November–December 2020
Total Page:16
File Type:pdf, Size:1020Kb
Newsletter VOLUME 50, NO. 6 • NOVEMBER–DECEMBER 2020 PRESIDENT’S REPORT By now it is obvious that our old lives are not returning anytime soon. For a mathematician, being holed up alone can be a great opportunity for good research. But even for the most head-in-theorems mathematicians, the underlying stress of these times is wearing. According to the CDC 40% of Americans were struggling with mental health or substance abuse in June—two to three times higher than The purpose of the Association for Women in Mathematics is normal (https://www.cdc.gov/mmwr/volumes/69/wr/mm6932a1.htm). So you are not alone (well, you are socially distanced, but you know what I mean). I ask of you • to encourage women and girls to two things in this extraordinary time: give yourself permission to not be quite the study and to have active careers in the mathematical sciences, and superwomen you usually are, and give others a little extra slack, too. • to promote equal opportunity and Actually, I hope we can do both of these things now and in the future, the equal treatment of women and beyond pandemics, climate calamities, glaring racism, and deep political and social girls in the mathematical sciences. divides. It is hard to always get it right, so I hope we will assume the best of ourselves and of each other. That means understanding that people we love may do things we do not like, but we still love them. And it means when people we don’t know do something we find problematic, we should not assume they are bad people. Stuck in our isolated locations it is easier than ever to see only one facet of a person or situation. It is important to help make the world a better place, critical to be an active ally and not a complicit bystander, but let us encourage right action and try to believe in basic human goodness rather than condemning individuals or institutions. And yes, I know this feels extra hard right now. The AWM has as its mission to encourage and support all women, from all backgrounds, in all kinds of mathematics, at all educational and career stages. It is IN THIS ISSUE sometimes clearer to see where we come up short (not enough programs for math educators, not enough diversity in leadership, why does it say women and not a 3 Presidents’ Reflections more gender inclusive term?) than what we’ve achieved. I hope you will continue 6 Emille Lawrence Wins to assume the best of AWM and be an active participant to help us become Service Award even better. 7 Book Review Our community of women in mathematics is diverse along so many axes. I 10 Education Column hope each of us will value all of us. We see women in math choosing a wide variety of career paths, engaging in a wide variety of research or focusing on educating, 14 EvenQuads or serving the community in other ways. We choose to teach, be tenure track, work 15 Suzanne Weeks Named for the military, open restaurants, be administrators, write novels, you name it. SIAM Executive Director Every woman, every gender-expanding person doing math is remarkable. Please join 16 MAD Pages Update me in appreciating all of us. 18 Announcements The Joint Math Meetings will be a virtual conference in 2021, and the AWM will be there! It was to be, and will be, the kick off to the celebration of the 50th 24 In Memoriam continued on page 2 PRESIDENT’S REPORT continued from page 1 anniversary of the AWM. After all, as the story goes, the AWM started when a small group of women stuck around after a meeting of the Mathematics Action Group at the 1971 JMM in Atlanta and formed a caucus. Around the same time one of the women, Mary Gray, sat in on an AMS council meeting—where women were not welcome. For more about the early history see Lenore Blum’s piece written for our 20th anniversary: https://awm-math.org/about/history/a-brief-history-of-awm/. Our 2021 JMM activities will include a wide range of activities, reflecting many aspects (but alas not all) of who we are. Our feature events this year are panels: To help all of us think about ethical implications of what we do, there will AWM was founded in 1971 at the Joint be an AWM panel on Fairness and Bias (Thursday). For a great look back at our Meetings in Atlantic City. history, there will be a panel discussion entitled “AWM through the decades,” The Newsletter is published bi-monthly. featuring AWM presidents from each decade (Thursday). A third panel discussion Articles, letters to the editor, and announce- on Non-Traditional Careers in Mathematics is also planned. This year’s workshop for ments are welcome. young researchers is organized by Women in Analysis (WoAN). Please stop by the Opinions expressed in AWM Newsletter poster session Friday to admire the