We Can’t Ignore the Political

By Michael Pearson, MAA Executive Director Thomas Jefferson Memorial "I am not an advocate for frequent changes in laws and constitutions, but laws and institutions must go hand in hand with the progress of the human mind. As that becomes more developed, more enlightened, as new discoveries are made, new truths discovered and manners and...

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Building Your Mathematics Community for Non-Academics

By Zerotti Woods, Mathematician, The Johns Hopkins Applied Physics Laboratory Ok, let's set the scene. You're a freshly minted professional mathematician. You've graduated, those new letters “Ph.D.” have been officially added to your name, and you have a great job offer. Your job offer is not in academia, but that's ok because, recently, graduate programs...

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Seeing the Community Through the Forest (Dots)

By Russ Goodman, Professor of Mathematics, Central College, @CentralsProfG Twenty years ago, we were ready to take over the world! Our 2002 Project NExT cohort of Forest Dots were fresh, energetic, nervous, motivated, and eager to make its mark on the mathematical world. We were from diverse backgrounds and headed to a variety of institutions,...

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The COMmunities for Mathematics Inquiry in Teaching (COMMIT) Project

By Erin R. Moss, Co-Editor of DUE Point, Millersville University of Pennsylvania The COMmunities for Mathematics Inquiry in Teaching (COMMIT, formerly known as Inquiry-Based Learning Communities) Project supports local community building among university mathematics educators. The NSF grant provides funding to mathematics faculty interested in evidence-based inquiry teaching techniques. While the work of the original...

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Check Your Bias: Using Inclusive Selection Practices

By Jenna Carpenter, Dean and Professor of Engineering, Campbell University @jennapcarp; Betty Mayfield, Professor Emerita of Mathematics, Hood College; and Francis Su, Benediktsson-Karwa Professor of Mathematics, Harvey Mudd College @mathyawp Joint Mathematics Meetings 2020 Employment Center Suppose you and some colleagues are choosing an invited lecturer for your Mathematical Association of America (MAA) Section meeting....

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JEDI Warriors for Convergence Research in Mathematics

By Carrie Diaz Eaton I recently attended an Institute for Computational and Experimental Research in Mathematics (ICERM) Hot Topics Workshop on Mathematical and Computational Approaches to Social Justice Research co-organized by Veronica Ciocanel, Nancy Rodriguez, and Chad Higdon-Topaz. There was an amazing speaker line-up with superstars like Tawana Petty, of Data for Black Lives, and...

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The Pot of Gold at the End of the Rainbow — How Mathematics Departments Can Increase LGBTQ+ Inclusivity

By Joseph Nakao, Ph.D. Candidate at the University of Delaware Healthy mathematics departments frequently ask themselves, “Are our students happy?” Although it is a deceivingly simple question, the answer is difficult to discern. What exactly does it mean for a student to be ‘happy’? Personally, I believe it boils down to whether or not a...

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How the Ancient Greeks Constructed the World’s First Mechanical Computer

By Keith Devlin @profkeithdevlin The largest fragment of the 2,100-year-old Antikythera Mechanism, on display at the National Archaeological Museum in Athens, Greece. (Image: National Archaeological Museum, Athens, Greece) Researchers at University College London (UCL) have finally figured out the likely mechanism of the 2,000-year-old Antikythera device, arguably the world's first mechanical computer.  In 1900, Greek sponge...

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CBMS Survey of Departmental Responses to COVID

By: David Bressoud @dbressoud David Bressoud is DeWitt Wallace Professor Emeritus at Macalester College and Director of the Conference Board of the Mathematical Sciences Every five years, starting in 1965, the Conference Board of the Mathematical Sciences (CBMS) has surveyed mathematics departments across the United States to gather data on course offerings and enrollments. Every...

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Let’s Be Kind to Our Students

By Allison Henrich, Seattle University In the past month, I’ve had a student hospitalized for a panic attack, a student grieving the loss of a high school friend who took his own life, a student whose father is in a coma, a student who had a family member pass away after a battle with COVID,...

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