The University of Iowa Mathematics Department has received recognition for its outstanding minority mentoring program and has made a commitment to increase the number of minority graduate students and scientists. The Underrepresented Students in Topology and Algebra Research Symposium (USTARS) is a project proposed by a group of underrepresented students in its department and will be largely run and organized by graduate students. The conference is scheduled to be held at the University of Iowa on April 1-3, 2011. It will be structured so that speakers will give 20-minute parallel research talks in topology and algebra. One distinguished graduate student will give an hour long presentation and one invited faculty member, Dr. Emille Davie Lawrence of California Polytechnic University Pomona, will give a one hour keynote address.
The broader impact of this event is that graduate students who attend USTARS will be better equipped to find academic positions and continue the cycle of research and collaboration. Attendees will be exposed to a greater variety of current research, ideas, and results, and meet more underrepresented professors and students in their generation who may become future collaborators or colleagues. This is particularly important for students with great academic potential but are not attending top tier research institutions schools that can often be overlooked, despite a strong faculty and graduate student population. The conference also promotes diversity in the mathematical sciences by encouraging women and minorities to attend and give talks. The conference Organizing Committee is remarkably diverse in gender, ethnicity, and educational background, and hence is well-positioned to encourage participation by women and minorities. The participants of the conference will continue to influence the next generation of students in positive ways by serving as much needed mentors and encouraging students in the mathematical sciences to advance themselves and participate in research and conference events.
www.mathalliance.org/ustars.asp
was held the weekend of April 2-3, 2011 at the University of Iowa with great success! We had 63 applicants, including 10 faculty members and 3 undergraduates. The structure of the conference was for 18 participants to give 20-30 min talks, one faculty member to give a 1-hour talk and for a distinguished graduate student to give an hour long lecture. The talks ranged in areas from knot theory, algebraic group theory, low dimensional topology, algebraic geometry and representation theory. 25 applicants applied to give talks with 6 graduate students applying to be the Distinguished Graduate Speaker (DGS). The DGS honor came with the opportunity to give a 1-hour presentation and a $200 honorarium. The student chosen to be the distinguished graduate speaker was Dido Salazar-Torres, a masters student from San Francisco State University. Dido gave an impressive talk and was asked to apply to the mathematics PhD program here at the University of Iowa. He applied, was accepted, and is now attending Iowa as a mathematics PhD student. The majority of the comments received from the participants was that they "liked the laid back feel of the conference" and "the talks given were very impressive". We believe that this is due to having graduate students organizing the conference. Many of the people who had applied heard about the conference by "word of mouth" or were personally invited. The organizing committee contained graduate students that ar every active in the mathematics community and were able to invite many strong students. There was also much talk from participants asking if they can be involved in the organization of the next USTARS, which is planned to be hosted at the University of Iowa April 2012. On the last day of the conference, breakfast was provided and included an open discussion with a panel consisting of a postdoc, two assistant professors and an associate professor. The discussion included questions about publishing, tenure track vs postdoc, and service as a graduate student. The environment for the discussion was one that felt like a conversation with participant asking and answers candid questions. One of the comments from many participants was that they "appreciated that the conference was about the research being done and didn't just focus on underrepresented student issues". This was one of the goals for the symposium, to focus on and showcase the research done by underrepresented students. Because this is our goal, the organizers and many of the particpants feel that USTARS will have a great impact on the mathematical community for years to come.
