What is the Standing Committee for Gender Equality in Science (SCGES)?
 
From 2017 to 2019, a number of international scientific organizations, including the IMU, took part in the project A Global Approach to the Gender Gap in Mathematical, Computing, and Natural Sciences: How to Measure It, How to Reduce It?, known as the “Gender Gap in Science Project”. The main goal of the project was to produce sound data about gender gap in science to support the choices of interventions that scientific unions could feasibly undertake. In 2020, the Gender Gap in Science Book was published, presenting the methodology, results, activities and recommendations of the project. The SCGES was formed as a follow-up to this project, reflecting a shared wish among these organizations to continue to act together to further promote gender equality in science. Its aim is to ensure liaison amongst international scientific unions to foster gender equality and the implementation of recommendations of the “Gender Gap in Science Project”.

The SCGES fourth Annual Report has just been published and can be found on the SCGES website.  Compiled by twenty-one of its partners, the report contains information on each union’s situation and the actions that they have undertaken regarding gender equality in the scientific discipline they represent.

The Committee for Women in Mathematics (CWM) is pleased to announce the CWM 2025 Call for activities or initiatives aimed at supporting women in mathematics. These activities should take place between March 2025 and February 2026.

The CWM grant offers financial support of up to €3,000 per initiative.

Application Deadline: December 13, 2024
How to Apply: Submit your application via IMU Grants.

For detailed information, please read the full call here: Download the CWM Call 2025 PDF

Webinar on the CWM Call 2025

CWM hosted an informative webinar on November 27, 2024, to provide an overview of the CWM Call 2025, explain the new application process, and address participant questions.

If you missed the event, you can:

Watch the recording and access the slides here.
 

We encourage all interested parties to review these materials and submit their applications.

The Standing Committee for Gender Equality in Science (SCGES) has just launched “Women scientists around the world: strategies for gender equality”, a new joint project with the International Science Council (ISC). The project consists in a series of articles, based on interviews with women scientists from various disciplines and geographic regions, several of whom have attained leadership roles in scientific organizations. It explores the drivers and barriers to gender representation in scientific organizations, aiming  to document from a qualitative point of view the obstacles to gender equality in science, and the strategies developed to reach it.

The first blog introducing the series is signed by Léa Nacache: Who shapes the future of science? Examining the stark gender imbalance in scientific leadership: https://gender-equality-in-science.org/2024/10/14/who-shapes-the-future-of-science-examining-the-stark-gender-imbalance-in-scientific-leadership/

The first article gives voice to Dr. Encieh Erfani, an Iranian physicist specialized in cosmology and ISC Fellow, who resigned from her academic position in Iran in 2022 as a protest in honor of Mahsa Amini, a young woman who died in custody after being detained for allegedly violating Iran’s compulsory hijab law. In the face of gender apartheid: Dr. Erfani’s path (signed by Léa Nacache and Marie-Françoise Roy) https://gender-equality-in-science.org/2024/10/17/in-the-face-of-gender-apartheid-dr-erfanis-path/

The second piece is devoted to former CWM member Marie Françoise Ouedraogo. She was the first woman in Burkina Faso to earn a PhD in mathematics, and founded the  Association of Women in Mathematics in Africa (AWMA) in 2013. From pioneer to leader: Paving the way for African women in mathematics (signed by Léa Nacache and Marie-Françoise Roy) https://gender-equality-in-science.org/2024/10/21/from-pioneer-to-leader-paving-the-way-for-african-women-in-mathematics/

The SCGES is an independent committee formed in 2020 by several international scientific organizations, including the IMU. It is a follow-up to the “Gender Gap in Science Project”, ensuring  liaison amongst international scientific unions to foster gender equality, and the implementation of the project's recommendations.
https://gender-equality-in-science.org/wp-content/uploads/2023/11/SCGESreport2022-2023.pdf

The Association for Women in Mathematics (AWM) will present AWM Prizes and Awards during the Joint Prize Session of the JMM, scheduled for January 8 – 11, 2025 in Seattle, WA.

The 2025 Fellows of AWM (FAWM) are Katrina D. Barron (University of Notre Dame), Guozhen Lu (University of Connecticut), Marianne Korten (Kansas State University), Kathryn Leonard, (Occidental College), Fengyan Li, (Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute), Lillian B. Pierce, (Duke University), Magdalena Daniela Toda, (Texas Tech University). The AWM Fellows Program recognizes individuals who have demonstrated a sustained commitment to the support and advancement of women in the mathematical sciences, consistent with the AWM mission: “to encourage women and girls to study and to have active careers in the mathematical sciences, and to promote equal opportunity and the equal treatment of women and girls in the mathematical sciences.” Press release.

