WIMSIG NEWSLETTER — November 2022

WIMSIG Executive Committee Call for Nominations

At the end of 2022, WIMSIG will be electing two new members for the Executive Committee, to commence terms in February 2023. The positions that will be open and the length of term are as follows.

  • Treasurer — 2 year term
  • 2 x Ordinary Member — 2 year term
  • Student Member — 1 year term

If you are interested in the opportunity to lead the drive for gender equity in Australian Mathematics, please consider nominating for a position by November 30.  If you have any questions about these roles, please contact the WIMSIG Chair, Catherine Greenhill (wimsig-chair@austms.org.au).

The Returning Officer is Cecilia González Tokman (cecilia.gt@uq.edu.au).

Usually a nominee acts as nominator (self-nomination) and needs another nominator to support their nomination.  Both nominee and nominator should be WIMSIG members. The nominee should email the Returning Officer with the following information: the nominee’s name, the name and email address of the nominator, the role, and a statement from the nominee on why they would like to take on that role. This statement will be sent out to the WIMSIG membership list should there be an election. The nominator will be contacted by the Returning Officer directly.

EVENTS

Annual WIMSIG Business Meeting and Dinner 

The annual WIMSIG Dinner will be held (in person) on Monday 5 December as part of the 66th Annual Meeting of the Australian Mathematical Society at UNSW Sydney. The WIMSIG Dinner is free to all participants of the AustMS meeting, regardless of gender or membership of WIMSIG. The purpose of the dinner is to support women, trans and gender diverse people, and particularly early career researchers, to enter and establish careers in mathematics. Come along to hear about the careers of the AustMS 2022 women plenary speakers, to discuss issues concerning women, trans and gender diverse people in mathematics in Australia, and to network with fellow WIMSIG members and supporters. 

The annual WIMSIG Business Meeting will also be held on Monday 5 December, prior to the WIMSIG Dinner. As with the Dinner, anyone interested in WIMSIG activities is welcome to attend the Business Meeting.  

OPPORTUNITIES

The University of Queensland (UQ)

Australian National University (ANU)

The Mathematical Science Institute (MSI) at the ANU will shortly be advertising several postdoctoral positions across all areas of mathematics.  Please keep an eye on MathJobs and ANU Recruit over the next few weeks, or feel free to contact ea.msi@anu.edu.au if you’d like to be emailed when the positions open.

IMU Committee for Women in Mathematics (CWM) 

CWM Call 2023 was launched on October 20. In the call, CWM invites proposals for funding of up to €3000 for activities or initiatives taking place in 2023, aimed at either (a) establishing or supporting networks for women in mathematics, preferably at the continental or regional level, and with priority given to networks in developing or emerging countries, (b) organising research workshop geared towards establishing research networks for women by fostering research collaborations during the event, or (c) other relevant initiatives.

The deadline for applications is Friday 23 December, 2022. 

Applications should be sent to applications-for-cwm@mathunion.org. Successful applicants will be informed of the outcome no later than Tuesday 31 January, 2023.

Auckland Bioengineering Institute (New Zealand)

Two PhD Scholarships in Mathematical Biology

For more information, contact Dr Claire Miller via email (miller.c@unimelb.edu.au).

University of Virginia (USA)

University of Virginia (UVa) is currently working to improve representation of women and students from other groups traditionally underrepresented in mathematics. The UVa graduate program offers full support to PhD students, with paid tuition and fees as well as a living stipend through a modest teaching assistantship. For more information, please visit https://math.virginia.edu/graduate/.

MEDIA

  • Ending racism is key to better science: a message from Nature’s guest editors — In 1768, the UK Royal Society commissioned a research ship, HMS Endeavour, to sail to Tahiti in time to witness a transit of Venus across the Sun. But, as researchers later discovered, the UK government and the society had an extra purpose for the voyage: the ship’s captain, James Cook, had been given secret instructions to continue onwards in what became Britain’s colonial takeover of Australia and New Zealand.

  • Too much data collection means we’re more at risk of having personal details stolen, expert says — Prof Asha Rao, Associate Dean of Mathematical Sciences at RMIT University, says Australia needs new laws to prohibit companies from engaging in unnecessary data harvesting. She says we also need “severe penalties” for companies that fail to protect customer data, similar to penalties for violations of money laundering and counter-terrorism financing laws. Asha Rao was the inaugural WIMSIG Chair. 

Have you read an interesting article? Have some news? Have an opportunity available?

Please send items to WIMSIG-news@austms.org.au.

Note: Newsletters are published on the 1st day of each month (or soon after). The deadline for submitted items is the 27th day of each month.

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