The twentieth meeting of the Boise Extravaganza in Set Theory (BEST) will be held on the campus of the University of Nevada, Las Vegas, during June 16 - 19, 2013 as a symposium of the 94th Annual Meeting of the Pacific Division of the American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAASPD). The BEST conference provides the western region of the United States with a conference in Set Theory that emphasizes diversity. The conference actively seeks to recruit and integrate student and early career dissemination of research in Set Theory and its affiliated mathematical disciplines into the conference agenda. The conference promotes interaction between different career stages in the field by also recruiting four plenary speakers. The plenary speakers for BEST 2013 are Dr. Todd Eisworth (Ohio University), Dr. Masaru Kada (Osaka Prefecture University, Japan), Thilo Weinert (University of Bonn, Germany) and Dr. Lynne Yengulalp (University of Dayton). The conference seeks to increase participation by underrepresented groups in the field.
Set Theory is the foundation of Mathematics, and as such, of modeling and deductive reasoning in the natural sciences. Offering BEST at the Annual Meeting of the Pacific division of the AAAS thus provides potential for significant broader impact. Mathematics has always benefited from an influx of ideas and problems in other sciences, and conversely. It benefits the natural sciences, and also Set Theory, when opportunities for such cross fertilization are nurtured and facilitated.
" (BEST) during June 17 and 18, 2013. BEST 2013 was hosted as a symposium of the 94th Annual Meeting of the Pacific Division (PD) of the American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS), thus providing the Western United States with a conference in Set Theory. Set Theory is the foundation of Mathematics, and as such, of modeling and deductive reasoning in the natural sciences. Mathematics has always benefited from an influx of ideas and problems from other sciences, and conversely. Offering BEST at an annual meeting of the Pacific division of the AAAS provided potential for significant broader impact as several other sciences offered symposia at this conference. BEST 2013 actively recruited and integrated student and early career dissemination of research in Set Theory and its affiliated mathematical disciplines into the conference agenda. The conference promoted professional networking and interaction between different career stages in the field, international collaboration and participation of underrepresented groups by recruiting its four plenary speakers to address each of these initiatives. The speakers included four students, four post-doctoral mathematicians, two tenure track, pre-tenure mathematicians and three senior mathematicians. The AAAS-PD hosted a banquet to celebrate student participation across the sciences and mathematics. At this banquet AAAS-PD honored one of the student presenters at BEST with an award of excellence for the student’s conference presentation. The emphasis of BEST and the umbrella organization AAAS-PD on providing value regarding career development and responsible science, is likely to impact the participants' views and professional attitudes regarding training and focus on communication skills, and their mentoring practices. This format of BEST is very likely to increase the participation of early career mathematicians, and to increase the appreciation for effective disciplinary communication. From the responses to a subsequent e-mail survey, the elevated participation of students and post-docs in the field are positively received and valued.
