The American Mathematical Society (AMS) has created the Mathematics Research Communities (MRC) as a national program to support and guide young mathematicians as they begin their research careers. The goal of the Mathematics Research Communities program is to create research cohorts of young mathematicians that will sustain themselves over time, fostering joint research and coherent research programs that will, eventually, reach all areas of mathematics.
The Mathematics Research Communities program strives to achieve this goal through the following activities: summer research conferences, Special Sessions at the annual AMS-MAA Joint Mathematics Meetings, a mentoring program and a discussion network. It is the formation of research cohorts that sets this program apart from any other (national) professional development programs for mathematicians that currently exist. The creation of three to six new cohorts per year has the potential to lay a foundation for decades of research, and will have an extremely positive effect on mathematics research in the U.S. This proposal is requesting support for an additional three years of this unique program. Conference topics will include both pure and applied mathematics areas of research. In 2010, three conferences will be held on the following topics: Birational Geometry and Moduli Spaces; Model Theory of Fields; and Commutative Algebra.
Each of these conferences will bring together a diverse group of young mathematicians. The organizing committee for each conference is composed of leaders in the field of the conference and includes individuals with previous experience in organizing successful workshops and conferences. The conferences and Special Sessions at the JMM will bring together senior and junior researchers in an ideal environment to establish connections, which often last for many years after the conference itself. Most importantly, this program will focus on mathematicians who are beginning their research careers; all program components will help to train and connect the next generation of researchers in, eventually, all research areas of mathematics.
(MRC) as a national program to support and guide young mathematicians as they begin their research careers. The goal of the MRC program is to create research cohorts of young mathematicians that will sustain themselves over time, fostering joint research and coherent research programs that will, eventually, reach all areas of the mathematical sciences. The MRC program strives to achieve this goal through the following activities: summer research conferences, Special Sessions at the annual AMS-MAA Joint Mathematics Meetings, funding for additional collaborations and a discussion network. Ongoing mentoring is a fundamental aspect of all parts of the program. NSF grant DMS-1007980 supported the Mathematics Research Communities summer conferences held in 2011, 2012 and 2013, along with the activities for each group of participants that followed the conferences. Forty-three senior mathematicians, leaders in the fields of the conferences, organized the eleven summer conferences held during those three years, in which a diverse group of 354 early-career mathematicians participated; 64% of these participants and organizers were partially funded to attend the Joint Mathematics Meetings held the following January each year. The funding for MRC participants to pursue additional collaborations was actively used: 66 MRC participants from the summers of 2011, 2012 and 2013 were funded to travel in order to further collaborate with a total of 114 participants and organizers. A large number of research papers on topics related to the MRC conferences have come out of these collaborations, including over 50 papers published in research journals by the 2011, 2012 and 2013 MRC participants during the time period of September 1, 2011 to August 31, 2014. The Mathematics Research Communities provides significant opportunities for early-career mathematicians to engage in research in their chosen fields. The conferences and Special Sessions at the Joint Mathematics Meetings brought together senior and junior researchers in an ideal environment to establish connections, which often last for many years after the conference itself. Most importantly, this program has focused on mathematicians who are beginning their research careers; all program components have helped to train and connect the next generation of mathematical scientists. It is the formation of research cohorts that sets this program apart from any other national professional development program for mathematicians that currently exists, and it is this aspect of the program that has the potential to lay a foundation for decades of mathematical sciences research in the United States.
