Conference: 2023 Texas Women in Math Symposium at the University of Texas at Austin.

University Of Texas At Austin, Austin TX

Investigators

Abstract

This NSF award provides support for Texas Women in Math Symposium (TWIMS) at the University of Texas at Austin on March 4-5, 2023. The TWIMS is a conference series that takes place at a different institution in Texas each academic year. The ongoing goals of the TWIMS conference series are to highlight the research and professional accomplishments of outstanding, established female mathematicians, to provide a supportive platform for early career women mathematicians to showcase their research, to facilitate connections among Texas-based mathematicians that lead to long-lasting professional relationships, and to provide an inclusive environment to discuss issues facing those of gender minorities (ie. women, nonbinary, gender non-conforming, etc.) in mathematics. The conference is open to participants and presenters in any subfield of the mathematical sciences and will foster cross-disciplinary collaborations and mentorship opportunities among a diverse group of mathematicians of minority genders. In this way, TWIMS 2023 will contribute to the advancement of mathematical research and will encourage early career researchers to continue to work in the mathematical sciences. The inclusion of individuals from dissimilar backgrounds leads to the advancement of research. Increasing the number of people interested in pursuing math research and diversifying the backgrounds of researchers increases the number of perspectives from which any math problem is considered. This is key to the advancement of the field as a whole. At each career stage we see attrition of women in mathematics at rates disproportionately higher than those of men. In order to increase retention of women at every career stage, the institutional barriers preventing individuals from reaching their full potential need to be removed. Some of these barriers include the prevalence of negative societal gender stereotypes, lack of diverse representation and role models, and lack of encouragement from teachers and mentors. TWIMS aims to address these problems directly with the explicit goal of contributing to the retention of gender minorities in math at every career stage. To this end, the symposium will showcase the research of a diverse array of distinguished invited speakers to provide examples of successful women in math who can be role-models to younger mathematicians or women at an earlier stage in their careers. In addition TWIMS 2023 includes two professional development workshops aimed at improving the participation and presence of our participants in the mathematical community. The conference website is https://sites.google.com/utexas.edu/twims-2023. 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.