WIMSIG NEWSLETTER — July 2022

Mathematics Olympiad Team ready to compete

Thirty one of Australia’s brightest high school scientists and mathematicians have won selection to represent Australia at the UNESCO-sanctioned International Science, Informatics and Mathematical Olympiads – the world’s toughest maths and science competitions for teenagers. They will compete against more than 2,000 of the world’s brightest students. 

The young Olympians received their Australian team blazers, and heard from the Minister for Industry and Science, Ed Husic, and Chief Scientist, Dr Cathy Foley, at an official team announcement ceremony at Parliament House in Canberra on Monday 20 June.

This year’s teams include Australia’s first student to achieve the top overall score at the Asian Physics Olympiad, who beat more than 200 competitors from 28 countries, and a Year 8 student from Melbourne who has outperformed senior high school students to represent Australia in mathematics. Grace Chang Yuan, a Year 12 student from Methodist Ladies’ College in Victoria, has also been chosen for the International Mathematical Olympiad (IMO) after scoring a gold medal and ranking sixth in the world in the European Girls Mathematical Olympiad held earlier this year.    

Year 8 mathematics team member, William Cheah from Melbourne’s Scotch College, is the youngest member of the IMO team and has been in the Australian Maths Trust’s Olympiad training program since he was in Year 5. He sat the Year 7 level of the Australian Mathematics Competition when he was in Year 4, receiving a gold medal. 

“It is an exciting opportunity to represent Australia at the IMO, and I look forward to meeting inspiring students from around the world”, William said. 

The mathematics team will travel to compete in the IMO in Norway — the first time a team has travelled internationally since the challenges of the COVID-19 pandemic. The science and informatics Olympians will compete in online exams and challenges supervised at approved competition venues in Australia.  

Mirzakhani Awardee

Maud El-Hachem, Postdoctoral fellow at CSIRO and 2021 awardee of the WIMSIG Maryam Mirzakhani Award, will deliver her invited ECR speech at the 2022 NSW ANZIAM mid-year virtual conference on July 5. More information about the conference can be found at https://austms.org.au/event/nsw-anziam-2022/.

Women of Significance?

Karen Lamb (Melbourne) and Jessica Kasza (Monash), together with fellow women in mathematics, statistics and data science in Australia, published an article ‘Women of Significance?’ examining the gender balance in articles published in the June edition of the statistical magazine Significance. The study found that, although things seemed to be improving in the past year, only approximately a quarter of all published articles included any woman as an author.

As a new member of the Significance Editorial Board representing the Statistical Society of Australia (who partnered with the magazine in 2021), Karen Lamb is pushing to have more diversity in articles in the magazine and would like to encourage WIMSIG subscribers with interesting data stories to consider submitting an article. Membership of a statistical organisation is not required for submission. Further details about the magazine can be found here  and submissions can be sent to significance@rss.org.uk.

EVENTS

inSTEM Conference 2022

The inSTEM Conference 2022 is taking place on July 20–21, both online and in-person at the University of Queensland Women’s College. It is a networking and career development conference for early-to-mid-career researchers from marginalised or under-represented groups in STEM, and their allies. Attendees will also have the opportunity to hear from leading experts on topics and strategies that support career development and progression. We will also discuss how to create change that improves access, supports retention, and champions success in STEM for individuals from marginalised or underrepresented groups.

The conference has been organised by the ARC Centre of Excellence for Engineered Quantum System in conjunction with a number of other STEM-focussed ARC Centres of Excellence.

Registrations for this event is now open and can be accessed along with information about the event at www.instem.io.

OPPORTUNITIES

Australian National University

University of South Australia

Get involved in WIMSIG!

We are looking for WIMSIG members who would like to get more involved in some of our activities. Here are some ways you could contribute to WIMSIG’s goals of supporting women, trans and gender diverse people in the mathematical sciences in Australia:

  • WIMSIG Treasurer (from January 2023)
  • WIMSIG Newsletter Editor (from January 2023)
  • Ordinary Member of the WIMSIG Executive Committee (from January 2023)
  • Member of the Selection Committee, which decides on outcomes for the WIMSIG Cheryl E. Praeger Travel Award, the WIMSIG Anne Penfold Street Award and the AustMS-WIMSIG Maryam Mirzakhani Award (from mid-2022 or later)
  • Member of the WIMSIG Mentoring Committee, which runs the WIMSIG Mentoring Scheme (from January 2023)

If you are interested in any of these roles, or would like more information, please email WIMSIG Chair, Catherine Greenhill (WIMSIG-chair@austms.org.au).  Even if you’re just curious about possibly doing any of these roles in the future, we would love to hear from you. 

The Sydney Mathematical Research Institute (SMRI) International Visitor Program

IVP2022 Round 2 applications are now open. Researchers in the mathematical sciences from international and Australian universities who wish to do research at SMRI, either individually or as part of a group of collaborators, are warmly invited to apply.

This round is for visits taking place between July 2023–June 2024 for general applicants, and March 2023–June 2024 for Australian citizens/permanent residents and New Zealand citizens.

Applications will close on Tuesday 9 August 2022 (11:59pm AEST).

Applications with the information requested in the terms and conditions can be made through the webform found on the IVP webpage.

Applications from female and gender-diverse researchers, researchers employed in developing countries and/or researchers belonging to other groups which are under-represented in the mathematical sciences, are particularly encouraged.

MEDIA

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.

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