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CWM News

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Katherine Johnson dies at age 101

Katherine Johnson, the American mathematician whose calculations of rocket trajectories were critical to the success of the first and subsequent U.S. crewed spaceflights and who is celebrated in the movie "Hidden Figures", has died at the age of 101. In 2017, the "Katherine G. Johnson Computational Research Facility" was named and dedicated in her honor. During the same year, The Washington Post described her as "the most high-profile of the computers". Here, "computers" refers to the many supremely capable, mostly female NASA mathematicians who performed complex manual calculation for the agency in the pursuit of space flight.

Following her death, NASA described Katherine Johnson as an "American hero" whose "pioneering legacy will never be forgotten".

CWM Call 2020

CWM invites proposals for funding of up to €3000 for activities or initiatives taking place in 2020, aimed at either (a) establishing or supporting networks for women in mathematics, preferably at the continental or regional level, and with priority given to networks in developing or emerging countries or (b) organizing a mathematical school open to all with all women speakers and mainly women organisers or (c) orgaizing research workshops geared towards establishing research networks for women by fostering research collaborations during the event or (d) other ideas for researching and/or addressing issues encountered by women in mathematics. The applications should be sent to applications-for-cwm@mathunion.org before Januray 15 2020. For more details see here.

World Women in Mathematics 2018

The book World Women in Mathematics 2018 (Proceedings of the First World Meeting for Women in Mathematics (WM)² , Vol. 20, C. Araujo, G. Benkart, C. Praeger, B. Tanbay (Eds.) was published at the end of 2019 in the Association for Women in Mathematics Series (Springer).

Presentation: The first World Meeting for Women in Mathematics - (WM)² - was a satellite event of the International Congress of Mathematicians (ICM) 2018 in Rio de Janeiro. With a focus on Latin America, the first (WM)² brought together mathematicians from all over the world to celebrate women mathematicians, and also to reflect on gender issues in mathematics, challenges, initiatives, and perspectives for the future. Its activities were complemented by a panel discussion organized by the Committee for Women in Mathematics (CWM) of the International Mathematical Union (IMU) inside the ICM 2018 entitled "The gender gap in mathematical and natural sciences from a historical perspective”.

This historical proceedings book, organized by CWM in coordination with the Association for Women in Mathematics, records the first (WM)² and the CWM panel discussion at ICM 2018. The first part of the volume includes a report of activities with pictures of the first (WM)² and a tribute to Maryam Mirzakhani, the first woman to be awarded the Fields medal. It also comprises survey research papers from invited lecturers, which provide panoramic views of different fields in pure and applied mathematics.  The second part of the book contains articles from the panelists of the CWM panel discussion, which consider the historical context of the gender gap in mathematics. It includes an analysis of women lecturers in the ICM since its inception.

This book is dedicated to the memory of Maryam Mirzakhani.

 

Marithania Silvero Casanova receives Vicent Caselles research prize for disproving a conjecture in knot theory

Spain

Marithania Silvero Casanova was not yet born when Louis Kauffman stated in 1983 the conjecture that established that two particular families of knots were equivalent. Silvero, born in Huelva in 1989, refuted the conjecture in 2015. Her finding has been recognized with the Vicent Caselles research prize, awarded by the Royal Spanish Mathematical Society and the BBVA Foundation.

See more here.

Secrets of the Surface: The Mathematical Vision of Maryam Mirzakhani

The Mathematical Sciences Research Institute (MSRI) and George Csicsery have started production of a one-hour documentary film, "Secrets of the Surface", about Maryam Mirzakhani. 

"The biographical film is about Maryam Mirzakhani, a brilliant woman, and Muslim immigrant to the United States who became a superstar in her field. The story of her life will be complemented with sections about Mirzakhani’s mathematical contributions, as explained by colleagues and illustrated with animated sequences. Throughout, we will look for clues about the sources of Mirzakhani’s insights and creativity."

The documentary is scheduled to premiere at the Joint Mathematics Meetings in Denver, Colorado, in January 2020.

Nominations for Maryam Mirzakhani Prize in Mathematics, 7 October 2019

In recognition of Dr. Mirzakhani’s remarkable life and achievements, the National Academy of Sciences has established a newly named Maryam Mirzakhani Prize in Mathematics (formerly the NAS Award in Mathematics, which was established in 1988 by the American Mathematical Society in honor of its centennial). The prize will be awarded biennially for exceptional contributions to the mathematical sciences by a mid-career mathematician. Nominations for the inaugural Mirzakhani Prize are due by October 7, 2019. For more information see here.