image: This shows Carleton SMP community members (spanning SMP years 1995 to 2011) at the annual summer reunion. Carleton's SMP is a recipient of the 2014 AMS Programs that Make a Difference Award. view more
Credit: Photo courtesy of the Carleton Summer Mathematics Program.
The annual award was created by the AMS Committee on the Profession to recognize outstanding programs that successfully address the issue of underrepresented groups in mathematics.
Allan Greenleaf of the University of Rochester, who serves as chair of the Committee on the Profession, said, "The Carleton College Summer Math Program has been making a difference since it began in 1995. Each summer, the program engages its participants, all female, with exciting and challenging mathematics and brings them into a stimulating and supportive community of women who share a passion for mathematics and have excelled in the subject."
The main focus of the Carleton College SMP is to increase the probability that the participants will attempt and achieve advanced degrees in mathematics. To date, 56 SMP alumnae have earned PhDs, and 71 are currently enrolled in graduate programs in the mathematical sciences. The SMP is run by Carleton College mathematics professors Deanna Haunsperger and Stephen Kennedy.
The program consists of four weeks of intense coursework, seminars, and group discussions all aimed at challenging the participants and providing them with a network of peers and mentors. The program has expanded to include many activities for its extensive network of alumnae. Each summer there is a three-day reunion conference and several recent PhDs are invited back for two to three weeks to work intensively on their own research programs while serving as mentors to that summer's participants.
Through all of their activities, the organizers of SMP have formed an impressive vertically-integrated support network, consisting of members of the SMP community. Alumnae of the program remark on the profound and lasting impact their participation in SMP has had on their careers. They are active, engaged mathematicians who also recognize the importance of mentoring other women in the field.
Also receiving this year's Mathematics Programs that Make a Difference Award is the Rice University Summer Institute in Statistics (this program has now moved to the University of Nevada at Reno and has been renamed as the Research for Undergraduates Summer Institute of Statistics at the University of Nevada at Reno, RUSIS@UNR).
The official announcement of the award to the Carleton College SMP, including the selection committee's citation, is available from the AMS Public Awareness Office and will appear in the May 2014 issue of the Notices of the AMS. On April 10th, that issue will be available on the Notices web site http://www.ams.org/notices; no subscription is necessary.
Find out more about this and other AMS awards on the web at http://www.ams.org/profession/prizes-awards/prizes.
Founded in 1888 to further mathematical research and scholarship, today the more than 30,000 member American Mathematical Society fulfills its mission through programs and services that promote mathematical research and its uses, strengthen mathematical education, and foster awareness and appreciation of mathematics and its connections to other disciplines and to everyday life.