Lunch in the Time of Covid

To open up more communication lines regarding issues mathematicians face during the pandemic, Vance Blankers, Kristin DeVleming, Kim Klinger-Logan, Manami Roy and I are hosting a series of lunch and discussion panel events which began on Thursday, June 4, 2020. You can find details of past and upcoming topics below. If you are interested in hosting a future lunch, helping to organize this series, becoming a future panelist, or if you have any feedback/suggestions/wisdom, please email any of the organizers! We want these events to be community-oriented and to start conversations, not finish them.

We aim for these discussions to be informal - bring your lunch! - and would like to emphasize the experiences of early career mathematicians, i.e. graduate students through postdoctoral scholars and early tenure track faculty. This does not preclude you from attending if you do not fall into one of these categories though - everyone is welcome! Please feel free to share this page and the registration links widely.

Some of the topics, especially the first week’s, are based on this letter of advice created by Kristin during the early days of the pandemic, some of which also appeared in Kristin’s article for the Early Career section of the AMS Notices. You can also find more links, notes, etc. from each discussion below.

If you are interested in hosting a similar event, Kristin and I wrote an article on how to do so for the Early Career section of the AMS Notices. Questions and feedback are welcome!

Organizing committee: Vance Blankers, Kristin DeVleming, Kim Klinger-Logan, Andrew Kobin, Manami Roy

Upcoming Events

We are on hiatus as of July 2022

Past events (archives for 2020, 2021)

“Red card to green light: how to be a responsible referee” (Wednesday, June 29, 2022 at 12:30PM EDT / 9:30AM PDT)

• Panelists: Taylor Dupuy (University of Vermont), James Freitag (University of Illinois at Chicago), Álvaro Lozano-Robledo (University of Connecticut)

• Zoom registration

• Extra links:

  • “How to referee a (math) paper” by Álvaro on his blog, A Field Guide to Mathematics

  • Articles from AMS Notices Early Career section:

    • “Writing, and reading, referee reports” by Arend Bayer

    • “Writing for Mathematical Reviews” by Kelly Jabbusch

    • “Journal refereeing: merge with the collective mind” by Ken Ono and Robert Schneider

  • Style guides, both as a reference when you submit a paper and to provide to authors when you are a referee:

    • “Practical suggestions for mathematical writing” by Bjorn Poonen

    • “How to write mathematical papers” by Bruce Berndt

  • The AMS Backlog of Mathematics Research Journals (November 2021)

“How to run a successful REU” (Tuesday, May 24, 2022 at 12PM EDT / 9AM PDT)

• Panelists: Alex Barrios (Carleton College), Edray Goins (Pomona College), Jeremy Rouse (Wake Forest University), Kate Thompson (United States Naval Academy)

• Zoom registration

• Extra links:

  • Funding resources for organizing an REU:

    • NSF homepage for Research Experiences for Undergraduates (REUs)

    • The Center for Undergraduate Research in Mathematics (CURM) offers minigrants for undergraduate research at professors’ home institutions

  • Ongoing REUs and similar initiatives:

    • Pomona Research in Mathematics Experience (PRiME), whose organizers include Alex and Edray

    • The MSRI Undergraduate Program (MSRI-UP), which runs annually during the summer at MSRI in Berkeley, CA

    • The SMALL Undergraduate Research Project, which runs annually during the summer at Williams College

    • Sampling Advanced Mathematics for Minority Students (SAMMS), a summer school for undergrads at Ohio State

  • The Field of Dreams Conference, organized by the Math Alliance

  • MAA MathFest, where some REUs send their participants to give presentations and/or poster presentations

  • The National Association of Mathematicians (NAM) also hosts an Undergraduate MATHFest in the fall

  • The NSF Mathematical Sciences Institute (MSI) hosts the Modern Mathematics Workshop during the national meeting of the Society for the Advancement of Chicanos and Native Americans in Science (SACNAS)

  • MAA’s outreach initiatives, which include the National Research Experience for Undergraduates Program (NREUP)

  • The Math-to-Industry Boot Camp, hosted annually at the University of Minnesota

  • The Mathematical Sciences Program (MSP) at the NSA/CSS

  • Some AMS Notices articles on REUs:

    • “Reflections on running an REU (with an eye towards equity)” by Siddhi Krishna and Marissa Kawehi Loving

    • “Mentoring undergraduate research: advanced planning tools and tips” by Courtney R. Gibbons

    • “The David Harold Blackwell Summer Institute: goals, experiences, and future plans” by Wilfrid Gangbo, Jelani Nelson and Todd Coleman

  • Practicum for Undergraduates in Number Theory (PUNDiT), which ran in fall 2021

  • Summer Workshop for Achieving Greater Graduate Educational Readiness (Math SWAGGER), which ran in summer 2020

  • Not strictly on-topic, but before the panel started we discussed SIAM’s activity groups.

