This is what a mathematician looks like

/ zibiana / Leave a comment

I don’t know how many of you have gotten bored like me and done a google image search of things like professor and mathematician, but it’s results weren’t very surprising for me.

In fact the results have actually improved since the last time I did this search! Last time “professor” had only yielded images of Einstein lookalikes.

It was exciting (and inspiring) to be at MAA Mathfest this past week and get to interact with many mathematicians who don’t fit the stereotype. If I were to be asked what a mathematician looks like, I have no idea what I would draw! Maybe myself, maybe any one of the friends I just made, there are so many people that become mathematicians!

bluedots mathfest

Junior faculty learning math and having fun.

 

Equally inspiring was the session at Mathfest on the journey of how many of the women mathematicians I admire arrived at where they are. One of my many takeaways from that session was that mentorship matters and that I should learn more about finding mentors for myself and being a good mentor for students that might one day follow in my footsteps.

Programs like EDGE and Math Alliance were instrumental in helping these folks get to where they are today as well as groups like SACNAS. I’m glad to have heard more about some of these groups so that I can share these opportunities with my students and others colleagues who could not make it out to Chicago.

 

 

Future Conferences

/ zibiana

Conferences I’ll be attending in the coming months:

  • MathFest 2026, I’m running an art and data thing in the exhibit hall I think!

Some recent past conferences I attended:

  • There were others! Wow, where does the time go…2 AIM conferences, 1 ICERM sprint, JMM 2026, NITMB Expanding the Palette….Maybe there were others?
  • ICERM Roots of Unity, June 10-14th 2024. This is a great conference for those underrepresented in math and in graduate school as it will help you form community as well as teach you practical skills. Find out more and sign up here! RI.
  • IMSI Co-Creating a Community Data Visualization Tool with Community Partners which will take place May 20 to 31, 2024, Chicago.
  • AIM Groups of Dynamical Origin June 3-7, 2024, CA.
  • MAA intermountain sectional March 29-30 2024, Salt Lake City, UT.
  • ICERM Data Science and Social Justice: Networks, Policy, and Education (Part II) June 19-July 29th 2023.
  • AWM Symposium Sept 30-Oct 2. Be on the look out for the Policy and Advocacy panel! (The room where it happens)
  • Virtual RNT IV 2023.
  • JMM 2023
  • SACNAS 2022
  • MathFest Aug 2022
  • AMS Western Sectional at University of Utah, Oct 22-23rd 2022.
  • JMM January 2022
  • AIM Sept 27-Oct 1 2021
  • Virtual: Rethinking Number theory (Oct 8-18th) 2020
  • Virtual: SACNAS (Oct 19-24th) 2020
  • JMM 2020
  • Summer at ICERM, REU, 2019.
  • REUF at ICERM, 2019
  • Women in Sage: Sage days 103, August 7-9th, St. Louis Missouri (organizer)
  • AMS Western Sectional March 2019, Honolulu, HI.
  • SACNAS October 2019, San Antonio, TX.
  • MathFest July 31-August 4, 2018, Denver, CO.
  • IAS Women and mathematics program, May 19-25th, 2018, Princeton, NJ.
  • SAGE days 94, June 29-July 4, 2018, Zaragoza, Spain.
  • Latinx in the Mathematical Sciences Conference March 8-10, 2018 (invited speaker).
  • JMM 2018, San Diego, CA.
  • Women in Sage: Sage days 90, October 2017, Claremont, CA (organizer).
  • WIN 4,  August 13-18, 2017,Banff, Alberta.
  • MathFest July 2017, Chicago, IL.
  • AWM Special Session on Women in Sage Math at the 2017 AWM Research Symposium at the University of California Los Angeles (UCLA) April 8 -9, 2017
  • JMM 2017, Atlanta, GA.
  • West Coast Number Theory Conference, Dec 16th-20th.