Mathematics at the 2005 SACNAS National Conference

The 2005 conference of the Society for Advancement of Chicanos and Native Americans in Science (SACNAS), was held in Denver, Colorado, September 29-October 1.

The conference theme, "Science for America's Future" featured keynote and conference speakers, awards, undergraduate poster presentations, graduate oral presentations, and social events--and mathematics was a significant part of the program. The American Mathematical Society (AMS) was among the conference session sponsors and was among the 257 exhibitors--institutes, colleges, universities, associations, hospitals, government agencies--that provided information about educational programs and career opportunities in the sciences. Generous support from the National Security Agency (NSA) allowed many math students to attend the SACNAS Conference.

Mathematics-related highlights of the conference:

PRE-CONFERENCE MATHEMATICS INSTITUTES:
Mathematics and Music, Sponsored by the National Security Agency.
Co-chairs: Ricardo Cortez, (Tulane University) and Ivelisse Rubio, (University of Puerto Rico in Humacao). Presenters: Edward Dunne (American Mathematical Society), John B. Little (College of the Holy Cross), Steve Cox (Rice University), and Juan Restrepo (University of Arizona)

Dynamical Systems. Sponsored by the National Security Agency.
Co-chairs: Ricardo Cortez, (Tulane University) and Ivelisse Rubio, (University of Puerto Rico in Humacao). Presenters: Christopher Jones (University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill), Araceli Medina-Bonifant (University of Rhode Island), and Rodrigo A. Perez (Fields Institute in Toronto and Indiana Unviersity/Purdue University at Indianapolis)

GRADUATE ORAL PRESENTATIONS (presenter denoted in bold):
Computable Equivalence Relations on the Natural Numbers. Paul Brodhead (University of Florida Gainesville), Wesley Calvert (University of Notre Dame, IN), Douglas Cenzer (University of Flordia, Gainesville), Valentina Harizanov (George Washington University, Washington, D.C.), Andrei Morozov (Sobolev Institute of Mathematics, Novosibirsk, Russia)

Deterministic Interleavers for Turbo Codes Using Maximally Nonlinear Monomials. Jose E. Lugo-Martinez (University of Puerto Rico in Mayaguez), Carlos J.Corrada-Bravo (University of Puerto Rico in Rio Piedras)

Dispersal on Epidemics: Discrete in Time and Continuous in Space. Karen R. Rios-Soto (Cornell University, Ithaca NY), Carlos Castillo-Chavez(Arizona State University, Tempe)

Award winning oral presentation in mathematics: Competing Species Models with an Infectious Disease. Roberto A. Saenz, Herbert W. Hethcote ( University of Iowa, Iowa City)

Invariant Manifolds and Asymptotic Solutions to the Navier-Stokes Equations. David Uminsky, Eugene Wayne (Boston University)

An Optimization Algorithm foir the Identification of Biochemical Network Models. Martha P. Vera Licona (Virginia Bioinformatics Institute, Blacksburg, VA), LuisD. Garcia-Puente (Texas A&M University, College Station), John McGee (Virginia Bioinformatics Institute, Blacksburg, VA), Niguel Colon-Velez (VirginiaBioinformatics Institute, Blacksburg, VA)

UNDERGRADUATE POSTERS IN MATHEMATICS
The prizewinning poster in mathematics was Modeling Interaction of Predator and Prey Populations on Dynamic Habitats, presented by Julijana Gjorgjieva.

THE AMS EXHIBIT:

Mathematicians Ellen Maycock (Director, AMS Meetings & Professional Services) and Mike Breen (AMS Public Awareness Officer) were in the AMS booth to talk to students about graduate school and career options.

The AMS exhibit drew K-12 science teachers, undergraduate and graduate students, Research Experiences for Undergraduates leaders and faculty. The AMS handed out Interest Data Collection Forms for the Joint AMS/MAA/MSRI/NAM/NCTM project to maintain a record of the professional interests of mathematicians and mathematics educators from underrepresented minority groups.

The exhibit included books, "What can I do with a math degree?" poster, brochures of resources for high school math students and teachers, for undergraduate math students, and for graduate students. Copies of Assistantships & Graduate Fellowships in the Mathematical Sciences were available for undergraduates considering graduate school in mathematics. The AMS held a raffle to give away a copy of the new AMS publication, Change is Possible: Stories of Women and Minorities in Mathematics, by Patricia Clark Kenschaft. The book includes life stories of SACNAS members Cleopatria Martinez, William Vélez, Richard Tapia, and Manuel Berriozábal.

WHO WANTS TO BE A MATHEMATICIAN

The AMS presented Who Wants to Be a Mathematician during during the breakfast on Friday, September 30. AMS Public Awareness Officer Mike Breen emceed the well-attended event, and game co-creator Bill Butterworth (DePaul University) ran the presentation and served as judge. The evening before the game nearly 40 undergraduate students took the qualifying test to participate.

ASPECTS OF PURE AND APPLIED MATHEMATICS Scientific Symposium. Sponsored by the American Mathematical Society.
Chair: Ricardo Cortez (Tulane University). Presenters: Trachette Jackson (University of Michigan), Mary Lou Zeeman (University of Texas at San Antonio), Alejandro Adem (University of Wisconsin-Madison), and Errol Montes-Pizarro (University of Puerto Rico-Cayey)

MATHEMATICS OF THE NEW GENERATION Scientific Symposium. Sponsored by the National Security Agency.
Co-chairs: Erika Camacho (Loyola Marymount University) and Stephen Wirkus California State Polytechnic University). Presenters: Angela Gallegos (University of California, Davis), Alberto Marrero (Valparaiso University), Dámaris Santana-Morant (University of Florida), and Brandilyn Stigler (The Ohio State Unviersity)

CHICANAS IN MATH, SCIENCE AND ENGINEERING Special Interest Forum. Sponsored by Agilent Technologies and the Natural Science Foundation Division of Integrative Biology and Nuerroscience.
Cleopatra Martinez, professor and chair of the Mathematics Department at Phoenix College co-chaired this session.

MATHEMATICS SUMMER PROGRAMS REUNION. Sponsored by the National Security Agency and the American Institute of Mathematics.
Co-chairs: Ivelisse Rubio (University of Puerto Rico in Humacao) and Stephen Wirkus (California State Polytechnic University)

BIOASTATISTICS AND EPIDEMIOLOGY: THE INTERSECTION OF MATH, SCIENCE AND PUBLIC HEALTH Professional Devlopment Session. In-kind support provided by the Department of Biostatistics and the Department of Epidemiology, Harvard School of Public Health.
Presenters in the fields of statistics and biostatistics included Scarlett Bellamy (University of Pennsylvania)) and Javier Rojo (Rice University) and Louise Ryan (Harvard School of Public Health and the Dana-Farber Cancer Institute)

Thanks to the mathematicians who organized sessions, judged the math posters, mentored students, encouraged particiaption in the Who Wants to Be a Mathematician game, and visited the AMS booth. Many of them are part of the SACNAS Biography Project.

Read highlights of the 2004 SACNAS National Conference.

Photographs by AMS Public Awareness Officers Mike Breen and Annette Emerson.