master’s degree and later his Ph.D., both in Mathematics, from the University of Chicago. Throughout his career, DeBacker has received numerous awards, appointments, fellowships, and honors from universities across the globe, including funding by the National Science Foundation for his post-doctoral fellowship and later several different research projects. He has been continuously involved at Santa Clara since his graduation, regularly returning to help grade the infamous Putnam Competition conducted by the Mathematics Department.