Supporting women in mathematics

The faculty is now the first Faculty of Mathematics to hold Sponsoring Institutional Membership of the Association for Women in Mathematics (AWM). 

AWM encourages 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.

“As the chair of Women in Mathematics (WiM) committee, my primary goal is to support and advocate for our women in the faculty. With this sponsorship we also form a partnership between WiM members and the larger Association for Women in Mathematics,” said Ghazal Geshnizjani. “Our members now can automatically become member of the society upon request and this will provide many networking and other opportunities for them.” 

AWM provides various programs and platforms to support women directly as well as to help influence the mathematics culture more generally. Some of these programs/platforms include:

• Networking opportunities for active undergraduate or graduate students and for women faculty in research departments 
• Awards to recognize and showcase the work of exceptional women and men.
• Grants for Travel and Mentoring
• Meetings, such as AWM Research Symposium
• Resources about careers
• and many more. 

“We need to take more initiatives and concrete actions to advocate for women, and particularly women of colour, who are disproportionately facing obstacles in pursuing careers in mathematics. This move by our faculty constitutes one of such initiatives,” said Mark Giesbrecht, dean of the Faculty of Mathematics. “Sponsoring the programs of AWM, currently the leading non-profit society for women in the mathematical sciences around the world, shows our commitment to support women in mathematics globally.” 

As sponsors, our female-identifying faculty, postdoctoral fellows and students can become members by requesting a membership application from Geshnizjani (ggeshniz@uwaterloo.ca). The Faculty will also receive up to 15 newsletter subscriptions and AWM Symposium Discounts for each non-student member. In addition to the promotion of the Faculty of Mathematics in various publications, we receive discounted advertising.