RUSMP Director, Anne Papakonstantinou, and Director of Research and Evaluation, Adem Ekmekci, presented at the Association for Women in Mathematics Research Symposium held on the Rice University campus on April 6-7, 2019. The bi-annual symposium, attended by almost 350 mathematicians, showcased research from women across the mathematical sciences working in academia, government and industry, as well as featured women across the career spectrum: undergraduates, graduate students, postdocs, and professionals. Rice mathematics Ph.D. graduate and former RUSMP participant, Karoline Pershell, Executive Director of AWM, was the conference organizer. Pershell commented that "as an RUSMP alum, I am an advocate for RUSMP's mission and its long-term strategy of how to change the landscape of mathematics in the greater Houston area. AWM was pleased that RUSMP was able to share its work at the Research Symposium with math researchers and math educators so that RUSMP can be adapted and adopted in new cities." Rice University Professor of Mathematics Shelly Harvey and Professor of Computational and Applied Mathematics Beatrice Riviere served on the Symposium's organizing committee.
The RUSMP presentations were part of a research session entitled "Education Partnerships: University Mathematics Faculty and K-12 Mathematics Teachers" jointly presented with Evan Rushton, Project Manager, Universitry of Southern California’s (USC) Joan Herman and Richard Rasiej Mathematics Initiative and Cymra Haskell, Professor (Teaching) of Mathematics at USC. Papakonstantinou's talk, "The Rice University School Mathematics Project: Its Evolution and Current Efforts" focused on both RUSMP's rich history of helping the K-12 education community and on the Project's current far-reaching STEM endeavors. Ekmekci discussed the importance of mathematics education and highlighted RUSMP's research efforts in his talk, "Being Research-Based and Research-Minded in Helping K-12 Mathematics Education."
In addition to the presentations, RUSMP was also showcased with an exhibit during the symposium. The table, manned by RUSMP Executive Director Richard Parr and Rice NSF Noyce Fellows (NSF Grant No. 1556006), Edmonia Everett, Stacy Jaster, Ralph Polley, and Lan Wu, allowed attendees to learn more about RUSMP and see the multi-faceted work being done by the organization.
Papakonstantinou and her daughter Joanna Papakonstantinou, Mathematics Teacher at Episcopal High School, were also each honored at the symposium’s Saturday night banquet for their tireless work in mentoring women at all stages in education to continue their pursuit of mathematics and mathematics-related studies.