AWM's Activity List for the 1990s

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During the 1990s, AWM has continued many of its earlier activities described in Blum's article, and it has expanded into new areas. A great deal of the work of AWM on these activities has been done by unpaid volunteers, notably meetings coordinator Bettye Anne Case, Newsletter editor Anne Leggett, the AWM presidents and treasurers (who are involved in every AWM project), and members of the various committees. Case and Leggett—energetic dedicated women who have served AWM in their posts for twenty-three and twenty-one years respectively—have made enormous contributions to the continuation, the memory, the shape, and the dream of AWM.

AWM 20th anniversary celebration. January 17, 1991. Anne Leggett, AWM Newsletter editor, holds her “Outstanding Service” award.

Newsletter. AWM publishes its bimonthly Newsletter under the direction of Newsletter editor Anne Leggett. This publication regularly features informative articles about women in science and mathematics; reports of AWM and other mathematical events; listings of jobs, both academic and non-academic; short blurbs about members, women in mathematics, news, and upcoming events; an informal “President’s Report”; an “Education Column”; and book reviews. The Newsletter, widely read and enjoyed by the mathematics community, is praised for its interesting and valuable information and articles. Women members say each Newsletter “recharges” them and helps them fight feelings of isolation.

Website. In 1998, AWM established, through the efforts of volunteers Tamara Kolda and Barbara Ling, an award-winning Web site. It features announcements of upcoming deadlines and events, articles (including this one), pictures from previous events, some of the AWM publications listed below, links to many resources on women in mathematics, information on applying for programs AWM runs, information on ordering all of its publications, and other important information. AWM also sponsors AWM-Net, an electronic mail forum for AWM members that was started in 1994 by Dianne O'Leary. AWM-Net is used for discussing issues and publicizing events related to the AWM mission. Information on joining the AWM-Net is available at the AWM Web site.

Publications. AWM has produced these publications: Profiles of Women in Mathematics: The Emmy Noether Lecturers; a career booklet, Careers that Count (produced in 1991); an older Careers for Women in Mathematics booklet [ND86]; a Directory of Women in the Mathematical Sciences; membership directories; an AWM membership brochure; and an extensive report from the 1997 SIAM workshop.¹

AWM Workshops. Begun in 1991 under the direction of AWM president Jill Mesirov, the AWM workshops highlight the achievements of outstanding new female mathematicians via talks by recent Ph.D.s and posters presented by graduate students. Currently funded by the National Science Foundation (NSF) and the Office of Naval Research (ONR), the workshops have continued each winter at the Joint Meetings and each summer at the SIAM meeting and are attended by both men and women. In the course of the workshops the new mathematicians are matched with mentors, established mathematicians who give career advice. Workshop organizers also arrange various sessions offering advice for new Ph.D.s on pressing issues. For example, the summer 1997 workshop featured a minisymposium on how to write mathematics and grant proposals [ND97]. At the January 1995 panel discussion “Launching a Career”, Dusa McDuff discussed her career path briefly and emphasized making mathematical connections [MA95]. Catherine Roberts described the importance of finding mentors, and listed nine practical suggestions for new faculty members [MA95]. Most workshops have included information on applying for various types of funding, as this is essential for new Ph.D.s; Deborah Lockhart (NSF) has been a frequent and faithful presenter on this topic since 1992. Other workshop panel discussions have included: getting started doing research without an advisor, mathematicians in government, presentations by undergraduate students from Mills College on the Summer Program for Women, graduate education, career experiences, and balancing career and family.

At the 1997 AWM-ONR Workshop held in conjunction with the SIAM Annual Meeting. Row 4 (top): Dianne O’Leary (Maryland), Donna Calhoun (Washington), Pam Cook (Delaware), Dawn Wheeler (AWM), Joyce McLaughlin (Rensselaer). Row 3: Jennifer Mueller (Rensselaer), Elsa Newman (Marymount). Row 2: Barbara Niethammer (Courant), Anna Georgieva (Duke), Suzanne Lenhart (Workshop Organizer, Tennessee), Sylvia Wiegand (AWM President, Nebraska), Ruth Pfeiffer (Maryland), Maeve McCarthy (Rice). Row 1: Ivonne Diaz-Rivera (Arizona State), Carolyn Hill Coleman (Case Western Reserve).

