INDEX
OTHER AMS SESSIONS
SIGN UP TODAY!
pop up description layer
red arrow CLICK HERE TO SEARCH THIS MEETING SITE ONLY.
























Department Chairs Workshop, Tuesday, 8:00 a.m. to 6:30 p.m. This workshop is intended to stimulate discussion among attending chairs and workshop leaders. Sharing ideas and experiences with peers provides a form of department chair therapy, creating an environment that enables attending chairs to address departmental matters from new perspectives. Workshop leaders will be Krishnaswami Alladi, Department Chair of Mathematics, University of Florida; Deanna Caveny, Department Chair of Mathematics, College of Charleston; Peter March, Department Chair of Mathematics, The Ohio State University; and Robert Olin, Dean of Arts and Sciences, University of Alabama-Tuscaloosa.

Past workshop sessions have focused on a range of issues facing departments today, including personnel issues (staff and faculty), long range planning, hiring, promotion and tenure, budget management, assessments, outreach, stewardship, junior faculty development, communication, and departmental leadership.

There is a registration fee for the workshop of $75, which includes lunch and a post-workshop reception. This is separate from the Joint Mathematics Meetings. If you would like to attend the workshop, please complete the RSVP form located at http://www.ams.org/government/ChairsWorkshop2005.RSVPForm.pdf and return it along with your check as outlined on the form. The RSVP form also includes space for your input in helping to identify important and timely topics that should be addressed at this workshop. Agenda, materials and location information will be sent to all registered attendees prior to the meeting.

Is It A Proof Yet?, Wednesday, 4:00 p.m. to 5:30 p.m., organized by Allyn Jackson, AMS. When is a proof a proof? What makes a proof believable or not? When is a gap or a lack of detail considered serious enough to threaten a proof's reliability? When is it acceptable to use computers in proofs? How can extremely long and complex proofs be evaluated? When can probabilistic proofs be considered mathematical proofs? This panel discussion will explore these questions, making reference to some specific examples in recent mathematical developments, such as the proof of the four-color theorem, Perelman's work on the Poincare Conjecture and Thurston's Geometrization Conjecture, and probabilistically checkable proofs. The panel will be moderated by Keith J. Devlin, Stanford University; panelists are Richard DeMillo, Georgia Institute of Technology; Robin Wilson, Open University; Avi Wigderson, Institute for Advanced Study; Bruce A. Kleiner, University of Michigan, Ann Arbor, and Thomas Hales, University of Pittsburgh.

Who Wants to be a Mathematician, Thursday, 10:00 a.m. to 11:00 a.m., organized by Michael A. Breen and Annette W. Emerson, AMS; and William T. Butterworth, Barat College of DePaul University. This is a new version of the popular game. This year, eight high school students from Atlanta and the surrounding region will have a chance to win up to $4000 by answering questions about mathematics. Contestants can ask for help from anyone in the audience, so the more people in the audience who know mathematics, the better it is for the contestants. You are invited to come and take part in this educational and fun presentation.

The Continuum Hypothesis Revisited: New Perspectives, Thursday, 10:30 p.m. to 12:00 noon, moderated by Keith Devlin, Stanford University. Presenters include Paul J. Cohen, Stanford University; Donald A. Martin, University of California Los Angeles; and W. Hugh Woodin, University of California Berkeley. This panel is cosponsored by the Association for Symbolic Logic.

T. A. Development Using Case Studies: A Workshop for Faculty, Friday, 9:30 a.m. to 10:55 a.m. and 1:00 p.m. to 2:30 p.m. Solomon Friedberg, Boston College, will guide workshop participants in the effective use of the case studies method as a tool in preparing Teaching Assistants for their important roles as classroom instructors. The faculty edition of the publication Teaching Mathematics in Colleges and Universities: Case Studies for Today's Classroom will be provided to workshop participants at no charge, compliments of the AMS. For more information on the publication, visit the AMS Bookstore (www.ams.org/bookstore) and enter "CBMATH/10.F" in the QuickSearch window. There is a separate registration fee of $20 to participate; see the registration and housing form. There are also modest travel grants for this workshop available on a very limited basis. Click here to get further information.

The Panel, Friday, 9:30 a.m. to 10:55 a.m. This one act play is set in Ballston VA, at the headquarters of mathematicians' favorite federal agency. It is a historical drama based on, and accurately adhering to, actual events, but typical of the genre, it also seeks to entertain while penetrating facets of the human (and, of course, mathematical) condition. The audience will be challenged to reflect on the realities presented and will have a sense of deja vu at the characters portrayed.

The work is written and produced by the National Science Foundation,
Division of Mathematical Sciences; the staff and the cast will consist of well-known mathematical thespians at this world premier performance. This presentation will be moderated by William Rundell, National Science Foundation.

Advances in Biomedical Research Will Depend on Help from the Mathematical Sciences, Friday, 2:30 p.m. to 4:00 p.m. This Committee on Science Policy session is intended for a general audience having interest in learning about areas in biomedical research where contributions from the mathematical sciences are critical. Jeremy Berg, Director of the National Institute of General Medical Sciences (one of the institutes of the National Institutes of Health), will talk about the National Institutes of Health's interest in supporting mathematical sciences research that leads to solutions of biomedical problems. In an effort to further illustrate the need for the mathematical sciences in biomedical research, Adam Paul Arkin, Department of Bioengineering, University of California Berkeley, will talk about the mathematical challenges in the analysis of cellular systems.

AMS Committee on Science Policy Panel Discussion: Friday, 2:30 p.m. to 4:00 p.m.

AMS Committee on Education Panel Discussion: Saturday, 8:30 a.m. to 10:00 a.m.

Mathematicians as Educators, Saturday, 8:30 a.m. to 10:00 a.m., moderated by William G. McCallum, University of Arizona. Mathematicians have a crucial role to play in mathematics education at all levels. However, beyond the teaching of undergraduate classes, the role of mathematicians as educators is often not well delineated in professional practice, not at the forefront of professional consciousness, and not well described in procedures for evaluation and promotion. This panel presents three views of the role of mathematicians in education: one from a mathematician who works on education, one from a mathematics education researcher, and one from a department chair. Sponsored by the AMS Committee on Education, the panel features presentations by Kristin L. Umland, University of New Mexico, A hybrid model: The role of mathematician educators in mathematics departments; Raven McCrory, Michigan State University, Undergraduate mathematics textbooks for prospective elementary teachers: Are books by mathematicians different?; and Steven G. Krantz, Washington University in St. Louis: The research mathematician looks at classroom teaching: A view from the top.

Call for Sponsors!

Call for Exhibitors!

NEWChildcare Services! Read all about it.