Institute For Advanced Study Hosts Mentoring Program For Women In Mathematics

Forty women mathematicians from across the country, including several from this area, will gather at the Institute for Advanced Study on May 15 for a 10-day residential Mentoring Program for Women in Mathematics. The program is for undergraduate students in mathematics, graduate students in mathematics – especially those who wish to explore the area where mathematics and physics meet – and postdoctoral researchers in the field. The emphasis is on mathematics learning and research, mentoring, peer relations, and an introduction to career opportunities.

The topic of this year's sessions is Quantum Field Theory, Supersymmetry, and Enumerative Geometry. Among the participants are Jaimika Patel, a student at St. Peter's College, Jersey City; Lillian Pierce and Julia Salzman, juniors at Princeton University; and Cynthia Rudin, a graduate student in Applied and Computational Mathematics at Princeton.

Princeton University mathematicians Ingrid Daubechies and Sun-Yung Alice Chang, Nancy Hingston of the College of New Jersey, and Robert MacPherson, professor in the Institute's School of Mathematics, are among the academics serving on the Organizing Committee. The program is under the direction of Karen Uhlenbeck of the University of Texas at Austin, a former visiting scholar at the Institute.

A variety of activities, formal and informal, are designed to encourage interaction among the groups as well as provide strong mathematics at all levels. Daily activities include: a lecture series for the undergraduate and graduate students; working problem sessions; and a Women-in-Science seminar. In addition, the more advanced participants are encouraged to provide review and problem sessions, interact with the local mathematics research community, and organize research seminars.

The Women's Mentoring Program is funded in part by grants from Merrill Lynch & Co. and Mr. William Schreyer.

The program also prepares participants for the Institute for Advanced Study/Park City Mathematics Institute (IAS/PCMI) to be held July 8-28 in Park City, Utah. The research topic of Quantum Field Theory, Supersymmetry, and Enumerative Geometry will be the theme of IAS/PCMI as well. The IAS/PCMI is a national program run by the Institute for Advanced Study. Now in its 11th year, IAS/PCMI brings together high school teachers, undergraduate and graduate students, undergraduate faculty, and researchers in mathematics and mathematics education, in a setting where education at all levels is the primary concern.

For more information on the Women's Mentoring Program and the Park City Mathematics Institute, go to http://www.ias.edu/parkcity.