New mathematicians find the workshops valuable “for networking with each other, for discussing career difficulties, and for being inspired seeing so many women doing such excellent mathematics.” They appreciate the opportunity to meet successful senior women researchers, and they especially appreciate comments and suggestions from other mathematicians about their work. A workshop participant in 1995, Helen Moore, reported, “Every time I talked math with someone, I gained information or insight which advanced my work.…Every time I went to an AWM-sponsored event or talked with other women, I gained energy and made plans.…And aren’t these two areas [our careers and our personal lives] the ones in which the AWM strives to make a difference for women?” [MA95].

SK Days. AWM coordinates the Sonya Kovalevsky High School Days, programs held in various parts of the U.S. for high school girls and their teachers. The participants meet with college mathematics educators and women in industry for a day of interesting mathematical activities, and they learn about careers in mathematics and the importance of mathematics for many other careers. The Sonya Kovalevsky Days programs were started in 1985 by Pamela Coxon; recent funding from the National Security Agency has supported about fifteen of the programs per year. High school women have remarked that the programs have changed their lives and have opened up a world of career possibilities and interests. Educational institutions find the programs benefit their recruitment efforts, and some institutions even offer their own self-sufficient programs. At present, funding for the whole project is renewed year by year; long-term support or self-sufficiency would be desirable.

Travel Grants. Through a grant from the NSF, AWM administers a grant program to fund travel by women mathematicians to research conferences.² This program, which was started in mid-1980s by then-president Rhonda Hughes, has funded hundreds of travel proposals and provides a valuable opportunity to advance research activities and visibility of women in the research community. The awards are selected by committees of AWM volunteers; generally preference is given to applicants who will be presenting their research. The travel grants, awarded for both international and domestic travel, benefit women from diverse research areas. Younger women mathematicians who have received travel support are grateful for this program. As Revathi Narasimhan points out, this program is particularly useful because, “Small schools have fewer college-supported avenues for funding.…[It is] nice to see an organization such as AWM taking an interest in funding small grants.”

An exciting new expansion of the travel grant program has been proposed for “mentor grants” (approximately three per year) of up to $4000 for travel, subsistence, and some salary, for a woman mathematician to spend a month working with an established mathematician (male or female). Pending funding from NSF, these grants should prove particularly useful to women researchers who are somewhat isolated at their current jobs. As with the other travel grants, this program would not be restricted to recent Ph.D.s.

Special Conferences. The tradition of holding special conferences in honor of famous women in mathematics, such as Sonya Kovalevsky and Emmy Noether, began in the early days of AWM. In 1996 AWM held another special conference, in honor of Julia Robinson, and the Association is currently organizing an Olga Taussky-Todd conference to be held July 16-18 1999 at the Mathematical Sciences Research Institute (MSRI). Described by participants as wonderful, energizing, and empowering, the Julia Robinson conference featured talks on her life and work; other mathematical talks; poster presentations, and panel discussions on job hunting, building a career, and applying for grants.³ Sharon Frechette summarized her experience at the conference: “A panel discussion with women from different kinds of educational institutions, NSA, and industry was informative and interesting.…A session on how to conduct a job search with a great mock interview with Q&A afterwards [was] incredibly helpful.…Overall, I was impressed with the message AWM seemed to be sending to young women mathematicians: ‘Things might have been difficult for many of us as we were starting out, but it needn’t be that way, and we’re working to ensure that things continue to improve for women making a career in this field.’ ” Another young women said the conference had a large impact on her cohort “both in the number of beginning mathematicians who participated and the connections formed by each of them.

Lectures. AWM sponsors and cosponsors lectures at the January Joint Meetings and the summer Mathfests, including sponsoring the prestigious Emmy Noether Lectures given in January. The Noether lecturers have been women research mathematicians who have made fundamental and sustained contributions to the mathematical sciences. AWM, through its 1993-95 president Cora Sadosky, was instrumental in setting up similar lectures at the International Congress of Mathematicians. It also jointly sponsors lectures with other societies. Other lectures have also been sponsored or cosponsored by AWM at mathematics meetings. Christel Rotthaus gave a joint AMS/AWM/MAA lecture in January 1991; Kate Okikiolu gave a lecture in January 1996 as part of the twenty-fifth anniversary celebration for AWM. At the last several summer Mathfests, AWM and MAA sponsored invited addresses by Karen Smith (Seattle, 1996), Suzanne Lenhart (Atlanta, 1997), and Margaret Wright (Toronto, 1998).

AWM Awards. Each year at the winter January Joint Meetings prize session, AWM presents two awards. The Alice Schafer Undergraduate Prize for Outstanding Work by a Female Student, first awarded in August 1990, now includes established mathematicians among past recipients. The Louise Hay Award for Excellence in Mathematics Education was first given in 1991.

