Program For Women and Mathematics to Explore Curves, Loops and Words in Geometry

The Program for Women and Mathematics will celebrate its twenty-third year by bringing together research mathematicians and undergraduate, graduate and postdoctoral women studying mathematics for an intensive residential mentoring experience. The 2016 series, which will explore curves, loops and words in geometry, will take place May 9–20 at the Institute for Advanced Study and is sponsored by the Institute and Princeton University, with support from the National Science Foundation.

The Program for Women and Mathematics seeks to encourage promising undergraduate and graduate students to continue their mathematics education and designed to address issues of gender imbalance in the field. In addition to lectures and seminars focused on geometry, the program includes mentoring, conversations about peer relations, an introduction to career opportunities, and seminars about women in the sciences.

“Our undergraduate, graduate and postdoctoral scholars in this year’s program are a very talented and extraordinary group of international women,” said Christine Taylor, a Member and Visitor (2010­–13, 2013–14) in the School of Mathematics at the Institute and Lecturer at Princeton University, who is one of the organizers of the program. “We are excited to offer a wide range of activities aimed to inspire young mathematicians to pursue a career in the field.”

In addition to Taylor, the 2016 program is organized by Sun-Yung Alice Chang, Eugene Higgins Professor of Mathematics at Princeton University and Dusa McDuff, Helen Lyttle Kimmel ’42 Professor of Mathematics at Barnard College, Columbia University.

The course will feature lectures and seminars by Moira Chas of Stony Brook University, Moon Duchin of Tufts University, Nancy Hingston of The College of New Jersey, and Nathalie Wahl of the University of Copenhagen.

The program will also feature a public lecture by Sandi Peterson, Institute Trustee and Group Worldwide Chairman of Johnson & Johnson, and Kathy Wengel, Worldwide Vice President, Supply Chain of Johnson & Johnson. The lecture, “Math in the Real World: More Than Just a Numbers Game,” will explore the importance of mathematics throughout the lifecycle of some of Johnson & Johnson’s best known brands, from research and development to manufacturing, and from marketing to supply chain. This lecture is free and open to the public. To register visit, www.ias.edu/events/peterson-wengel-lecture.

For more information on the Women and Mathematics Program, visit http://www.ias.edu/math/wam/2016.

About the Program for Women and Mathematics

The Program for Women and Mathematics grew out of the Park City Mathematics Institute, an outreach program of the Institute for Advanced Study that provides professional development for the mathematics community. In 1994, a program called the Mentoring Program for Women in Mathematics was formed with the long-term goal of giving women the support needed to remain in the field of mathematics. Now known as the Program for Women and Mathematics, the program’s participants include undergraduate and graduate students as well as postdoctoral scholars and senior researchers. Collaborations and mentoring relationships are formed during the program and are maintained long afterward.