research of the new crop of women graduate articles are those of the authors and do not necessarily reflect opinions of the editors students. Other sessions co-sponsored by AWM include the AMS-AWM Special or policies of the Association for Women Session on Women of Color in Applied Math and Analysis; the AMS-AWM Special in Mathematics. Authors sign consent to Session on Women of Color in Topology and Algebra; and the MAA Contributed publish forms. Paper Session on Promoting Women in Mathematics (co-sponsored by AWM and Circulation: 3500. © 2020, AWM other groups). We’ll also be posting videos to celebrate this year’s various prize EXECUTIVE COMMITTEE winners, as there will be no prize session at the virtual JMM. President I am delighted to report the University of Waterloo has become the inaugural Ruth Haas AWM Sponsoring Institution. Thank you Waterloo! With an entire Faculty of Department of Mathematics Mathematics, consisting of 6 departments and 260 full time faculty, they are surely University of Hawai‘i at Mānoa one of the largest groups of mathematicians in the world. We were happy to create 2565 McCarthy Mall (Keller Hall 401A) Honolulu, Hawaii 96822 a new membership category for them, and hope other institutions (even those [email protected] with fewer members) will be interested in sponsoring AWM in a similar manner President-Elect Kathryn Leonard as well. Please reach out to us if you are interested in learning more. A great big thank you to everyone who has continued to contribute to AWM Treasurer Mary Shepherd during this multifaceted crisis. Thanks too for simply renewing your membership Clerk Janet Beery or joining us for the first time. The majority of our budget comes from our At-Large Members members and we are grateful for your continued support. Linda Chen Kavita Ramanan Carla Cotright- Michelle Snider As always, I look forward to hearing your thoughts and working with our Williams Farrah Jackson Ward community. Elena Fuchs Suzanne Weekes Pamela Harris Media Coordinator Denise Rangel Tracy, [email protected] Ruth Haas Meetings Coordinator September 24, 2020 Alina Bucur, [email protected] Mānoa, HI Newsletter Editor Anne Leggett, [email protected] NEWSLETTER TEAM Margaret Bayer, Book Review Jacqueline Dewar, Education Column Sarah Greenwald, Associate Editor and Media Column Ruth Haas [email protected] Alice Silverberg, Media Column 2 AWM Newsletter Volume 50, Number 6 • November–December 2020 PRESIDENTS’ REFLECTIONS Membership Dues Membership runs from Oct. 1 to Sept. 30 Column Editors: Janet Beery, University of Redlands; Francesca Bernardi, Worcester Individual: $70 Contributing: $160 Polytechnic Institute; Kayla M. Bicol, University of Houston; Eva Brayfindley, Pacific Family, new member, and reciprocal (first two years):$35 Northwest National Laboratory; Cathy Kessel, consultant Affiliate, retired, part-time:$30 Student, unemployed: $20 Outreach: $10 This is the twelfth in a series of “Presidents’ Reflections,” articles by past AWM is a 501(c)(3) organization. presidents of the AWM that are intended to help us take stock of where we are Institutional Membership Levels and where we should be going, and to consider what we want the organization Category 1: $325 to be at its 50th anniversary. As always, the AWM Newsletter welcomes your sug- Category 2: $325 gestions and comments in letters to the editor. Category 3: $200 See awm-math.org for details on free ads, Jean Taylor was the fourteenth president of AWM (1999–2001). For more free student memberships, and ad discounts. about Taylor, see her Wikipedia entry and web pages: http://cims.nyu.edu /~jtaylor, Executive Sponsorship Levels http://sites.math.rutgers.edu/~jet1. $5000+ $2500–$4999 $1000–$2499 A Blast from the Past and a Hope for the Future Print Subscriptions and Back Orders— Regular and contributing members living in the US Jean E. Taylor may elect to receive a print version of the Newsletter. Libraries, women’s studies centers, non-mathematics departments, etc., may purchase a subscription for My first priority for the AWM [will be] to be sure its finances, office staff $75/year. Back orders are $20/issue plus shipping/ and governing procedures are in good order. We need to ensure con- handling ($5 minimum). tinued grant support for the many things we do well. Then I’d like to see Payment—Payment is by check (drawn on a bank the AWM grow both in financial resources and adventurousness. In with a US branch), US money order, or international particular, I’d like to see the AWM become a more active source of postal order. Visa and MasterCard are also accepted. information and projects concerning all women in mathematics, including Newsletter Ads—AWM will accept ads for the women in industry and girls in school.