The IMA has been cooperating with the AWM for over ten years with the goals of increasing the participation in IMA programs by women and assisting young women mathematicians in their career development. Career Options for Women in Mathematical Sciences. In February 2005, the IMA and AWM coorganized a workshop on Career Options for Women in Mathematical Sciences which was co-sponsored by Ford Motor Company.

More than seventy women mathematicians participated in the workshop including fourteen senior researchers who gave lectures or participated in a panel discussion. The talks by successful women mathematicians working in industry and government labs gave participants glimpses of the possibilities for careers and collaborations outside the familiar academic track.

Getting to know these women who were very successful and happy with their different choices made me feel more optimistic. – Yelda Aydin, grad student

Change was a central theme of the workshop, linking gender issues with non-academic career options. Many of the speakers and panelists described having made dramatic changes in their research area, work environment (e.g., academia to industry), and location in reconciling their personal, professional, and scientific goals.

I was shocked to find that so many of the women working in industry had completely changed mathematical gears when they moved to industry. – Sarah Patch, workshop speaker from GE

Many participants found simply being part of such an accomplished and enthusiastic group of women to be one of the greatest benefits of the workshop and those at the start of their careers, were heartened to learn

I learned (to my pleasant surprise) that obtaining a job in industry is very possible for an academic with a pure math background. I left many of the talks feeling as though I could quite happily be an employee in the speaker’s company in the future. – Suzanne Lynch Hruska, postdoc

One of the most enthusiastically received components of the workshop was the optional half-day negotiation skills tutorial, sponsored by Ford Motor Company (an IMA Participating Corporation) and run by Barbara Butterfield (HUMANED Consulting) and Jane Tucker (Duke University). Topics included principles of negotiation, developing “best alternatives to a negotiated agreement”, and understanding negotiation styles. Case practices, including job interview scenarios, illustrated the principles presented in the tutorial.

I come from a country where there is nothing to negotiate in a position at a university, so every time I had to discuss something I felt like a beggar. The organized activities helped me in understanding some strategies of negotiation. – Giovana Guidoboni, postdoc

The Association for Women in Mathematics Mentor Network.

As a result of the IMA workshop entitled Connecting Women in Mathematical Sciences to Industry, cosponsorsed in 2000 by AWM, the formation of the AWM Mentor Network was initiated by workshop participant Rachel Kuske.

The goal of the mentor network is to match mentors (both men and women), with girls and women who are interested in mathematics or are pursuing careers in mathematics. The network links mentors with a variety of groups: recent doctorates, graduate students, undergradudates, high school and grade school students, and teachers. Matching is based on common interests in careers in academics or industry, math education, balance of career and family, or general mathematical interests. The number of mentor–mentee relationships has ranged from 70 to 100 at any given time over recent years. The IMA provides support to mentors and mentees with special requests, and facilitates cooperation between mentor pairs.

Women IMA postdocs.

The IMA postdoctoral program has surely been a driving force for women in the mathematical sciences. Since appointing Amy Novick-Cohen as a postdoc in 1984, the IMA has had 47 women postdocs, the majority of whom are now leaders in the mathematical sciences and related fields with clear influence on the scientific landscape. Their continued loyalty to and association with the IMA in turn increases our effectiveness. Leonore Cowen, an IMA postdoc in 1993 was advisor to Christine Cheng, who became an IMA industrial postdoc in 2000. Ruth Williams, an IMA postdoc in 1986 who has had two women among her five PhD students, also served on the IMA Board of Governors. We currently have four women serving on this body.

Ruth Williams, Professor, Department of Mathematics, UCSD, writes:

Since I first spent a quarter at the IMA as a postdoc in 1986, the Institute’s programs have been a steady source of stimulation for my research over the years, and have enabled me to interact with a broad spectrum of researchers (substantially beyond those that I would ordinarily meet at the other conferences that I attend). Besides the quarter in 1986, I spent another quarter at the IMA in 1994, including coorganizing a workshop on Stochastic Networks with Frank Kelly. Subsequently, I have visited the IMA for shorter periods, including a period surrounding the workshop on Control and Pricing in Communication and Power Networks in 2004. Most recently, I attended a lively workshop on the Organization of Biological Networks in March 2008. For me, important aspects of the IMA workshops that I have attended have been the strong efforts to include researchers from both mathematics and fields of application, the workshop program pace which typically allows plenty of time for informal interaction, and the friendly atmosphere which encourages questions and learning about subjects in which one is not an expert. Beyond this, for longer stays, such as I had as a postdoc, the chance to interact with workshop participants and longer term visitors over a period of months was especially useful when I was learning about new areas. As an organizer of several IMA workshops, I have found the IMA organization and staff to be terrific. This is a very positive thing which makes it possible to attract high caliber researchers to organize such events. –

In April, 2005, the IMA hosted a two-day workshop connecting underrepresented minorities in applied mathematics. The workshop brought together 49 participants, split equally into graduate students, postdocs and junior faculty, and senior researchers.

