What Is WIM?

Women in Mathematics is a group of undergraduate students, graduate students, postdocs, instructors, and other faculty members of the mathematics department at Penn State. Our main objective is to provide support and information to the women within the mathematics community at PSU at all levels, from undergraduate students to faculty members.

Our activities include:

1. Meeting monthly to share information about career opportunities and to discuss issues facing women in science and mathematics;
2. Supporting undergraduate and graduate students in their research;
3. Sponsoring visits of women mathematicians to the mathematics department;
4. Getting together in a friendly atmosphere for refreshments.

Join Us!

If you are interested in our activities and would like to receive our emails, please sign up using the Registration Form on this page. You must be affiliated with the Pennsylvania State University. If you have a valid math account, please sign up here.

Meet with Us!

Our next WIM meeting is Tuesday, December 13 at 12 PM in 114 McAllister. Our last meeting was October 17. We will celebrate celebrate with one of our colleague's and our colleague's wives who are expecting babies soon. We met with Susan Friedlander, Professor of Mathematics at the University of Southern California, and Director of the Center for Applied Mathematical Sciences there. Susan's visit was partially sponsored by WIM. To sign up for the meeting, please email Pat Schulte by Friday, December 9.

Recent news

• Maria do Pilar Ribeiro passed away March 28, 2011. Announcement.
• Professor Wen Ching (Winnie) Li wins the 2010 Chern Prize in Mathematics. Press release.
• Assistant Professor Kirsten Eisentraeger receives an NSF CAREER grant.
• Associate Professor Anna Mazzucato wins the 2012 Ruth I. Michler Memorial Prize. Press release.

Activities supported by WIM

• WIM will partially support undegraduate female students undertaking Mathematics research at Penn State. For more information, click here.


• Wim will partially support visits by female speakers in a Department seminar. If you are a faculty member and are hosting a female speaker, please email Ae Ya Yee to inquire about support. For a list of sponsored talks, click the Talks tab.


• Wil will provide some support to send female graduate students to research meetings with a preference to those that present a paper or poster. If you are a Math graduate student or faculty adviser, please email Diane Henderson to request funds for this purpose.

WIM sponsored a play!

WIM partially supported Gioia De Cari's Truth Values: One Girl’s Romp through M.I.T.’s Male Math Maze? held at the PA Centre State Theatre: 146 S. Allen St, on February 24, 2011.

AWM Travel Grants

The AWM, together with the NSF, sponsors Travel Grants to attend mathematical conferences in the US and abroad. You must have a PhD to apply. The next deadline is February 1, 2012.

AWM Workshop for Women Graduate Students and Recent PhDs

The next AWM workshop to be held in conjunction with the annual Joint Mathematics Meetings will be in Boston, MA, January 4-7, 2012. Through a grant provided by the NSA, AWM will be offering partial support for travel and 2 days' subsistence for the selected participants.

For more information visit the AWM web site.

Topics of discussion

These are some topics we discussed in our previous meetings:

• Gender, the teaching and the learning of mathematics.
• What impact does pregnancy have to a female mathematician?
• Future opportunities in Mathematics and related fields.
• Facets of majoring in Mathematics for women.
• What's it like to be a female mathematician at NSA?
• A discussion on the annual survey by the American Mathematical Society on employment in the Mathematical Sciences.