The Mathematical Association of America (MAA) is the largest mathematical society in the world that focuses on mathematics for students, faculty, professional mathematicians, and all who are interested in the mathematical sciences; that is, mathematics at the undergraduate level. Our members include university, college, and high school teachers; high school, undergraduate and graduate students; and others in academia, government, business, and industry. Our core interests are Education, Research, Professional Development, Public Policy, and Public Appreciation. The student web pages cover topics in academics, careers, research/summer opportunities, meetings for students, and more. If you are not yet a member, we urge you to consider joining and ask you to visit our membership page. As a member, you can help the MAA fulfill our goals to benefit you, the student.
MATHFEST 2008 NEWS - Abstracts and Travel Grant Information
GRADUATE STUDENT POSTER SESSION
James Freeman, Cornell College
Thursday July 31, 3:30 p.m. – 5:00 p.m.
Graduate students are invited by MAA Committee on Graduate Students and The Young Mathematicians Network to submit abstracts for the session. The poster size will be 48" (length) by 36" (height). Posters and materials for posting pages on the posters will be provided on-site. Some funding to cover transportation costs (up to $600) for poster authors is available. At most one graduate student will be funded per poster and funded presenters are expected to take full part in the meeting. Up to 3 posters will receive an award ($150) for excellence. Abstract may be submitted through www.maa.org/abstracts. Requests for funding can be made at that time at this site after the abstract has been submitted. Abstracts submitted by Friday, May 16, will be given precedence in considering applications for travel support. Abstracts must be submitted by Friday, June 13, 2008. Questions on this session can be directed to James Freedman jfreeman@cornellcollege.edu.
GRADUATE STUDENT PAPER SESSION
James Freeman, Cornell College
Saturday, 1:00 p.m. – 3:00 p.m. and 3:15 p.m. – 5:15 p.m.
This session is aimed at graduate students who are ready to enter the job market within the year. The majority of academic jobs available to mathematicians involve teaching undergraduate students. Many of the interviews for these jobs require a presentation to be made to undergraduates, yet most graduate students have not had the opportunity to give these types of presentations. This session gives graduate students the opportunity to give a 20 minute expository talk aimed at post calculus undergraduate students. These talks should excite undergraduates about mathematics. At the end of the session, there will be a short discussion about how to give an effective expository talk to undergraduates. In addition, an experienced faculty member will meet with each presenter privately after the session to give further feedback to the presenter. Abstracts and requests for travel support can be submitted by using the MAA abstract submission site at www.maa.org/abstracts. Requests for funding can be made at that time at this site after the abstract has been submitted. Abstracts submitted by Friday, May 16, will be given precedence in considering applications for travel support. Final deadline for student abstracts submission is Friday, June 13. Questions on this session can be directed to James Freedman jfreeman@cornellcollege.edu. The session is sponsored by the MAA Committee on Graduate Students, co-sponsored by The Young Mathematicians Network.
Attention! The new Spring 2008 MAA Graduate Newsletter is now available here.
Featured in this issue:
A PhD in mathematics usually brings to mind a career teaching at a university. While this is true, there are a lot more opportunities available. Operations researcher, statistician, cryptanalyst, and more are available. A good presentation on finding an industry job is here. For advice on both non-academic and academic jobs go to this site run by the AMS.
This past January, at the Joint Mathematical Meetings in San Diego, CA the MAA and AMS hosted a Graduate School Fair. Representatives from almost 50 graduate programs around North America were there to talk about what their programs have to offer. Well over 300 students came to find information and learn what different schools had to offer. It was a rousing success. Look for it again in Washington, DC in 2009.
If you are already in graduate school, then this is your section.
Teaching assistantships are an integral part of many a graduate student's education. It's an important job and there are many web resources to help you do your best. This link will take you to the Handbook for Mathematics Teaching Assistants by Tom Rishel of Cornell University. Bonnie Gold, from Monmouth University is the editor of the Innovative Teaching Exchange, containing a collection of novel teaching experiences. The Mathematics Digital Library is a vast resource of articles for teachers and students. After graduation, interested young professors should apply for the MAA's wildly successful Project NExT and join the Young Mathematicians Network.
Meetings have always been a large part of academic life. Now students can get involved early in their undergraduate careers and continue to be active in thier post-graduate career. Both the MAA and the AMS have small conference held throughout North America. The MAA Sectional Meetings are especially good for PhD students working on their "job search talk". The larger meetings are the Joint Mathematics Meeting and MathFest. The JMM has plenty of sessions at which to speak or listen, along with panel discussion, job help, and social events. MathFest hosts a Graduate Student Poster Session. This is the ideal presentation venue for Master's degree students.
There are a lot of ways to become an active and influential member of the mathematical culture. There are research opportunities while in school, summer programs, and post-graduation activities. Consider these:
Plenty of jobs are out there for people with degrees in mathematics. If you have a PhD and wish to go into academics, the Chronicle of Higher Education and the AMS (using EIMS) have sites for you. If you want to go into industry (with any degree) then the Employment Opportunities page of the MAA is tailored for your needs. This site (coming soon) will let you post your resume and seek employers, while at the same time businesses can hunt through the postings to find you.
For many academics, teaching and research alone will not earn you the tenure and promotion for which you're looking. The new phrase is "Continued Scholarly Growth" or "Scholarly Engagement". These include items such as development of experimental programs, papers delivered at national and regional meetings of professional societies, offices held in professionial organizations, participation in panels at meetings of professional organizations, and editorships of professional journals. The MAA is a place to become involved in so many of these acitivities. At the Sectional level you can be an officer, helping to organize or even host meetings. On the national level we publish several journals that you can become involved with, we have almost a dozen special interest groups (SIGMAAs) you can join, and we rely on well over 100 different committees you can be on to help us run the MAA.