In April 2015, the London Mathematical Society's annual Women in Maths day
was expanded to four days as part of the LMS 150th Anniversary celebrations,
and was hosted by the Mathematical Institute in the Andrew Wiles Building.
The meeting was a huge success. About 430 school girls and teachers attended
the days for school students, which featured talks, hands-on workshops and a
mathematical treasure hunt around the building. A further 230 university
mathematicians and mathematical scientists (undergraduates, graduate
students, postdocs and faculty) attended the remaining two days, which
included plenary lectures, contributed talks by graduate students and
postdocs, posters by undergraduates and graduate students, panel
discussions, lots of opportunities for networking, and even mathematical
craft.
Participants from all four days brought small photos of themselves which
formed a collage showcasing the present and future of women in mathematics
in the UK. In addition, the school students (and indeed slightly
older mathematicians) were encouraged to write questions on post-it notes
that were addressed by other participants later in the week.
As one school student said, "Everyone else here likes maths!". Participants
from Thursday and Friday said "As an undergraduate you see how many
different possibilities you can get into... there’s so much variety", and "It’s
absolutely inspiring", and "the attendance speaks for itself – this is
easily one of the best attended meetings in the LMS calendar... it’s totally
wonderful."
For more information, including an albums of photos and a link to the
programme, please see
https://www.maths.ox.ac.uk/events/conferences/women-maths
The event was made possible thanks to sponsorship from the Oxford Vice
Chancellor's Diversity Fund, the London Mathematical Society, Oxford
University Press, Schlumberger, Jane Street, and the three Oxford
departments who organised the event (Mathematics, Statistics and Computer
Science).
Photos by Jennifer Balakrishnan and video filmed and edited by Mareli Augustyn.