Joint Mathematics Meetings 2012

Monday, January 23, 2012

Four Westminster College mathematics professors and one faculty emerita member recently attended the Joint Mathematics Meetings, the annual conference of the American Mathematical Society (AMS) and the Mathematical Association of America (MAA), the two largest mathematical professional organizations in the country.  This year's conference, held in Boston, MA  from January 4-7 had a record attendance of over 7,200 mathematicians.

Dr. Jeffrey Boerner gave a research presentation entitled "The sl(3) Skein Module" in an AMS session on topology.  Dr. Boerner also served as a judge for the MAA Undergraduate Student Poster Session and attended Project NExT activities.

Dr. Carolyn Cuff was invited to lead a four-hour minicourse entitled "Teaching Introductory Statistics."  Designed for instructors who are new to teaching introductory statistics, this workshop exposed the participants to statistical concepts, assessment techniques, and classroom materials.  Dr. Cuff also attended an officers meeting as an appointed member of the MAA's "Committee for SIGMAAs," a committee charged with overseeing the special interest groups within the MAA.

Dr. David Offner gave a research presentation,"Cops and Robber on the Hypercube," in an MAA session on graph theory.  Dr. Offner also served as a judge for the MAA Undergraduate Student Poster Session and attended Project NExT activities.

Dr. Pamela Richardson served as a mentor in a day-long Graduate Education Mentoring workshop for female mathematics graduate students.  Dr. Richardson also attended meetings and performed duties as a member of the MAA's "Committee on Undergraduate Student Activities and Chapters."  In particular, Dr. Richardson helped to run the MAA Undergraduate Student Poster Session, an event that included nearly 500 undergraduate research participants.

Dr. Barbara Faires, faculty emerita, prepared scripts, agendas, and citations for many sessions of the Joint Meetings and ran meetings of various MAA groups in her role as secretary of the Mathematical Association of America