Diversity
Diversity@ICERM
At ICERM, diversity and inclusion is a part of our core mission and strategic goals. We are committed to promoting a safe, productive, and diverse research environment that encourages the free exchange of ideas among all participants. As part of this commitment, we recruit broadly and value the contributions of every participant regardless of their professional rank, personal identity or orientation.
Our Advisory Boards work to ensure the participation of women and underrepresented minorities in all its programs and on all its boards. ICERM Directors are proactive in seeking representation of women and minorities in its undergraduate, graduate, and postdoctoral programs as well as on program and workshop organizing committees. They also liaise closely with organizing committees to increase diversity among funded participants.
Our Associate Director of Diversity and Outreach, Ulrica Wilson (Morehouse College) provides leadership in meeting our institutional diversity goals: working to ensure diversity throughout ICERM's programs, assisting our boards in the development of policies and procedures, participating in national meetings and conferences, and helping to identify and obtain funding for programs and activities. ICERM also maintains a Departmental Diversity and Inclusion Action Plan (DDIAP) established university-wide by Brown's Office of Institutional Diversity and Inclusion and updated annually.
Diversity Beyond ICERM
ICERM is also committed to participating in events held across the country that address diversity throughout the mathematics community and strongly supports the National Science Foundation's goals of expanding the numbers and diversity of individuals engaged in mathematical sciences.
ICERM regularly hosts and/or participates in conferences such as the AWM 40 Years and Counting Symposium, the Conference for African American Researchers in the Mathematical Sciences (CAARMS), Field of Dreams, Society for Advancement of Chicanos/Hispanics and Native Americans in Science (SACNAS), GirlsGetMath@ICERM, and the Nebraska Conference for Undergraduate Women in Mathematics. As part of this commitment, ICERM is a member of the Mathematical Sciences Institutes Diversity Initiative (MSIDI), funded by the NSF.



Associated Events at ICERM
GirlsGetMath@ICERM: Summer Math Camp for High Schoolers
Aug 16 - 20, 2021
GirlsGetMath@ICERM is a five-day non-residential mathematics program that is open to high schoolers, regardless of gender, who live in or near greater Rhode Island and who will be entering the 10th or 11th grade in the fall of 2021. (Exceptions made for existing 2020 applicant pool.)
GirlsGetMath occurs in an encouraging environment that builds young students' confidence in math and science.
GirlsGetMath expands participants' understanding and knowledge of mathematics through computations and experimentations.
GirlsGetMath provides expert mathematical training and mentoring.
GirlsGetMath@ICERM encourages 20-25 high schoolers to explore topics such as cryptography, the mathematics of voting, matrix algebra, prime numbers and factoring, and fractals.
The goals of the program are:
- to show young... (more)
Organizing Committee
- Amalia Culiuc
- Katharine Ott
- Ulrica Wilson

ON-LINE MODULES OFFERED: GirlsGetMath: Summer Math Camp for High Schoolers
Aug 10 - 14, 2020
GirlsGetMath@ICERM is a five-day non-residential mathematics program that is open to high schoolers, regardless of gender identity, who live in or near greater Rhode Island and who will be entering the 10th or 11th grade in the fall of 2020.
GirlsGetMath occurs in an encouraging environment that builds young students' confidence in math and science.
GirlsGetMath expands participants' understanding and knowledge of mathematics through computations and experimentations.
GirlsGetMath provides expert mathematical training and mentoring.
GirlsGetMath@ICERM encourages 20-25 high schoolers to explore topics such as cryptography, the mathematics of voting, image processing, prime numbers and factoring, and fractals.
The goals of the program are:
- to show young adults that the study of mathematics can be... (more)

VIRTUAL ONLY: Women in Algebraic Geometry
Jul 27 - 31, 2020
The Women in Algebraic Geometry Collaborative Research Workshop will bring together researchers in algebraic geometry to work in groups of 4-6, each led by one or two senior mathematicians. The goals of this workshop are: to advance the frontiers of modern algebraic geometry, including through explicit computations and experimentation, and to strengthen the community of women and non-binary mathematicians working in algebraic geometry. This workshop capitalizes on momentum from a series of recent events for women in algebraic geometry, starting in 2015 with the IAS Program for Women in Mathematics on algebraic geometry.
Successful applicants will be assigned to a group based on their research interests. The groups will work on open-ended projects in diverse areas of current interest, including moduli spaces and combinatorics, degenerations, and birational geometry. Several of the proposed projects extensively involve experimentation and computation, which will increase the likelihood... (more)
Organizing Committee
- Melody Chan
- Antonella Grassi
- Rohini Ramadas
- Julie Rana
- Isabel Vogt

