Female graduate students in the Department of Mathematics unite to encourage community and to extend an invitation to prospective MIT students. Laura Carter | School of Science MIT News March 25, 2019 Ten years had passed since 2008’s Women in Mathematics: A Celebration when a few graduate students in the Department of Mathematics approached a […]
WIM News
Solving for fun (and sometimes prizes)
April 5, 2019
Senior Danielle Wang, a two-time Elizabeth Putnam Prize winner, is well on her way to becoming a career mathematician. Sandi Miller | Department of Mathematics March 27, 2019 One early Saturday morning in December, senior Danielle Wang took a seat alongside 164 others taking the 2018 William Lowell Putnam Mathematical Competition in Walker Memorial. For six […]
Q&A: Professor Gigliola Staffilani on women in mathematics
April 5, 2019
More than a decade after creating the Celebration of Women in Mathematics at MIT, Staffilani talks about the present and future of women in the field. Laura Carter | School of Science April 3, 2019 In 2008, Gigliola Staffilani, the Abby Rockefeller Mauzé Professor in the Department of Mathematics, and former MIT assistant professor Katrin […]
National Mathematics Survey
March 10, 2019
Amanda Glazer “You’re a girl, you overthink the problem too much.” Introduction For several decades now, the gender gap in mathematics degree attainment has remained static while the gender gap in college degree conferment has disappeared. According to the National Center for Education Statistics (U.S. Department of Education), women earned 57%, 60% and 52% […]
The Gender Gap in Math and Math Prize for Girls
September 9, 2018
There is a huge gender gap in high school mathematics, according to a recent paper by Professor Glenn Ellison, “Dynamics of the Gender Gap in High Math Achievement.” Of the top 5,000 9th graders participating in the American Mathematics Competitions (AMC) from 1999 to 2007, just 30 percent were young women. By senior year, the number drops […]
Gigliola Staffilani Receives MIT’s Earll M. Murman Award
April 1, 2018
Gigliola Staffilani is this year’s recipient of the Earll M. Murman Award for Excellence in Undergraduate Advising. The award is “presented to a faculty member who has served as an excellent advisor and mentor for undergraduates and who has had a significant impact on their personal lives and academic success.” The award was presented at the 2018 Awards […]