At the Spring 2007 MAA Southeastern Section meeting at Georgia Southern University, the Southeastern MAA Section inaugurated the Patterson Prize which will be awarded annually to outstanding undergraduate student presentations given at the meeting. The awards will total $500, which will be distributed equally among as many as ten deserving presentations.

The Walt and Susan Patterson Prize was established in 2006 to encourage undergraduates to participate in the annual meetings of the Southeastern Section of the Mathematical Association of America. The amount of the prize to be awarded is $500 per year and may be divided among a group of undergraduate students. It is the responsibility of the MAA Southeastern Section Executive Committee to determine the nature of the award, which can change from year to year, and to publicize this information clearly in advance of the Section Meeting. In the establishment of this prize, Walt and Susan Patterson have stated that "the funding of this prize is given in appreciation of the many fine colleagues who have been so helpful during our more than 25 years of attending Section meetings." The Southeastern Section is, in turn, grateful for Walt and Susan's ardent support of our section and the innumerable ways that they have contributed over the years to the success of the section.