GirlsGetMath@ICERM: Summer Math Camp for High Schoolers
Aug 12 - 16, 2019
GirlsGetMath@ICERM is a five-day non-residential mathematics program that is open to high schoolers, regardless of gender, who live in or near greater Rhode Island and who will be entering the 10th or 11th grade in the fall of 2019.
GirlsGetMath occurs in an encouraging environment that builds young students' confidence in math and science.
GirlsGetMath expands participants' understanding and knowledge of mathematics through computations and experimentations.
GirlsGetMath provides expert mathematical training and mentoring.
GirlsGetMath@ICERM encourages 20-25 high schoolers to explore topics such as cryptography, the mathematics of voting, image processing, prime numbers and factoring, and fractals.
The goals of the program are:
- to show young adults that the study of mathematics can be exciting,... (more)
Organizing Committee
- Amalia Culiuc
- Augustine O'Keefe
- Katharine Ott
- Ulrica Wilson

Women in Data Science and Mathematics (WiSDM) 2019
Jul 29 - Aug 2, 2019
WiSDM 2019 is a research collaboration workshop targeted toward people working in data science and mathematics. This program will bring together researchers at all stages of their careers, from graduate students to senior researchers, to collaborate on problems in data science.
Data science is typically characterized as work at the intersection of mathematics, computer science, statistics, and an application domain. The scientific focus will be on cutting-edge problems in network analysis for gene detection, group dynamics, graph clustering, novel statistical and topological learning algorithms, tensor product decompositions, reconciliation of assurance of anonymity and privacy with utility measures for data transfer and analytics, as well as efficient and accurate completion, inference and fusion methods for large data and correlations.
Applications are now open. Applicants should rank their top 3 choices of projects in their personal statement. Project descriptions can be found... (more)
Organizing Committee
- Ellen Gasparovic
- Kathryn Leonard
- Linda Ness

Women in Symplectic and Contact Geometry and Topology workshop (WiSCon)
Jul 22 - 26, 2019
The Women in Symplectic and Contact Geometry and Topology workshop (WiSCon) is a Research Collaboration Conference for Women (RCCW) in the fields of contact and symplectic geometry/topology and related areas of low-dimensional topology. The goal of this workshop is to bring together researchers at various career stages in these mathematical areas to collaborate in groups on projects designed and led by leaders in the field.
The mathematical fields of symplectic and contact geometry/topology, rooted in concepts from classical physics, have experienced huge growth in the past few decades. This growth has come in many forms, including multiple flavors of homology theories, symplectic embedding problems, techniques for regularizing spaces of pseudoholomorphic curves, and examples of mirror symmetry, to name a few. This workshop aims to generate research collaborations which build on the growing momentum in these topics, while fostering a network for the traditionally underrepresented... (more)
Organizing Committee
- Bahar Acu
- Catherine Cannizzo
- Dusa McDuff
- Ziva Myer
- Yu Pan
- Lisa Traynor

Blackwell-Tapia Conference 2018
Nov 9 - 10, 2018
The NSF Mathematical Sciences Institutes Diversity Committee hosts the 2018 Blackwell-Tapia Conference and Awards Ceremony. This is the ninth conference since 2000, held every other year, with the location rotating among NSF Mathematics Institutes. The conference and prize honors David Blackwell, the first African-American member of the National Academy of Science, and Richard Tapia, winner of the National Medal of Science in 2010, two seminal figures who inspired a generation of African-American, Native American and Latino/Latina students to pursue careers in mathematics.
The Blackwell-Tapia Prize recognizes a mathematician who has contributed significantly to research in his or her area of expertise, and who has served as a role model for mathematical scientists and students from underrepresented minority groups, or has contributed in other significant ways to addressing the problem of underrepresentation of minorities in math.
The
Organizing Committee
- Carlos Castillo-Chavez
- David Eisenbud
- Brendan Hassett
- Jacqueline Hughes-Oliver
- Robert Megginson
- Mariel Vazquez
- Ulrica Wilson
- Robin Wilson

An ICERM Public Lecture: Mathematics: Rhyme and Reason
Nov 8, 2018
A little more than three years ago, while attending the Conference for African American Researchers in the Mathematical Sciences at ICERM, I spontaneously announced to ICERM Associate Director Ulrica Wilson that I thought I would write a book about the heart of mathematics. Then I went ahead and did it. What was I thinking?! Publishing Mathematics: Rhyme and Reason is akin to undressing publicly. So, what ends up being exposed? Well, among other things, I place in plain view relationships with people in my mathematical upbringing, some of whom popped into my life for better and, at least once, for worse. One will also see my life-long attachment to the simple truths of mathematics. The book is a message to the kid I was, with the assumption that such kids still exist. I present a large collection of theorems and call them nursery rhymes in the book, though I didnât stumble across a few of them until I was well beyond nursery-rhyme age. I also write about whether or not I have ever... (more)