“The role and responsibility of academics in climate change” (Tuesday, April 19, 2022 at 12PM EDT / 9AM PDT)

• Panelists: Mathilde Gerbelli-Gauthier (Institute for Advanced Study), Izabella Laba (University of British Columbia), Delaney Mosier (University of Utah), Eric Potash (Institute for Sustainability, Energy, and Environment at UIUC)

• Zoom registration

• Extra links:

  • Izabella’s blog post “Universities in the time of climate change”

  • Izabella’s presentation slides “Rethinking universities in the era of climate change”, which is referenced on John Baez’s blog

  • Burnout: A Zine About Academia, Travel, & Climate Change, whose authors include Mathilde and Eric

  • Save Soil Movement

  • News story about a polar bear encounter in Newfoundland

  • Article on The Phantom Limb Company, an artistic collective that produces environment-inspired works

  • Maria Gillespie’s blog, which includes posts about maintaining virtual collaborations and conference experiences

  • AlCoVE: an Algebraic Combinatorics Virtual Expedition, taking place virtually in June 2022

“Going international: navigating early career in a new country”, hosted by Maryam Khaqan (Tuesday, March 22, 2022 at 12PM EDT / 9AM PDT)

• Guest host: Maryam Khaqan (Stockholm University)

• Panelists: Valia Gazaki (University of Virginia), Valentijn Karemaker (Utrecht University), Vaidehee Thatte (King’s College London)

• Zoom registration

• Extra links:

  • eager-gen listserv for the European algebraic geometry (and related areas) research and training networks AGE, Europroj and EAGER

  • Nordic Number Theory Network

Lunchtime happy hour (Tuesday, March 1, 2022 at 11:30AM EST / 8:30AM PST)

• Bring your own lunch!

• Zoom registration

• Extra links:

  • The Fields Institute’s MathEd Forum 2021-2022

“Life Pro-Tips” (Tuesday, February 8, 2022 at 12PM EST / 9AM PST)

• Panelists: Sarah Brauner (University of Minnesota), Robert Lemke Oliver (Tufts University), Bianca Viray (University of Washington)

• Zoom registration

• Notes

• Extra links:

  • University of Washington’s CareLink resources for faculty (we think this includes grad students and postdocs)

  • The Financial Feminist podcast

  • Personal finance apps/resources that were shared during the panel:

    • Intuit’s Mint

    • Qapital

    • Betterment

    • Ellevest

  • How to prepare your grad student tax return (for FY 2021) on Personal Finance for PHDs

  • The podcast Mathematically Uncensored, hosted by our fabulous past guest hosts Pamela Harris and Aris Winger

  • Lillian Pierce’s “Paths: A Project of Recollection by Mathematicians”

  • Ravi Vakil’s advice for his potential students, which of course is applicable much more generally

  • “Thoughts on graduate school” from the Secret Blogging Seminar

  • Career advice on Terry Tao’s blog

  • “Advice for the young scientist” by John Baez

  • Lots of good advice from the AMS Notices Early Career section:

    • “How to balance research with everything else we have to do” by David Zureick-Brown

    • “Some advice for early-career graduate students” by Ken Ribet

    • “On choosing a thesis advisor” by Robert Lipshitz

    • “Enjoying graduate school” by Karen Smith

    • “Finding your reward” by Skip Garibaldi

    • “The road less traveled” by Lloyd Douglas

    • “Should I quit mathematics?” by Francis Su

    • “Self-doubt and impostor syndrome” by Brian Lehmann

    • “Finding new problems to work on” by Chris Woodward

    • “Moving ahead in your research” by Ellen Eischen

    • “How to proceed in mathematics” by Skip Garibaldi and Daniel Gordon

    • “Developing relationships with experts” by Dawei Chen

    • “Casual mentorship and the strength of weak ties” by Natalia Pacheco-Tallaj

    • “Preparing your results for publication” by Julia Hartmann

    • “Cultivating an online presence for the academic job market” by Holly Krieger

    • “Lessons from our advisor” by Christopher Hacon and Jessica Sidman

    • “Advice from our advisor: Benson Farb” edited by Bena Tshishiku

  • “Four golden lessons” by Steven Weinberg