I found the workshop very useful as an early career mathematician and was made aware of the weaknesses in my current career path and what needs to be done to correct this. The contacts are vital to my future. – Javier Armendariz

The workshop was very informative and eye-opening. I gained a tremendous amount of insight into the career path towards full tenured professorship. I also learned a lot about grant applications as well as the effort required to reach the upper echelons of academia and the challenges along the way. – Henry A. Boateng, graduate student

A panel discussion addressed a wide variety of problems, but also successful strategies. In the wrap-up discussions, participants underlined the overall positive impression: despite all the difficulties that minorities researchers encounter in their career, participants felt that the workshop had given them insight and showed opportunities for a career in applied mathematics.

I was able to network with several faculty members. I even found a faculty member willing to mentor me as I begin my first tenure track position. I enjoyed hearing the senior faculty talk about their experiences in academia. This was a very valuable conference. – Monica Jackson

The workshop was a very useful tool for networking and for showcasing contributions of minorities to the mathematical sciences. I gained a better understanding of the current trends in mathematical research and the direction research seems to be heading. I made many wonderful contacts and hope to continue those relationships. – William Pack, graduate student

Blackwell-Tapia Conference.

During the fall of 2006, the IMA hosted the fourth Blackwell-Tapia Conference in a series of biannual conferences honoring David Blackwell and Richard Tapia, two seminal figures who inspired a generation of African-American, Native American and Latino/Latina students to pursue careers in mathematics.

146 mathematical scientists attended the event, many of whom were from under-represented minorities. The aim of the conference was to inform the next generation of students about career opportunities in mathematics and to provide a chance for them to network with other students and with mathematical scientists who play leadership roles in their communities.

The conference accomplished multiple goals, including showcasing mathematical excellence by minority researchers and recognizing successful efforts to address under-representation of minorities in higher education. The conference offered opportunities to discuss future careers in mathematics, especially outside academia, as well as providing networking opportunities.

One of the participants of the conference writes:

This program was by far the best conference that I have been at in the past 5 years. If I was to put it in layman terms, I felt that I was a bench player of the 1990’s Chicago Bulls and learning by watching all the stars play some ball. In this case the stars were mathematicians that I have grown to respect and admire, not only because of their talent and mathematical abilities, but also because of their warmth and willingness to help others. This was the third time that I have participated in an IMA related event and I am very happy with the institute and the staff. I always feel welcomed and the environment provides the mood to engage in thinking and doing mathematics. I thank the entire IMA staff and sponsors for having invited me to the conference. I look forward to the next event where I can see so many stars together playing ball the way only they know how to. – David Tello

A highlight of the conference was the awarding of the 2006 Blackwell-Tapia prize to William A. Massey, Professor of Operations Research and Financial Engineering at Princeton University, for his outstanding achievements in queuing theory, stochastic networks, modeling of communications systems, and for his contributions to increasing diversity in the mathematical sciences.

One well received component of the conference was a panel discussion on Career Opportunities in the Mathematical Sciences which generated much discussion and audience participation.

A year later, one of the long term visitors of 2006-2007 writes:

In November,2006, the IMA hosted the Blackwell-Tapia conference, which I attended because I have been working to encourage a more diverse group of students to consider mathematics majors at my institution (NIU), even though I didn’t expect to derive much from a 2-day conference. But in the audience I spotted Joe Gallian, with whom I struck up a conversation for the first time in many years, and by the end of the day we had arranged that I would give an undergraduate colloquium in Duluth a few weeks later. That talk used Algebraic Geometry to produce calculus problems that the students found interesting, thus tying together the topic of the Thematic Year with the goals of the B-T conference. (I expect the talk will become a paper soon.) I also met at the conference Edray Goins, a co-author of someone (Garikai Campell) with whom I would be working when I moved to Swarthmore the next semester, so we had a chance to share ideas about Algebraic Curves of high rank, as well as ideas about how to encourage young people in mathematics. – Dave Rusin

Math is Cool! and Who Wants to Be a Mathematician? In conjunction with the Blackwell-Tapia conference, the IMA held an outreach event directed specifically at high school students. One hundred students from Twin Cities public high schools, the majority of whom were from underrepresented groups, attended this two-part event. The first part was a “Cool” lecture by Richard Tapia and his graduate student Josef Sifuentes and was followed by Who Wants to Be a Mathematician?, a panel discussion. The panel members who were selected from a diverse group encouraged the students to pursue mathematics related studies.

Left: Some high school participants at Math is Cool! Right: Who Wants to Be a Mathematician? panel discussion.

Who Wants to Be a Mathematician?

Arnold recently gave another similar talk for the Math in the Schools field day at the University of Minnesota for prospective high school students.