Panel Discussions. AWM holds panel discussions at the January Joint Meetings, at the SIAM Annual meetings, and at other mathematics meetings (sometimes jointly organized with other groups). As is evident from two of the topics, “Affirmative Action” and “How to be a Successful Woman Mathematician”, these discussions concern issues of current interest in the profession as well as advice for young people. Sometimes controversial, always popular, they are among the most well-attended events at most meetings.

The panel at the San Francisco January Joint Meetings in January 1995, “AWM: Why Do We Need It Now?”, addressed some of the problems currently faced by women in mathematics. As summarized by Cora Sadosky, these include, “disparity in the academic workplace: in tenure and promotion, in biased teaching evaluations, in extra loads of committee work, in routine assignations of work,” and, “scarcity of women among editors of journals, among principal investigators on research grants, among invited speakers at meetings and special sessions, among conference organizers” [ ND94]. Ruth Williams spoke about some ways that AWM could assist women: networking through AWM would be beneficial for the many isolated younger women; AWM programs such as workshops and travel grants have already helped these women become more visible and well-known; AWM could provide a forum for solving problems of common concern, such as through an interactive web page [MA95]. Sylvia Bozeman discussed the problems of minority women in mathematics and how AWM can assist—particularly how to attract more of them to study mathematics and to provide support for them to persist [MJ95].

At the panel discussion, “Do Women and Men Have Different Career Trajectories?”, in August 1995 at the Burlington Mathfest, Claudia Henrion discussed statistics showing that not only women, but also men, often do better later in life. She concluded that “many current policies and practices favor youth and may inadvertently discriminate against women.” Joyce McLaughlin discussed a career development tool for mathematicians outside of academia, and Carolyn Gordon explained that women were different partly because they are often not confident or clear about their career plans since their children and professional service may affect their careers more than men’s [ND95, p.12].

The panel at San Diego in January 1997 discussed, “What it takes to have a Successful CCareer in the Mathematical Sciences.” Audrey Terras summarized her talk with five simple rules: “1. Don't give up. 2. Keep learning and teaching. 3. Network. 4. Do useful mathematics, but do your kind. 5. Have a (good) life.” Lesley Sibner said her career and her participation in the AMS have been enjoyable, and she acknowledged several effective presidents of AWM for their contributions to women in mathematics [MJ 97].

In August 1994 at the Minneapolis Mathfest, a panel was organized by Joan Hutchinson on “Celebrating Women’s Achievements in Algebra, Analysis, Combinatorial Geometry: Past, Present and Future.” The panelists, Jane Gilman, Karen Saxe, Doris Schattschneider, and Marie Vitulli, discussed the work of other women in their research areas [ND94].

Other panel discussions have included “The Status of Women in Mathematics” (cosponsored) at the 1990 Kyoto ICM, “Careers that Count” (modeled after the booklet) at the August 1991 Orono Mathfest, and a panel on affirmative action jointly organized with the Canadian Mathematical Society (CMS) Committee on Women and moderated by Asia Ivic Weiss at the Sunmmer 1993 Vancouver joint AMS/CMS meeting. The panelists, Joan Geramita, Richard Griego, Mary Gray, and Joan Wick Pelletier, describe their presentations in the Newsletter. At the August 1994 Zurich ICM, a panel discussion, cosponsored with the CMS Committee on Women and the European Women in Mathematics, focused on issues for women in various countries, such as childcare, and alleged “quotas” for women [ND94].

Other Meeting Activities. Frequently, AWM organizes or co-organizes breakfasts and lunches at mathematics meetings for supporters of women in mathematics. At the June 1992 AMS/London Mathematical Society joint meeting in Cambridge, England, AWM and the European Women in Mathematics (EWM) had a pleasant joint luncheon meeting.

At the 1994 January Joint Meetings in Cincinnati, the AWM sponsored a special session on “Meetings of Mathematicians”, organized by meetings coordinator Case, in honor of the American Math Society’s 100th anniversary. The speakers included Alice Schafer, Dirk Struik, Lee Lorch, and Saunders McLane.

In 1996, AWM sponsored several major events to celebrate AWM's twenty-fifth anniversary. An AWM/MAA invited address and a luncheon were held at the January Joint Meetings, another AWM invited address was given at the MAA Summer Meeting, and AWM sponsored the Julia Robinson Celebration of Women in Mathematics Conference.

A special AWM symposium was held at the International Congress for Industrial and Applied Mathematics (ICIAM) in Hamburg, Germany, July 3-7, 1995. Four talks on various area of applied mathematics were presented by women recent Ph.D.s [ND95]. Also, a workshop was held at the International Congress of Industrial and Applied Mathematicians (ICIAM) in July 1991.

