New Leadership!

The MGSA has new officers! Be sure to congratulate them in the halls and let them know what you'd like to see from MGSA this semester! The new leadership is as follows:

President: Nancy Ho
Vice President: Houssein El Turkey
Secretary: Salam Turki
Treasurer: Sean Bauer

Congratulations, all!

Joint Meetings - Conclusions

To wrap up our coverage of this year's Joint Mathematics Meetings, today's post includes Jeff's musings on the last day of the conference and Sarah's reflections on Day 3 and on conference-going in general:

Jeff - January 9, 2011

The last day of the conference began with saying goodbyes. A lot of people leave during the last day, including my roommate Kashyap. Towards the end of the day, there were only a few people attending talks. The last talk was at 5:40. I stayed until the end of a session whose second to last talk was given by someone I know from UIUC. There was a small reunion of Western Number Theory Conference participants, which was held a few weeks before. We said our goodbyes and that we'd probably see each other again at a future conference.

I returned to the hotel to go to the banquet, chatting with some retired professors and students, seemingly the only attendants of the banquet. The weather wasn't great. It was pouring rain and was very windy. I thought it wasn't that bad at first, being from Oklahoma and all, but there were some gusts that can remind you that the wind doesn't let anything stand in its way.

Overall, the joint meetings were a lot of fun and it was great to see a lot of people I met at other conferences. I also got to see a talk given by Joe Silverman. You can meet a lot of really famous mathematicians at the joint meetings and can see a wide variety of mathematics. That's whats great about these large meetings. However, I still feel that the best conferences to go to are the smaller ones.

This year's joint meetings had approximately 6000 participants by the end of it all. The AMS will soon offer funding for graduate and undergraduate students to go to the sectional meetings and I urge you to take advantage of this. It's important to get involved in the mathematical community and I think you can best participate by going to smaller conferences and workshops. Where can you find information on these? Well, the OU MGSA have links to several sites listing upcoming conferences, such as numbertheory.org.

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Sarah - Day 4 - Saturday, January 8

This morning, I started by going to a couple of faculty development talks before heading over to the retiring MAA president's address on the transition from high school to college mathematics. After this, I went to some history of math talks in the same building. My point in sharing these things is that I think sometimes it's important at large conferences to broaden our horizons and explore areas of the mathematical community that we don't have access to at our individual schools. It can be really beneficial, especially to those of us that are on or near the job market, to be well-versed in many areas of our chosen field.

After lunch, I attended talks on helping underprepared students transition into college mathematics and on humanistic mathematics. Then, I found a very interesting session in the conference program: Three MAA teaching award winners were giving invited talks. There didn't appear to be a particular theme to the talks, but they all had interesting titles, so I settled in for the hour-and-a-half session. These talks didn't disappoint. They were full of interesting reflections on our role as teachers, as ambassadors for mathematics, and as (current or future) faculty members. I got the impression that all three of the speakers were pure mathematicians, not math education researchers, and their talks were full of humor and insight. I've never noticed this session before, but I'd recommend it to those attending the Joint Meetings in the future.

A few last-minute reflections on conferences more generally:

1. Go with at least one or two people you know, but be prepared to reach out and meet other people in your area of interest. On the one hand, you don't want to be forced to eat meals alone the first couple of days of the conference, and you'll have more confidence to approach new acquaintances if you have a friend with you. On the other hand, it's important to use conferences to network, share ideas, and develop professional relationships across geographical constraints.

2. Be bold! Don't be afraid to start conversations with people in your field! I can't think of anyone who would be upset that you wanted to discuss their talk (or recent paper, or prior conference presentation, or whatever) with them during the conference. Plus, having been to someone's talk or knowing their published work is a great way to break the ice when you introduce yourself to them. If you have a friend, advisor, or mentor with more experience in your area, see if they can introduce you to these bigwigs.

