Women and Mathematics

WAM News

  • WAM is most grateful for renewed funding from the NSF as well as a generous grant from Charles and Lisa Simonyi, which will enable WAM to enact many new initiatives to continue its mission to recruit and retain more women in mathematics.  Please check out the 2016 Yearbook and 2017 Yearbook.

  • NEW 2018 Ambassador Program - for more information please see http://www.math.ias.edu/wam/about/ambassador

  • Support for the 2017 Women and Mathematics program is provided by a grant from the Schwab Charitable Fund made possible by the generosity of Eric and Wendy Schmidt.

  • Congratulations to Wei Ho (BG 2005; AG 2006, 2008; TA 2007; LE 2015) and Chelsea Walton (BG 2006, 2007) on winning the 2017 Sloan Research Fellowships.  The Sloan Research Fellowships seek to stimulate fundamental research by early-career scientists and scholars of outstanding promise. They are awarded in recognition of distinguished performance  and a unique potential to make substantial contributions to their field.

  • Congratulations to Yuliya Nesterov (BG 2015), a finalist in the Canadian National Sciences and Engineering Research Council (NSERC)'s contest for students to describe their research accessibly to the public in a 1-minute video.  Of the 40 Canada-wide finalists, Yuliya was the only pure mathematician to advance as a finalist.  Yuliya's video, Lives of Shapes in Space is based on her master's thesis, greatly helped by her experiences in the 2015 WAM program on Aspects of Algebraic Geometry.  The video demonstrates the enthusiasm and adventure of mathematical research.  

  • In Summer 2017, six WAM alumnae will return to IAS as researchers in the inaugural Summer Collaborators Program. They are Ana-Maria Brecan (PD 2015), Laure Flapan (PD 2015), Alessia Mandini (AG 2007), Elizabeth Milicevic (BG 2007; LE 2015); Ana Pires (BG 2007, TA 2016), and Kaisa Taipale (PD 2015). 

  • In 2017-2018, IAS welcomes back WAM alumnae Helen Wong (PD 2008) as a Member; and Ana Caraiani (TA 2010) and Lillian Pierce (UG 2001, 2002; AG 2006; PD 2014) as Von Neumann Fellows.

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About WAM

Since 1994, with the support of the National Science Foundation and Princeton University, the Institute has hosted an intensive 11-day mentoring program for undergraduate and graduate women in mathematics.

To recruit and retain more women in mathematics, the program brings together research mathematicians, undergraduate, and graduate students on the Institute campus in Princeton, New Jersey.  Activities include lectures and seminars on a focused mathematical topic, discussions on peer relations, mentoring, computer workshop, introduction to career opportunities, and a women in science seminar.  Below is a partial list of WAM alumnae distinctions.

  • Undergraduate Distinctions:

    • 12 out of 31 Alice Schafer Prize Winners

    • 3 out of 3 female Putnam Fellows

    • 6 out of 11 Elizabeth Lowell Putnam Award Winners

    • 2 out of 3 female Morgan Prize Winners

  • Graduate Distinctions:

    • 47 out of 248 female NSF graduate fellows

    • 14 out of 45 female National Defense Science and Engineering Graduate fellows

    • 4 out of 19 female Churchill Scholars

    • 2 out of 4 female Gates Cambridge Scholars

  • Post-Doctorate Distinctions:

    • 26 out of 99 female NSF postdoctoral fellows

    • 20 out of 64 female Sloan fellows

    • 1 out of 4 female AMS Centennial fellows

    • 2 out of 3 female American Institute of Mathematics fellows

    • 2 out of 3 female Clay research fellows

    • 1 out of 2 female Clay research award winners

  • Further Distinctions:

    • 21 out of 103 female ICM invited speakers since 1990

    • 6 out of 11 female ICM plenary speakers

    • 8 out of 19 female Guggenheim fellows

    • 3 out of 5 female MacArthur fellows

    • 4 out of 5 female National Academy of Science members

    • 9 out of 15 female American Academy of Arts and Sciences members

    • 4 out of 5 female American Philosophical Society members