The Women and Mathematics
program at IAS, Princeton
Dusa McDuff
Department of Mathematics, Barnard College, Columbia University

dusa@math.columbia.edu

Talk to Women in Mathematics Conference, Japan
September 7, 2022

Women and Mathematics at IAS, Princeton:

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The program was started by Karen Uhlenbeck together with Antonella
Grassi and Chuu-Lien Terng in the early 1990s, and thrives to this day.

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It is now organized by Wei Ho, together with a committee of female
mathematicians (of which I am currently the Chair), Peter Sarnak of theSchool of Mathematics, IAS, and Michelle Huguenin (the program
manager from IAS).

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Currently it is a week-long residential program dedicated to someparticular topic (this year: Number theory from a dynamical perspective)
and brings together about 35 women mathematicians at many stages intheir career, from undergraduate to post-doc.

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Each year, there are two lecture courses (one more elementary and one
more advanced) plus review sessions run by Teaching Assistants in which
students work together on various problems.

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Other activities: a Junior Research Seminar, some invited lectures andpanels, and there are many formal and informal discussions.

IWe also organize outreach to local school children at the Princeton
Library, and a WAM Ambassador program that allows former participants
to organize various activites (e.g. conferences, study groups, . . . ) in theirlocal institution.

Women and Mathematics at IAS, Princeton:3.

webpage: https:// www.ias.edu/math/wam/program-years/previous-years

WAM 2022 Yearbook
The Mathematics of Machine Learning(hybrid)

Institute for Advanced Study, Princeton

Women and Mathematics at IAS, Princeton:

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Mathematical Talks
Terng Lectures:
Cynthia Rudin, Duke University, “Introduction to Interpretable Machine
Learning”

Abstract: Machine learning is now used throughout society and is the driving force behind
the accuracy of online recommendation systems, credit-scoring mechanisms, healthcare
systems and beyond. Machine learning models have the reputation of being "black boxes"

Women and Mathematics at IAS, Princeton:
Some participants:

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Women and Mathematics at IAS, Princeton:
Informal discussions

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Women and Mathematics at IAS, Princeton:

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Outreach for school children at the Princeton Library by Margaret Readdy andWAM participants. We also run a year round WAM Ambassador program, thatprovides small amounts of money for WAM participants to organize activities intheir local university and community.

Some comments about WAM from participants:

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I loved being around women mathematicians. I was pleasantly surprised by
how relaxed the atmosphere was, how many math questions were asked,
and how free I felt to ask questions (without being judged for representing
women).

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My first year of graduate school, I was the only woman in my incomingclass. It was a very isolating experience, as none of my classmates orprofessors were women. Then I went to the IAS Women?s Program, andwas suddenly surrounded by fun and talented women doing math. It was a
magical, life-changing experience for me.

IOf course the WAM programs are excellent and beneficial because of thetechnical expertise they develop in participants. But I think there issomething else about the WAM program that is precious and irreplaceable:
it allows women in math to find out what it means to be relaxed in amathematical atmosphere.To breathe fully and freely, and to think “ah,this is how it can be, to do math among people who naturally assume I am
good at this”. The fact that WAM takes place at the IAS is also part ofthis message: this is an investment in new generations of mathematicians,
and a welcoming, a boost, to say “we think you can be great”. – Lillian
Pierce (a WAM commitee member and former participant).