Special Events
| Parent Program: | -- |
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| Location: | SLMath: Online/Virtual |
The Celebration of Women in Mathematics on May 12 is part of an international initiative to inspire women everywhere to celebrate their achievements in mathematics, and to encourage an open, welcoming, and inclusive work environment for everybody. May 12 was chosen for this annual event, as it is the birthdate of Maryam Mirzakhani.
MSRI's event will include a short film about women in mathematics; clips from a film about Maryam Mirzakhani; a panel discussion; breakout rooms on the subjects of Math and Racial Justice, Balancing Family and Work, Imposter Syndrome, and the Impact of COVID-19; and a virtual social "tea".
Download an event flyer to share (PDF).
Wednesday, May 12, 2021
Schedule (All events will be held in US Pacific Time, please check your local timezone):
10:00am Introductions
10:05am Screening of Journeys of Women in Mathematics (created by the International Mathematical Union's Committee for Women in Mathematics and supported by the Simons Foundation)
- View video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tphQ0eRim4w
10:20am Clips from the film Secrets of the Surface: The Mathematical Vision of Maryam Mirzakhani
10:40am Panel Discussion (View panelist bios)
- Alicia Dickenstein (Universidad de Buenos Aires; Instituto de Investigaciones Matemáticas "Luis A. Santaló")
- Olubunmi A. Fadipe-Joseph (University of Ilorin) - Presentation Slides
- Suzanne L. Weekes (Society for Industrial and Applied Mathematics (SIAM); Worcester Polytechnic Institute)
- Maria G. Westdickenberg (RWTH Aachen University) - Presentation Slides
11:40am Break
12:00pm Breakout rooms on the following topics
- Mathematics and Racial Justice
- Conversations from Padlet
- Conversations from Jamboard
- Hosts:
- Ornella Mattei (San Francisco State University)
- Suzanne L. Weekes (Society for Industrial and Applied Mathematics (SIAM); Worcester Polytechnic Institute)
- Balancing Family and Work
- Conversations from Padlet
- Presentation Slides
- Hosts:
- Hajer Bahouri (Laboratoire Jacques-Louis Lions; Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique (CNRS))
- Colette Guillopé (Créteil University)
- Annalaura Stingo (MSRI)
- Olubunmi A. Fadipe-Joseph (University of Ilorin)
- Imposter Syndrome
- Conversations from Jamboard
- Presentation Slides
- Hosts:
- Julia Plavnik (Indiana University)
- Karina Batistelli (Universidad de Chile)
- Impact of COVID-19
- Presentation Slides
- Resource: Corona Crisis: Resources and Discussion
- Resource: Gendered COVID-19 Faculty Experiences
- Hosts:
- Hélène Barcelo (MSRI)
- Diane Maclagan (University of Warwick)
- Maria Westdickenberg (RWTH Aachen University)
12:45pm Social Interaction "Tea"
Event Organizers: Hélène Barcelo (Mathematical Sciences Research Institute), Hajer Bahouri (Laboratoire Jacques-Louis Lions; Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique (CNRS)), Mihaela Ifrim (University of Wisconsin-Madison), Ornella Mattei (San Francisco State University), Julia Plavnik (Indiana University)
Panelist Biographies:
Alicia Dickenstein (Universidad de Buenos Aires; Instituto de Investigaciones Matemáticas "Luis A. Santaló"; Principal Researcher, Consejo Nacional de Investigaciones Científicas y Técnicas (CONICET))
Alicia Dickenstein obtained her PhD in 1982 from the University of Buenos Aires, Argentina, where she has been a Full Professor since 2001. She has held invited positions at institutions in the United States, France, Sweden, Brazil, Norway, Greece, the United Kingdom, and Hong Kong. She has been a Simons Research Professor and an Eisenbud Research Professor at the Mathematical Sciences Research Institute (MSRI) and was a Simons Senior Research Associate at the Abdus Salam International Centre for Theoretical Physics (ICTP) from 2014-2019. Her research focuses on using algebraic geometry and combinatorics to predict behaviours of biological systems without knowing precise parameters. Dickenstein served as Vice President of the International Mathematical Union from 2015-2018, and was named a Fellow of the American Mathematical Society (AMS) in 2019 and a recipient of the The World Academy of Sciences (TWAS) Prize in Mathematics in 2015 and the L’Oréal-UNESCO For Women in Science Awards in 2021. She is a member-at-large of the Society for Industrial and Applied Mathematics (SIAM) Council. In addition to her research, she has been engaged in many mathematical outreach activities at the local, national and international levels.
