The Jim Cross Award is granted to a volunteer who has demonstrated exceptional commitment to helping The Institute of Enquiring Minds provide mathematics education to high school students experiencing financial disadvantage in Australia. This Award is a reflection of the three essential components of Dr Jim Cross’s interests – education, mathematics and Australia. 

The Institute for Enquiring Minds is honoured that Emilia “Lia” Cross (Née Filisone), Jim’s widow, has seen in a reflection of Jim’s life’s work in the Institute of Enquiring Minds, and that she has asked us to administer and present the Jim Cross Award.

Dr Jim Cross was an internationally recognised mathematician born in the western suburbs of Melbourne, Australia. His academic journey through mathematics saw him study and research in Delft (Holland), John Hopkins University, Maryland and Rice University, Texas (USA). 

Dr Cross was always driven to improve mathematics education in Australia at all levels but especially in secondary education. He taught the high school students at St. Augustine’s school and went on to teach the teachers at the Melbourne Secondary Teachers College, both while studying at the University of Melbourne.

After completing his PhD he declined an offer from MIT to return to Melbourne where he took up a continuing position and then a Senior Lectureship at the University. Throughout his career teaching was always a focus. His dedication to his students often took precedence over his own career.

While excelling at mathematics and being passionate about education, Jim still found time to master five languages well enough to review and translate multiple books in French, Russian, Italian, Dutch and German. 

His collaborative nature saw him make huge contributions to other fields; he was an award winning reviewer and he consulted for state and national sporting organisations including 17 years service to the Australian Football League. He was an international scholar in the broadest sense but he was very much the boy from Yarraville, a lifelong supporter of Footscray Football Club and one of the lucky few that witnessed their two Grand Final wins 62 years apart.

His ever growing interest in the History of Mathematics became a large part of his academic pursuits. He served as the archivist for the Australian Mathematical Society. His historical studies allowed him to use his classical training in Latin and Greek and his knowledge of German, Russian, French and Italian, to contribute to multiple biographies. At the time of his death he was near completion of his magnum opus on the lives of Johann Peter Dirichlet and his wife Rebecka (née Mendelssohn, sister of composer Felix).

Maths and music, sport and history, education, education and education; Dr Jim Cross was a polyglot, a polymath and a Melbournian that lived and breathed maths education.

Jim is a hero. He is the embodiment of what the Institute for Enquiring Minds is trying to do. He dedicated himself to improving maths education and he did it not only by being brilliant at maths and a legendary teacher, but also by being a truly multi-disciplined life-long learner.