Organize a BIG AMS MRC

The American Mathematical Society (AMS) has an opportunity for teams of mathematicians based in business, industry, and government (“BIG”) to organize Mathematics Research Communities (MRC) conferences in the summer of 2022. We are looking for creative proposals centered around problems with relevance to the proposers’ organizations that involve groups of 20 or 40 peri-doctoral mathematicians for an intensive week of collaborative problem-solving, research, and professional development. Ideally, the conference activities serve the dual purpose of providing value-added for your organization—progress on problems it needs to solve and workforce connectivity—and of supporting the participants’ development for careers in companies, laboratories, agencies, or non-profit businesses for which mathematical training is a natural springboard. While the summer conference is the centerpiece of the program, we encourage proposers to describe ways in which mentoring and career guidance for the participants can be sustained throughout the year following the summer conference.

What is MRC?

A distinctive national program of the AMS receiving generous support from the NSF, the MRC program provides early-career mathematical scientists with experiences in collaborative research and opportunities to be mentored by leading researchers. In the years spanning 2008 through 2019, the MRC program has provided over 1,400 peri-doctoral mathematicians in forty-three different topically-focused cohorts with an intensive summer research experience and supported many of these individuals’ participation in subsequent conferences, collaborations, and mentoring relationships. For many the experience has been transformative, providing a nexus of contact with researchers, and a springboard into long-lasting research relationships that have resulted in new knowledge, publications, and strengthened professional advancement.

Why be an Organizer of a BIG MRC?

It presents the opportunity to tap into the talent and energy of early-career individuals for insight to problems where solutions have immediate value, to become acquainted with a new cohort of a potential workforce, and to have a positive impact and generate goodwill in the wider community. In offering BIG MRCs, we hope to expand the scope of one of AMS’s flagship early-career programs.

Developing the Proposal

From an article in Illinois Institute of Technology – Illinois Tech Today:

The workshop was a huge success, said Petrovic – It created an environment where career-long research relationships could be built. It introduced a new wave of young researchers to the field of algebraic statistics by engaging them with exciting research problems. It also provided opportunities for participants to obtain information and advice on topics vital for a junior researcher, such as publishing, presenting, and grant writing.
— Sonja Petrovic, Co-organizer of 2016 MRC and Participant in the first MRC in 2008

Those expressing interest should address the following questions:

  • Who would be the organizers of this MRC?
  • What sort of background would you expect of the participants?
  • What is the mathematical nature of the problems you anticipate the participants would undertake?
  • Give a few specific examples of activities you would anticipate incorporating into the summer conference?
  • Considering the potential size of the audience for this MRC and the sorts of activities you have in mind, does a 20-participant or a 40-participant conference seem preferable?

We expect the selection process to be completed and the results announced in early 2021.

Deadlines

Expressions of interest by September 15, 2020. Through interactions with the program directors and the MRC Advisory Board, we aim for the development of complete proposals by December 15, 2020. Please email mrc2022@ams.org.