3. Have fun. Yes, it's important to attend talks in your area to see the latest research, but it's also important to find a session or two that you just find independently interesting. It's beneficial to us as humans to recharge our social and intellectual batteries every now and again.

4. Plan ahead. Conferences are much more affordable if you have travel support, a roommate, and firm plans upon arrival. For some conferences, you must apply to give talks many months in advance of the actual conference. Start now to find dates of conferences in your area and begin making plans to attend! You can visit the graduate student webpage for more information on conference funding options.

Good luck!

Joint Meetings, Days 3 and 4

Two guest posts today: First, Sarah Marsh provides us with an alternate view of Day 3, and then Jeff Breeding regales us with his odyssey through Day 4.

Sarah - Day 3 - Friday, January 7

My day started off with a couple of talks in a session entitled "Cool Calculus" - including one by OU Math alum Jason Martin, who is currently finishing up a post-doc at Arizona State. Another talk in that session involved the use of a 3D applet for showing graphs of multivariable functions - and we got free 3D glasses to use during the presentation (and to keep!).

After early morning sessions, OU grad students Jeff Breeding, Sean Crowell, and I attended a brunch for recipients of the AMS Student Travel Grants. These grants provide matching funds (i.e., we had to find university support for the other half of our expenses) for us to attend the Joint Meetings. The food was excellent, the speeches were short, and we even got a cool AMS flash drive with an e-book on it!

After lunch, I opted to go off to my hotel room to finish "cramming" (or "preparing" or "worrying") for my talk later that afternoon. I stopped by a talk by another OU alum, Jana Talley (now at Jackson State University) before camping out in the session where my talk would be held for a while. I find that it helps to sit in a session for a bit to get the rhythm of how things are run before you are the one in the spotlight. After sitting through one intimidating talk and one really interesting talk, I gave my talk. I was incredibly nervous, but I survived, and I think I even managed not to say anything too ridiculous in the process. (Or, if I did, I can't remember it now.) After my talk, fellow RUME student Minsu Kim gave his talk in the same session (and did a great job!).

As a bit of a sidetrack, in case you didn't know, the MAA has some Special Interest Groups known as SIGMAAs, which focus on specific areas of math, such as History or Research in Undergraduate Mathematics Education (RUME). The SIGMAA on RUME had their business meeting tonight, and it was actually really interesting to see how governance inside a huge organization like this is run. The meeting was pretty low key in that no decisions were made, no votes were taken, and no major debates ensued, but it was still cool to get the inside scoop on what's coming in the next few months.

Finally, at the end of this busy day, a group of current and former OU students went out to dinner - New Orleans style! We went to a little place called Cafe Maspero, which was recommended to us by a Louisiana resident. They are famous for their muffalettas, and we also enjoyed jambalaya and other local flavors. For dessert, we went to Cafe Du Monde in the French Market area for some beignets (French doughnuts with loads of powdered sugar) and hot chocolate. Oh my, were these good! I definitely recommend both of these places if you're ever in NOLA. My stomach is still quite happy from the evening. :)

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Jeff - Day 4 - January 8, 2011

I emerged from my slumber to find that my arch-enemies, allergies, had stealthly attacked me during the night. I strolled down to the local CVS to get some medicine, which had some degree of success. This was the day of my talk and I could have taken this as a bad omen, but I just as well could have considered the curse the voodoo priest placed on me the night before as a bad omen. My talk was scheduled for 1:45pm and so I computed the probability of my cooking up of enough good mojo and was relieved.

The first talk I attended this day was that of Dr. Brady. He spoke about research he had done with Sang Rae and Dr. Guralnik. I did a quick inventory after the talk and then returned to my hotel to rearm with tissues. My negotiations with the box of tissues went extremely well, concluding with its unconditional surrender. I met up with Kashyap and Sean Crowell and we went on a souvenir hunt, once again seeing our favorite bawdy T-shirts.

