2018 Field of Dreams Conference

Purdue University, West Lafayette IN

Investigators

Abstract

This award will partially support the 2018 Field of Dreams Conference, to be held at the Renaissance St. Louis Airport Hotel, in St. Louis, MO, from November 2-4, 2018. The Field of Drams Conference is organized by the National Alliance for Doctoral Studies in the Mathematical Sciences (Math Alliance), an organization whose goal is to increase the number of students from backgrounds underrepresented in the mathematical sciences who earn doctorates in those fields. Approximately 200 students will attend the conference, and about 75% of those will be underrepresented minorities. The conference coordinates with the Alliance's Facilitated Graduate Admissions Process (F-GAP), which has helped place approximately 70 Alliance Scholars in graduate programs each of the last five years with very good retention to this point. So, the conference is an essential part of a program to produce a more diverse professional mathematical workforce. In addition, there are events at the conference which assist faculty in mentoring practices and help academic departments transform their cultures to be more supportive of student success. The Field of Dreams conference has several purposes, including: providing information about all aspects of the mathematical sciences professions to students wishing to pursue doctoral studies; providing information about summer research programs and opportunities at the NSF-funded Mathematical Sciences Institutes; facilitating appropriate placement of Alliance students in graduate programs; providing professional development in mentoring and cultural competence for our Alliance faculty; and serving as a clearinghouse for employment opportunities for new Alliance doctoral recipients. More information about the alliance is available at www.mathalliance.org. The 2018 Field of Dreams Conference program, and material from previous years' conferences, are available at https://mathalliance.org/field-of-dreams-conference/. This award reflects NSF's statutory mission and has been deemed worthy of support through evaluation using the Foundation's intellectual merit and broader impacts review criteria.