MathFest 2012

The annual summer meeting of the Mathematical Association of America is the premier summertime event in mathematics. The meeting offers a substantial mathematical program that promises to be informative, inspiring, and productive.

MathFest 2011 Recap

Every MAA MathFest has its own special flavor. This summer’s edition in Lexington, Kentucky, was no exception, and the host city made it clear that horses and history matter, in hotel décor, public art, street names, local gift shops, prime tourist attractions, and more. For many of the 1,400 attendees, however, the signature event of this MathFest was MAA: The Musical, the rollicking production by an all-star cast of mathematicians that concluded the opening banquet.

About 1,400 mathematicians attended the meeting, held mainly at the Lexington Convention Center. Some even had a chance to test their problem-solving skills (and sense of direction) navigating the pedestrian bridges and passages linking the two conference hotels to the center, as they maneuvered from lecture to poster session to committee meeting to panel discussion to minicourse, all the while allowing time for conversation and reminiscence with colleagues past and present.

The invited speakers drew large, appreciative crowds. Manjul Bhargava (Princeton University) delivered the Earle Raymond Hedrick Lecture Series, speaking on “The World of Algebraic Curves (and the Special Role That Elliptic Curves Play).” His first lecture was about algebraic curves, and that happened to be the topic of Keith Kendig’s new MAA book, A Guide to Plane Algebraic Curves. The book promptly sold out at the MAA booth in the exhibit hall.

Students weren’t neglected. In his masterful invited address on recent work in number theory, Ed Burger (Williams College) wowed the crowd at the end by dramatically revealing that the new results he presented had been discovered by undergraduate students in his 2010 summer research program. In her Pi Mu Epsilon J. Sutherland Frame Lecture, Margaret Wright (Courant Institute) vividly described to students the value of mathematics in settings such as Home Depot.

Alongside the lectures and paper presentations, participants could also share in the excitement of a Math Jeopardy contest or, for the first time at MathFest, a backgammon tournament. Saturday morning, they could relax and join a yoga session or wander the local farmer’s market, just a few blocks away.

At the accompanying business meeting, the MAA Board of Governors confirmed Michael Pearson as the successor to Executive Director Tina Straley after she retires at the end of this year. The board also designated Jim Daniel to succeed John Kenelly as MAA Treasurer, beginning in February 2012.

One striking aspect of this year’s MathFest was the way in which smart phones, iPads, laptops, and other technology have changed the meeting. The message boards were practically empty. Many attendees took notes on their iPads or recorded noteworthy moments on their iPhones. There was no bank of computers available for checking email. Instead, there was free wifi in the exhibit area and elsewhere. The hotel business centers offered free computer access, but they were seldom busy. And many speakers took advantage of new display technologies to make their points. It’s a different world from just a short time ago.

The meeting ended with the Silver and Gold Banquet, honoring those who have been members of the association for 25 or more years. Joe Gallian (University of Minnesota-Duluth) spoke about the choice of broadly appealing themes (particularly art in 2003 and sports in 2010) that lent themselves to striking posters of wide interest.

But it was the MAA Players who set the tone for the meeting early on when they presented their lively song-and-dance tribute to the MAA and its history and its many current activities.

MathFest by the Numbers

How big is MathFest? Last year, 1,535 members of the mathematics community participated in four days of workshops, professional networking, and events. 250 students presented at undergraduate paper sessions.

For MathFest 2011, we have a jam-packed schedule, including:

Additional Resources

Watch a slideshow of MAA MathFest 2011 here.
Did you take photos at MAA MathFest 2011? Add them to our Flickr public group!

Watch The National Association of Math Circles' MathFest 2011 demonstrations

Listen to MAA: The Musical!
Scene 1 - Meetings
Scene 2 - Journals and Books featuring "An Editor am I" (Movie)
Scene 3 - Professional Development featuring "Summer Meetings"
Scene 4 - Governance featuring "Tina Straley"
Scene 5 - Math featuring "One!"
Encore - The MAA Anthem

Take a look at what people were saying about the 2011 MAA MathFest on Twitter.