My number theory session started at 1:00 and I saw some familiar faces from other conferences I had attended. When my turn came, I was somewhat surprised that I had managed to complete my talk in exactly the time allotted, 10 minutes. It takes some practice to give talks this short and you'll hear lots of different opinions on what a "good" 10 minute talk is. I had given similar talks each month for the past few months, each lasting 5-10 minutes less than the previous. Some people who also worked in Siegel modular forms and GSp(4) approached me at the end of my talk and introduced themselves.

I had to leave the session after about an hour for a future employment prospect that seems to be approaching a tangible possibility. After a change of wardrobe, I went back to the number theory session and the undergraduate poster session. I talked with a few undergraduates about their projects and offered some advice about research and going to graduate school.

With the day of mathematics talks over, Kashyap, Ravi, Minsu, and I then went to eat at Galatoire's. I saw Turtle Soup on the menu, which for some reason I need to have before I leave New Orleans. I didn't order it this night, but I made plans with Minsu to return for lunch the next day and dine on this foreboding dish.

(A quick reminder: These posts represent the views of Sarah and Jeff, respectively, and do not reflect the views or opinions of the MGSA, the Department of Mathematics, or the University of Oklahoma.)

Joint Meetings, Day 3

The last post's guest author, Jeff Breeding, has been kind enough to also share with us his impressions and experiences from Friday, January 7, at the Joint Mathematics Meetings. Stay tuned for more blog posts from this event! Here is Jeff's post:

I awoke early to attend some number theory talks and then went off to a brunch for those who received funding from the AMS. They gave us 1 GB thumb drives loaded with a sacred text. I sat at a table with other graduate students on the job market as well as the President-elect of the AMS, Eric Friedlander. We chatted for a bit about jobs and what the AMS could do to help graduate students to prepare for these meetings. He took a great interest in what the AMS could do to offer more support to mathematics students.

After the brunch, I returned to my hotel to join other OU graduate students to lunch with the external reviewer. We dined in the restaurant in the hotel and discussed various aspects of our mathematics department.

Following the brunch, I went to a talk by Joe Silverman on elliptic curves. One of the great things about these large conferences is that you can see some of the prominent experts in your favorite areas of mathematics.

My only interview of the conference was scheduled at 2:00 with the NSA. I strolled down to the employment center and entered the applicant waiting area, where I discovered someone I knew from UIUC. We sat waiting for our respective interviewers to mysteriously materialize and ominously trumpet our names. My interviewer appeared and beckoned me to the interview tables. I talked with a couple of people from the Department of Defense about what employment in the NSA entailed. They stressed that it had an environment similar to the academic one that I have been accustomed to at Oklahoma with an active seminar culture. They mentioned a gathering of NSA mathematicians at 6:00 in the Marriott and I took note.

I went back to my hotel room to change to civilian clothes then left for Sarah Marsh's talk. Returning to the hotel to bide my time, I got a phone call from the NSA shortly before the 6:00 powwow informing me that the interview went well and they would like to see me again the next day. Jubilantly I proceeded to their suite to visit with some NSA mathematicians. The ones I chatted with were very enthusiastic and I got a better impression about life in the NSA.

Joint Meetings Play-by-Play

Have you always wondered what a mathematics conference is REALLY like? Well, you're in luck! Several graduate students from our department are currently at the Joint Mathematics Meetings in New Orleans, Louisiana and will be reporting back on their adventures (or misadventures, as the case may be) with this huge mathematics conference. Today's post is by Jeff Breeding, local MGSA guru. Jeff gives us a run-down of his first two days at the conference:

January 5, 2011

My trip began with flying from Oklahoma City to Dallas and then from Dallas to New Orleans. I flew Southwest Airlines, which I highly recommend. The air hostesses said some funny things such as "Follow any instructions from any uniformed flight attendant. Do not trust the naked ones." and "As long as you do what we say, no one will get hurt" and "To use the oxygen mask, first stop screaming."

