Opportunities & Community

Internships & Research Opportunities

Research Experiences for Undergraduates (REUs)

• Like math?  Like getting paid well for doing math during the summer?  An REU may be just the thing for you.  Here is a fairly comprehensive list of Math REUs, including locations, topics, and deadlines

• Polymath Jr This is not an REU, but rather an online undergraduate research program. It is better to attend and REU, for a variety of reasons, such as stipends and in-person interaction. Unfortunately, at the moment there are so many amazing students who cannot get a place at an REU. This could be because the number of wonderful students is orders of magnitude larger than the number of REU spots, because they are ineligible, they have to stay home during the summer, or for many other reasons. The Polymath Jr aims to provide a research opportunity to everyone and has a deadline after most REU decisions are announced.

Internships

This is in no way an exhaustive list of internship opportunities.  It is based on places I have some connections.  If you work somewhere that offers internships to undergraduates and would like me to post information about them, please contact me.

• NSA (Early Deadline!) Love Number Theory, Abstract Algebra, Graph Theory, or Computer Science.  This internship is a great opportunity for between your junior and senior year, or even the summer after you graduate.  You just need to be an undergraduate when you apply, not at the time of the internship.  

• RTX (Raytheon). Internships on a rolling basis.  Don't apply before talking to me.  I can connect you with someone at Raytheon.

• NIST SURF Program (Applications close end of January)

• SANDIA National Laboratory has a number of internship opportunities for students in STEM

• Pacific Northwest National Laboratory (PNNL) Internships

Conferences and Workshops

• NCUWM Annual conference for female identifying undergraduate mathematicians.  Great venue to present your research and/or build professional connections that can change your life.  I strongly recommend it.  Talk to me if you have questions about funding.

• EDGE A summer program for women or gender nonconforming individuals who 1) are applying to PhD programs in the mathematical sciences, or 2) just completed their first year in a PhD program in the mathematical sciences.   lt has a great record of success for mentoring individuals from underrepresented groups and helping them be successful in graduate programs.

The Community of Mathematicians - You Belong Here

Resources and Random Fun Math Related Things

Awesome Resources:

• 3blue1brown - Excellent video series explaining many mathematical concepts.  The Essence of Linear Algebra series explains common concepts from a geometric perspective, complete with very illuminating graphics!

• FindStat - an amazing database of combinatorial objects, maps, and statistics that can be called using SageMath code.  Just personally, my collaborators and I have used it to make several pattern discoveries that inspired proofs and publications

Insider Mathematics:

• Colin Starr's Glossary of Common Mathematical Terms - these are terms that get thrown around a lot, but are not always clearly defined (like "map", "unique", "respectively")

• Cam McLeman's Ten Coolest Numbers - and proof that nothing is ever truly gone if you posted it once while you were in grad school

Math & Art

• Bridges: An annual conference on connections between mathematics, art, architecture, music, and culture 

• American Mathematical Association hosts a competition for math-inspired poetry.  You can learn more about the competition and see past winning poems here: https://www.ams.org/programs/students/math-poetry 

Mathematics & Fiber Arts

• Adventures in Mathematical Knitting

• Dr. Sarah-Marie Belcastro's collection of knitting and mathematical fiber arts resources

• Get inspiration (and patterns) from the website of self-proclaimed mathkniticians Pat Ashforth and Steve Plummer 

Mathematics and Theater Arts

Many wonderful mathematicians and talented actors have starred in Willamette Theater productions.  Even more math majors are involved behind the scenes, building sets, working sound systems, etc. You can find out more about this season's productions and buy tickets here: https://willamette.edu/arts/theatre/current-season/index.html

To learn more about the intersection of mathematics and theater (on stage and screen) check out the following: 

• The 40 Best Movies With Mathematics, Ranked  Though not on the list, you can see a rather lackluster explanation of the very awesome Snake lemma (along with some dated misogyny) in the first few minutes of the 1980s film It's My Turn.  I've only seen the Snake Lemma part of this movie myself, so no idea if the rest of the film is any good.  

• Matheatre This theater company that tells stories to inspire excitement about math and science grew out of a Minnesota Fringe Festival performance of Calculus: The Musical!

• You can learn more about mathematics and theater in the book The Proof Stage: How Theater Reveals the Human Truth of Mathematics which chronicles how playwrights from Alfred Jarry and Samuel Beckett to Tom Stoppard and Simon McBurney brought the power of abstract mathematics to the human stage.   

• Mathematicians by day, Actors by night (or vice versa)

  • Corrine Yap is an Assistant Professor of Mathematics at Georgia Tech, an alumnus of the Willamette Math Consortium REU, a co-author, and an all-around cool person.  She majored in Math and Theater at Sarah Lawrence, and in addition to impressing audiences with her talks on mathematics, she wows them with her one-woman play Uniform Convergence (which has had showings at the Joint Math Meetings, and here at Willamette University).

  • Danica McKellar has a BS in Mathematics and an Erdős–Bacon number of six. She is an American actress, mathematics writer, and education advocate.  She starred in the television series The Wonder Years, and the Netflix series Project Mc2.

  • Victoria Gould is a British actress, best known for her role on the BBC television soap opera EastEnders.  She has a Master's in mathematics and is a member of the progressive theater company Complicite. 

  • Felicia Day is an American actress, writer, and web series creator who has a Bachelor's degree in Music and Mathematics. She is the creator and star of the web series The Guild, played Vi in the series Buffy the Vampire Slayer, and had a recurring role on Supernatural. She had roles in Bring It On Again and Dr. Horrible's Sing-Along Blog

  • And eclipsing all of these is our very own Kathryn Nyman.  She has a remarkable Erdős–Bacon number of four and can be spotted on both The Guild and Public Enemies.  

Have Ideas?  

If there are resources you think I should include here, please send them my way.

Disclaimer: This website is under discontinuous construction.