The 2025 Joan & Joseph Birman Research Prize in Topology and Geometry will be awarded to Mona Merling, Associate Professor of Mathematics at the University of Pennsylvania.Established in 2012, the AWM Joan & Joseph Birman Research Prize highlights exceptional research in topology/geometry by a woman early in her career. Press release.

The recipient of the inaugural AWM Mary & Alfie Gray Award for Social Justice is Chad M. Topaz, Professor of Complex Systems at Williams College and co-founder of the Institute for the Quantitative Study of Inclusion, Diversity, and Equity (QSIDE). The Award recognizes Topaz for courageous and innovative research-to-action work that vigorously and imaginatively brings the methods of mathematics and data science to bear on social justice challenges in the legal system, education, arts and media, and other fields, shedding new light on systemic injustice and its consequences. Press release.

The 2025 Gweneth Humphreys Award will be awarded to Dewey Taylor, Professor of Mathematics, Virginia Commonwealth University (VCU). The Award recognizes the world-wide reach of Dr. Taylor’s mentorship activities. Press release.

The 2025 Louise Hay Award for Contributions to Mathematics Education will be presented to Pamela E. Harris, Associate Professor of Mathematics, University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee. She is being honored for her dedication to diversity and equity in academia, for her success in fostering others’ growth in how they support diversity and equity and for her brilliance, dedication, and passion as an educator who teaches both mathematics and equity. Press release.

The 2025 Service Award recipients are: Kuei-Nuan Lin, Associate Professor of Mathematics at Penn State Greater Allegheny, who is being recognized for her leadership of the AWM Mentor Network program, for her service on the Education and Outreach Portfolio Committee and on the AWM-NSF Travel Grants Selection Committee, and for her work as an Associate Editor for the 2022 AWM Symposium Proceedings volume; and Mei Yin, Professor of Mathematics, University of Denver, who is recognized for founding and leading the AWM Student Chapter at the University of Denver for the past nine years, for supporting the AWM Women in Algebraic Combinatorics (WiAC) Research Network. More information here.

The AWM Distinguished Service Award will be presented to Anne Leggett, Professor Emerita, Loyola University Chicago. Anne is being honored in particular for her dedication to the AWM’s Newsletter as editor for 46 years and for numerous contributions to AWM’s institutional structure and memory. More information here.

AWM will award the 35th Annual Alice T. Schafer Prizes for Excellence in Mathematics by an Undergraduate Woman to tahda queer, a mathematics and interdisciplinary studies major at City University of New York, and Marie-Hélène Tomé, a mathematics major at Duke University and  Katherine Tung, a mathematics major at Harvard University. More information here.

Isabelle Gallagher was elected SMF president on June 15 2024. A specialist of partial differential equations and fluid mechanichs, she was an invited speaker at the International Congress of Mathematicians in 2014. She won the CNRS Silver Medal in 2016 and the Prix Sophie Germain in 2018.

The Annual Conference of IWM during July 11-13, 2024, aims to bring together women students, college and university teachers and researchers working at the frontiers of mathematics to exchange mathematical ideas and share their experiences. A major goal of this event is to enable junior women mathematicians to interact with their senior colleagues, both individually and in small groups.
The application for participation in the conference will be open till the midnight of May 03, 2024.
Information and application here.

The activities of IWM are funded by the National Board for Higher Mathematics (NBHM), Department of Atomic Energy (DAE), Govt. of India and are supported by the Committee for Women in Mathematics (CWM), International Mathematical Union (IMU).

The May 12 initiative group is launching the May 12 2024 campaign. The May12 initiative brings together local or virtual events celebrating women in mathematics which take place in the period 1 May to 15 June. The main focus are initiatives coming from within academia.

One special idea in 2024: Courtesy of Les films d’ici, are offered the two 11 minutes-length animated documentaries "Alicia Boole in the land of polytopes /Alicia Boole au pays des polytopes »  and « Kovaleskaya' Spinning Top/La toupie de Kovaleskaya », to be screened between 1st and 20th of May.

More information here.

CWM ambassador Olena Vaneeva was elected corresponding member of the Academy of Sciences of Ukraine. She is only the second woman mathematician that received these high honors.
More info here.

The National Academy of Exact, Physical and Natural Sciences of Argentina celebrates its 150 years of existence. Its board of directors will be renewed and a woman was elected for the first time in the history of the prestigious institution. Alicia Dickenstein has been IMU vice-president (2015-2018)  and is CWM Ambassador.
More information (in Spanish) here and here.