When I finally arrived at New Orleans, I took the Airport Shuttle to the hotel and got to see some of the city, which still has traces of damage from Hurricane Katrina. I arrived at the Marriott, my hotel, at around 1:00pm. For the next few hours I located where I would be spending my time over the next few days and tried to spot people I know. The conference rooms are spread amongst three hotels: the Marriott, the JW Marriott, and the Sheridan. These are all pretty close to each other and the rooms were easy to find. Returning to my hotel, I saw Dr. Brady and Dr. Kornelson. I would eventually see Dr. Magid chatting to a friend who I planned to have lunch with for the department's external review with a few other OU graduate students.

Finally my roommate, Kashyap, arrived. He drove with Sean Crowell, Lynn, and Qinghua from Norman in a fashionable PT Cruiser. They were planning to arrive earlier, but traffic was pretty bad and they were in a PT Cruiser. We went to a seafood restaurant in the French Quarter and had crab cakes. Our path to the restaurant provided glimpses of what New Orleans is. The city is very lively and has a very distinctive atmosphere. You KNOW you are in New Orleans. There seems to be music playing all the time. At our restaurant, there was an old boonswoggled blues musician playing the sax, the clarinet, and a Casio keyboard. He was all smiles and laughed riotously at all of his own jokes. After returning to our room, we prepared for the next day.

January 6, 2011

This was the first day of the conference and it was very exciting. Kashyap and I first went to the registration board to put check marks by our names and then we investigated the Employment Center. Neither of us had interviews scheduled and so the Employment Center didn't seem like it would have many prospects for us while we were here. Interviews are essentially all decided before the conference starts. We went to the lobby to check our e-mails and to see if any new information about jobs was posted. I didn't find much and so I opted to venture across the street to the Sheridan to attend the Number Theory session for the rest of the morning.

When the session ended at 11:00, I went back to the hotel and checked my e-mail and ran into Ravi Srinivasan, an OU alum who is currently at Rutgers in Newark. We met up with some OU grad students and divided into two food-seeking hordes. We hungered and desperately needed to satisfy our cravings, unfortunately choosing to dine at the House of Blues. (There was a long bitter rant here about our time at the restaurant, but I removed it for your sake. You're welcome.)

Upon leaving the restaurant I journeyed back to my room and grabbed my application packets and a bag. Like a bunny, I leaped out of my room and proceeded to the exhibition center on the second floor. The NSA had a table in this wondrous place where I signed up for an interview and gave them some application materials. Whilst in the exhibition center, I ran into a couple of people that I had met at the Western Number Theory Conference in mid-December. I chatted with them awhile about jobs and future conferences. The next goal I had for the exhibition center was to get some swag. I took a number of pens, a mesh bag from the NSA, some keychains and magnets, and various mathematical tchotchkes. I took the loot back to my room and locked it in the room safe, satisfied with my first plundering of my stay. I quickly thought of a limerick for the combination and became even more satisfied.

Next on the agenda was attending Kashyap's talk. I gambolled across the thoroughfare to the JW Marriott where his talk was held. Upon its conclusion I returned to my hotel and sat in the lobby, allowing my tired electronics to recharge. My day of math talks ended after attending a talk by an OU alum, Eduardo Martinez-Pedroza, a post-doc at McMasters.

After stopping by the Graduate Student Reception and enjoying a cube of cheese dipped in ranch dressing, I met up with a gaggle of OU students and alumni to go out to dinner. We went into the French Quarter ambling down the celebrated Bourbon Street, which comes alive every night. The French Quarter is in a state of perpetual festival where, verily, a splendid time is guaranteed for all. We had some great seafood after finding a suitable restaurant that was not too busy. Afterwards, we ambled down Bourbon Street a bit more before returning to our hotels, in accordance with prophecy.


(Disclaimer: Please note that all views and opinions expressed herein are those of Jeff and not of the MGSA, the Department of Mathematics, or the University of Oklahoma!)