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K-State Today

January 28, 2020

Leach-Krouse awarded Munson-Simu Star Award

Submitted by Malorie Sougey

Graham Leach-Krouse, assistant professor of philosophy, has been awarded the Munson-Simu Star Award, which recognizes outstanding performance in teaching, service and research in the College of Arts and Sciences.

Leach-Krouse graduated from the University of Notre Dame with a doctorate in logic and the foundations of mathematics, conferred jointly by the departments of philosophy and mathematics. He has published papers on topics ranging from Emil Post's early discovery of "absolutely" unsolvable mathematical problems, to how philosophers can use abstraction axioms to represent and classify new types of structures, to the design of a software framework for teaching formal logic.

Leach-Krouse also has led several open-source software initiatives, including the creation of the Carnap framework, a system now used in and out of classrooms at more than a dozen colleges and universities internationally.

"Graham's work on the Carnap Framework for logic tutoring is a really exciting example of the use of technology to improve pedagogy," said Bruce Glymour, philosophy department head. "While computer-aided logic instruction has been around for some time, Leach-Krouse's innovative approach is more versatile, able to handle a wider range of proof systems, and integrates better with themes in related areas in computer science and mathematics."

Funded and supported by a gift from 1996 Kansas State University graduate and Eluvio CEO and co-founder Michelle Munson, and her husband, Serban Simu, the Keystone Research Faculty Scholars and Faculty Stars programs reward success through difficulties and the rigors of academic research. Munson, a Junction City native and graduate of Chapman High School, and Simu now live in Berkeley, California.

"The generous funding provided by the Munson-Simu family will enable Leach-Krouse to further expand the competencies of the Carnap Framework and integrative, cross-disciplinary instruction in philosophy, logic, computer science and mathematics," Glymour said. "We couldn't be prouder of the work Leach-Krouse is doing, or more grateful for the funding that is permitting him to do it."

With the funding from the award, Leach-Krouse will continue to develop software to improve the quality and equity and impact of philosophy and logic pedagogy. He also plans to pursue research projects bridging gaps between philosophical logic and the applications of logic in theoretical computer science, working to bring contemporary applied work on type theory and data structures into contact with the theory of abstraction principles and the semantics of nonclassical logic.