WIMSIG NEWSLETTER — October 2021

WIMSIG Executive Committee Call for Nominations

At the end of 2021, WIMSIG will be electing two new members for the Executive Committee, to commence terms in February 2022. The positions that will be open and the length of term are as follows.

  • Incoming Chair — 4yr term (one year as Incoming Chair, two as Chair, one as outgoing Chair)
  • Student Member — 1yr 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.

The current Chair, Catherine Greenhill (c.greenhill@unsw.edu.au) is happy to answer any questions you may have about the role of Chair. The current student representative, Ellena Moskovsky (ellena.moskovsky1@monash.edu) is happy to answer any questions you may have about the Student role.

The Returning Officer is Emma Carberry (emma.carberry@sydney.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.

Initiatives for Gender Equality and Diversity

Kyoto University (Japan) has created some initiatives for gender equality and diversity. You may like to look at these initiatives to see what could be adapted for your own organisation.

EVENTS

Annual WIMSIG Business Meeting and Dinner

The annual WIMSIG Dinner will be held on Monday 6 December as part of the 65th Annual Meeting of the Australian Mathematical Society at The University of Newcastle. While the AustMS meeting will primarily be held online, the WIMSIG Dinner is planned as a hybrid event, with some people attending in person and some online.  

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 (in person or virtually!) to hear about the careers of the AustMS 2021 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 6 December, prior to the WIMSIG Dinner. As with the Dinner, anyone interested in WIMSIG activities is welcome to attend the Business Meeting. This is also planned as a hybrid event at this stage.

Rare Bites: Enchantress of Numbers

Thursday 7 October at 4-5pm (AEDT)

Prof Nalini Joshi will introduce us to Ada Lovelace and discuss Ada’s algorithm to calculate the Bernoulli numbers, considered to be the first computer program. Charles Babbage acknowledged Ada Lovelace’s mathematical ability, calling her the “Enchantress of Number”.

The 30-minute talk will be followed with a 25-minute Q&A session with Nalini.

Register at https://usyd.libcal.com/event/5401065.

ACEMS Public Lecture

Tuesday 12 October at 11am (AEDT)

Optimal decision making: a tribute to female ingenuity
Prof Kate Smith-Miles & Alison Harcourt AO
https://acems.org.au/acems-public-lecture-series

OPPORTUNITIES

Opportunity to join the Australian Academy of Science EMCR Forum Executive

The Australian Academy of Science EMCR Forum is currently accepting expressions of interest from early and mid career researchers (EMCRs) to join the Executive Committee in 2022. All EMCRs are eligible to apply (given less than 15 years’ experience working in science since PhD award, career interruptions will be taken into consideration), but preference may be given to those who represent regional locations, fields of expertise, diversity attributes and career levels that are underrepresented or not currently represented on the Forum Executive.

For this round, the EMCR Forum Executive strongly encourages applications from EMCRs who:

  • Work in industry, government, CSIRO and other non-traditional research backgrounds  
  • Identify as Aboriginal and/or Torres Strait Islander
  • Work in regional areas
  • Identify as non-binary or gender non-conforming

The Forum Executive has a strong commitment to diversity, equity and inclusion and will select new members in accordance with these principles.

To apply, complete the EOI form at the following link:

https://docs.google.com/forms/d/e/1FAIpQLSe8SnRI53BzCAjx1MuCWZEQ-KWPKebJ3FisUoVy2cGve8Hkzg/viewform

Australian Catholic University (Brisbane)

The University of Newcastle

African Institute for Mathematical Sciences (South Africa)

  • Executive Director (5yr term, renewable for a second term)
    — Closing date: Monday 1 November, 2021

The University of Melbourne

MEDIA

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

Please send items to WIMSIG-news@women.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.

To keep in touch in between newsletters, follow @wimsigAU on Twitter.