June 23 Day 837: Celebrating RAB Part II

The second half of the mini symposium celebrating the long success of Richard Brualdi featured four more speakers. Michael Schroeder, John Goldwasser, me, and the man himself. More stories, more mathematics, more fun. It was the most technologically diverse session I’ve seen. First, we got the lapel mike working so we could walk about theContinue reading “June 23 Day 837: Celebrating RAB Part II”

June 21 Day 835: Great Lessons

Day two of the ILAS conference in Galway featured the first half of the mini symposium honoring the work of my thesis advisor, Richard Brualdi. It is the reason I am here. The “Brualdi insights” that I pick up from today’s speakers: are: Drive somewhere with Richard (preferably to a conference.) The key to writingContinue reading “June 21 Day 835: Great Lessons”

June 20 Day 834: More Than 15,000 Steps

It’s Day one of the ILAS Conference in Galway. My favorite math moment of the day—Naiomi Cameron’s talk on Riordan arrays. I admit to being a little biased since she is a collaborator, but it was the right mix of introduction, images, results, and intuition for me. My favorite coincidence was following the blue dottedContinue reading “June 20 Day 834: More Than 15,000 Steps”

June 18-19: Days 832-833 Long Days Journey Through the Night

We started at 8 am pacific time on June 18 with our youngest driving Mark and me to the SEA airport and ended June 19 at 5 pm in Irish summer time with our arrival at the Hardiman Hotel on Eyre Square in Galway. The time here is 8 hours ahead of our home zone,Continue reading “June 18-19: Days 832-833 Long Days Journey Through the Night”

April 22 Day 775: Ready for Take-off?

At the start of today’s virtual meeting and I was faced with the following screen. Umm… OK. But how long do I wait until I start to worry? I emailed the organizer and got a direct link pretty quickly. The session was good although sparsely attended. I chalked it up to the pains of anContinue reading “April 22 Day 775: Ready for Take-off?”

April 8 Day 761: A Virtual Friday Evening at #JMM2022

I enjoyed the Association for Women in Mathematics (AWM) poster session, business meeting, and award reception this evening. I love that they created a Gather space for the event. It was an opportunity to catch up with friends and celebrate accomplishments. AWM is a mighty organization that empowered me to become a better leader. IContinue reading “April 8 Day 761: A Virtual Friday Evening at #JMM2022”

April 7 Day 760: A Conference Deferred

I am so over virtual conferences. It’s hard to motivate myself to attend and focus. Based on the attendance I am seeing at some of the sessions today, I’m not the only person feeling this way. The big January Math Meeting (AKA JMM2022) didn’t happen in January because of the omicron variant. Joining math friendsContinue reading “April 7 Day 760: A Conference Deferred”

April 2 Day 755: Making the Most of the Emergency Interruption

It was the final contributed talk session of the PNW MAA Spring Meeting. Dr. Ksenija Simic-Muller was in the middle of her presentation on humanizing and rehumanizing mathematics when the fire alarms were triggered. We proceeded out of the building in a calm and orderly fashion. And made use of the interruption to take aContinue reading “April 2 Day 755: Making the Most of the Emergency Interruption”

April 1 Day 754: PNWMAA ❤️

Welcome to Day 1 of the Pacific Northwest MAA Section Meeting. What a treat to be at an in person meeting in my home section! True, we had to show vaccination status (or a negative covid test) and wear masks, but it was so wonderful to be with friends—many of whom I have not seen,Continue reading “April 1 Day 754: PNWMAA ❤️”

March 12 Day 734: Section Reflection

Congratulations to the MAA SE Section on their Centennial. It was an honor to celebrate this milestone at their Spring 2022 meeting hosted by Berry College. The signage was impressive—from the huge welcome at the entrance to the wayfinding signs throughout, there was never a doubt where to go next. This was their first in-personContinue reading “March 12 Day 734: Section Reflection”