Olubunmi A. Fadipe-Joseph (University of Ilorin)
Olubunmi Abidemi Fadipe-Joseph had B.Sc. Mathematics with First Class Honours from the University of Ibadan, Nigeria and earned PhD in Mathematics from the University of Ilorin, Nigeria, where she is currently an Associate Professor in the Department of Mathematics. Her research is in Complex Analysis with a specialty in Geometric Function Theory. She has more than 50 peer-reviewed articles and she contributes in teaching and supervision of both undergraduate and postgraduate students. Fadipe-Joseph was an associate of the Abdus Salam International Centre for Theoretical Physics (ICTP), Italy, from 2011 to 2016. She won grants at the National and International levels to conduct research and to attend conferences/workshops. She has attended many National and International conferences including International Congress of Mathematicians (ICM) and the World Meeting of Women in Mathematics (WM) 2 . She was a visiting research fellow at the Institute for Mathematical Sciences (part of the National University of Singapore); African Institute for Mathematical Sciences and Stellenbosch University, South Africa. Furthermore, she was a visiting lecturer, Institut De Mathematiques Et De Sciences Physiques, Universite D’Abomey-Calavi, Republic of Benin.
Olubunmi is a member of Council of the Nigerian Mathematical Society (NMS) and the Nigerian Women in Mathematics (NWM). She is the only appointed ambassador of the International Mathematical Union Committee for Women in Mathematics for Nigeria. She is the commissioner for the African Mathematical Union Committee for Women in Mathematics for West Africa. She is active in community outreach and promotion of mathematics to young people and women in Nigeria and other African nations. She is happily married with three children.
Suzanne L. Weekes (Society for Industrial and Applied Mathematics (SIAM); Worcester Polytechnic Institute)
Suzanne L. Weekes is the Executive Director of the Society for Industrial and Applied Mathematics (SIAM) and Professor of Mathematical Sciences at Worcester Polytechnic Institute (WPI), where she has also served as the Associate Head and as the Director of the Center for Industrial Mathematics and Statistics. She was born in Trinidad and Tobago and earned a PhD in Mathematics and Scientific Computing at the University of Michigan in Ann Arbor and did her post-doctoral work at Texas A&M University. Weekes’ research is in numerical methods for differential equations including applications to spatio-temporal composites and cancer growth. She is also focused on initiatives connecting the academic mathematics community to mathematics and statistics work in business, industry, and government, and is passionate about making the mathematical sciences accessible to the public. Weekes is the recipient of a 2020 Haimo Award for Distinguished College or University Teaching of Mathematics from the Mathematical Association of America (MAA), and the 2019 Humphreys Award for Mentoring from the Association for Women in Mathematics (AWM).
Dr. Weekes is one of the founding directors of the Mathematical Sciences Research Institute Undergraduate Program (MSRI-UP), a comprehensive, focused summer research program that is hosted by MSRI and which targets underrepresented groups in mathematics. She is also a founding co-director of the Preparation for Industrial Careers in Mathematical Sciences (PIC Math) program which trains and supports faculty to engage students in research on problems that come directly from industry.
Maria G. Westdickenberg (RWTH Aachen University)
Maria G. Westdickenberg is Professor of Mathematics at RWTH Aachen University in Germany. She received her PhD in Mathematics from New York University in 2004. She is a past recipient of the Presidential Early Career Award for Scientists and Engineers (PECASE), a Sloan Research Fellowship, and a National Science Foundation Faculty Early Career Development (CAREER) award. Her research interests include calculus of variations, nonlinear partial differential equations, and probability theory and stochastic processes.