Colloquium

Politics, policy and advocacy are seldom seen as traditional career paths for a mathematician in today's world. This is in part because mathematics is primarily focused on abstraction, but also reflects the sometimes insular culture of the community formed around mathematical research. Nevertheless, mathematicians throughout history lived rich political lives, and continue to do so. In this talk, I aim to elaborate on ways for mathematicians to get involved in the political process. I will start by providing a potted history of mathematicians who were politically active, and then I will reflect on my experience as the 2024-2025 American Mathematical Society Congressional Fellow, including a discussion of my own path from number theory to policy. I will talk about the role that mathematicians and numerically literate people can play in policy and advocacy more broadly, for example through economics, data science, and data communication. I will also talk about the places where theoretical math actually does intersect policy, including the work of the Metric Geometry and Gerrymandering Group and the history of voting theory. I will conclude by reflecting on the political activism of mathematicians in the past and present (and future?). This talk will be non-technical, and is aimed at anyone interested in using mathematics in the broader context of their political world.

Abstract: I will briefly share two experiences of using AI in number theory that I hope have contributed to more interesting math and the mathematical community. The first involves unexpected formulas that have led to constructive feedback and new applications suggested by other mathematicians. The second concerns the fortunate resolution of a longstanding open problem. The talk will be largely informal, focusing on the stories rather than the proofs.

This is a presentation by representatives of Springer about the publishing process.

• Author Workshop - Our workshop aims to provide early career researchers and authors of varying degrees of experience with the guidance necessary to get published and disseminate their research to as broad an audience as possible. Making informed choices about which journals are right for your submissions is key to navigating the complex academic journals landscape. But this is just one step in a multifaceted process that begins with the best ways to present your research topic to an editorial board and ends with the promotion of your published article to your communities for maximum impact. We will also touch upon other trends in the academic literature, including  those dubious journals and publishing opportunities that researchers need to be aware of and vigilantly avoid.
• Open Science Presentation - We will also tell you about the ways we are empowering researchers to advance discovery, including our open access strategies and policies and our overarching commitment to an open science future.
• Publishing opportunities - We will showcase some of the many new opportunities that researchers have to make a contribution within our journal portfolios.  From new journals and platforms that facilitate greater community engagement to multi-disciplinary thematic collections that begin at your university’s ground floor, there are many ways to get published and become a member of the Springer Nature family of authors.  

Abstract: TBA