A major goal of AWM has been to increase the participation of women in professional meetings of mathematicians, and this effort has been successful. Other organizations have arranged meetings showcasing women in the 1990s, which are particularly inspiring for new women in the field. For example, the European Women in Mathematics and the Women in Mathematics Committee of the Canadian Mathematical Society both sponsor meetings featuring mathematics talks by women mathematicians in various areas. A conference in Canada on Numerical Mathematics and Computing contained an all-women cast of speakers [SO93]. In March 1994, a Celebration of Women in Mathematics, organized by Susan Friedlander and held at MIT, featured nine outstanding lectures by prominent women mathematicians [MJ94]. In October 1994 a workshop sponsored by the Mathematical Sciences Institute and the AMS on “Women in Probability” was organized by Molly Hahn and Ruth Williams at Cornell; it included sixty attendees, eleven invited lectures, twenty-six contributed lectures plus roundtables and panel discussions [MJ95].

Other Societies, Public Relations, and Education Activies. The Association regularly participates in activities of other major organizations of the international mathematical and scientific community. AWM is a member of the Conference Board of Mathematical Sciences, a consultant and presenter for the Board of Mathematical Sciences, and an affiliate of the American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS). AWM has been a participant in all International Congresses of Mathematicians (ICMs) from 1974 onward, more recently helping to organize panel discussions among women of different countries and special Emmy Noether Lectures. It has participated in and organized symposia at the International Congress for Industrial and Applied Mathematics (ICIAM) since 1995. AWM has formed an Affiliated Research Group to assist with the national effort, led by the National Council of Teachers of Mathematics, to delineate standards for K–12 education in the U.S. At the 1998 Joint Meetings in Baltimore, AWM and the Mathematicians for Education Reform network (MER) cosponsored a special session on evaluating faculty; another session is planned for 1999. These sessions were arranged by the AWM Education Committee, which is concerned with teaching at all levels and assists other committees and agencies with making national policy statements about mathematics. Some committee discussions and news and views about education appear in the Newsletter. The AWM president joins with officers of the other major mathematics, science, and engineering societies in activities to improve the public perception of mathematics and science and to increase federal (U.S.) support for research. In particular, AWM encourages members to speak with legislators about the importance of encouraging young women in science.

Noetherian Ring Groups. At several graduate schools, “Noetherian rings” have formed to provide a support network for female graduate students. Berkeley, Connecticut, Maryland, MIT, and Wisconsin have such women's groups. At Wisconsin, for example, Cheryl Grood started the group in 1996; the department provides support, and the group invites female mathematicians for colloquia and sponsors a seminar for graduate students to discuss their research.

AWM Office. The AWM office has been at the University of Maryland since 1993. Judy Green, AWM treasurer from 1992 to 1996, helped set up the present office and its operations; meetings, membership, and marketing director Dawn Wheeler joined the staff at that time and conducted a major membership drive. After having a succession of various individuals and titles for the second full-time staff person, AWM recently hired a finances and grants administrator, Doug Farquhar, to work with the AWM treasurer, currently Amy Cohen. Some of the office expenses to support programs and publications are partially funded by unrestricted grants from the Exxon Education Foundation. Committees of volunteers choose recipients for the SK Days, the Travel Grants, and the workshop slots. Historical material about AWM continues to be kept at the Wellesley College Library under the supervision of AWM archivists Alice Schafer and Bettye Anne Case.

Speakers Bureau. AWM also maintains a Speakers Bureau, a list of women in mathematics who are available to give talks to groups.

Networking Parties. Finally, AWM holds parties at meetings; these are large joyful occasions with many opportunities for informal networking.

As former president Chuu-Lian Terng said, “The list of AWM activities is impressive, but many people probably do not realize that to continue having these programs requires enormous effort by the small AWM staff and by many women mathematicians, writing proposals for funding, running the programs, and serving on various committees. During my term, I seemed to be constantly asking people to help AWM, and one of the most rewarding things about my job is that people would say yes and even seem honored to be asked. This says a lot about how our organization is perceived by the mathematical community.”

Footnotes.

1. This report, which was the center twelve pages of [ND97], is also available separately.
2. The guidelines for awards are the same as those for other NSF research awards, namely, the work must be in an area of mathematical research funded by NSF, and the applicant must be a U.S. resident .
3. This conference was funded by NSA, NSF, MSRI, and the Rosenbaum Foundation.

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