GirlsGetMath@ICERM: Summer Math Camp for High School Girls
Aug 6 - 10, 2018
GirlsGetMath is a weeklong mathematics summer day-program for 9th and 10th grade high school girls in the Providence, RI area.
GirlsGetMath occurs in an encouraging environment that builds young women's confidence in math and science.
GirlsGetMath expands participants' understanding and knowledge of mathematics through computations and experimentations.
GirlsGetMath provides expert mathematical training and mentoring.
GirlsGetMath will become a replicable national model of mathematical outreach for high school girls, with an emphasis on mathematical experimentation.
This five-day non-residential mathematics program is open to high school girls who live in greater Rhode Island and who will be entering the 10th or 11th grade in the fall of 2018.
GirlsGetMath@ICERM encourages 20-25 young women to explore,... (more)
Organizing Committee
- Amalia Culiuc
- Katharine Ott
- Ulrica Wilson

Modern Math Workshop 2017
Oct 18 - 19, 2017
The Mathematical Sciences Diversity Initiative is pleased to announce the 2017 Modern Math Workshop at SACNAS. This workshop is intended to encourage undergraduates, graduate students and recent PhDs from underrepresented minority groups to pursue careers in the mathematical sciences and build research and mentoring networks.
The Modern Math Workshop is a "pre-conference" part of the SACNAS National Conference. Both the Modern Math Workshop and the SACNAS conference take place in the Salt Palace Convention Center in Salt Lake City, Utah. The Modern Math Workshop check-in/registration begins at noon on Wednesday, October 18, with the scientific programming beginning at 1:00pm. The final session, a Q&A with NSF Math Institute representatives, ends at noon on Thursday, October 19.
- Research Sessions: The... (more)
Organizing Committee
- Hélène Barcelo
- Leslie McClure
- Christian Ratsch
- Ulrica Wilson

GirlsGetMath@ICERM: Summer Math Camp for High School Girls
Jul 24 - 28, 2017
GirlsGetMath is a weeklong mathematics summer day-program for 9th and 10th grade high school girls in the Providence, RI area.
GirlsGetMath occurs in an encouraging environment that builds young women's confidence in math and science.
GirlsGetMath expands participants' understanding and knowledge of mathematics through computations and experimentations.
GirlsGetMath provides expert mathematical training and mentoring.
GirlsGetMath will become a replicable national model of mathematical outreach for high school girls, with an emphasis on mathematical experimentation.
This five-day non-residential mathematics program is open to high school girls who live in or near the greater Providence, RI area who will be entering the 10th or 11th grade in the fall of 2017.
GirlsGetMath@ICERM encourages 20-25 young... (more)
Organizing Committee
- Amalia Culiuc
- Katharine Ott
- Ulrica Wilson

Women in Data Science and Mathematics Research Collaboration Workshop (WiSDM)
Jul 17 - 21, 2017
Research Collaboration Workshop for Women in Data Science and Mathematics (WiSDM). This program will bring together women at all stages of their careers, from graduate students to senior researchers, to collaborate on problems in data science. The scientific focus will be on cutting edge problems in the areas of predictive modeling, multi-scale representation and feature selection, statistical and topological learning, and related areas. Data science is a cross-disciplinary field relying on statistics, computer science and mathematics and driven by problems in many other disciplines. While data science has emerged as a prominent new field enrolls record numbers and attracts research talents from many scientific disciplines, the role of theoretical and applied mathematics has not been highly visible. Mathematics provides many structured representations that can be in the analysis of data arising from such diverse fields as geometric measure theory, classical analysis, computational... (more)
Organizing Committee
- Carlotta Domeniconi
- Ellen Gasparovic
- Giseon Heo
- Kathryn Leonard
- Regina Liu
- Julie Mitchell
- Deanna Needell
- Linda Ness
- Emina Soljanin
- Sibel Tari
- Xu Wang

GirlsGetMath@ICERM: Summer Math Camp for High School Girls
Aug 15 - 19, 2016
GirlsGetMath is a weeklong mathematics summer day-program for 9th and 10th grade high school girls in the Providence, RI area.
GirlsGetMath occurs in an encouraging environment that builds young women's confidence in math and science.
GirlsGetMath expands participants' understanding and knowledge of mathematics through computations and experimentations.
GirlsGetMath provides expert mathematical training and mentoring.
GirlsGetMath will become a replicable national model of mathematical outreach for high school girls, with an emphasis on mathematical experimentation.
This five-day non-residential mathematics program is open to high school girls from the greater Providence, RI area who will be entering the 10th or 11th grade in the fall of 2016.
GirlsGetMath@ICERM encourages 20-25 young women to explore,... (more)
Organizing Committee
- Katharine Ott
- Ulrica Wilson

GirlsGetMath@ICERM: Summer Math Camp for High School Girls
Aug 17 - 21, 2015
GirlsGetMath is a weeklong mathematics summer day-program for 9th and 10th grade high school girls in the Providence, RI area.
GirlsGetMath occurs in an encouraging environment that builds young women's confidence in math and science.
GirlsGetMath expands participants' understanding and knowledge of mathematics through computations and experimentations.
GirlsGetMath provides expert mathematical training and mentoring.
GirlsGetMath will become a replicable national model of mathematical outreach for high school girls, with an emphasis on mathematical experimentation.
This five-day non-residential mathematics program is open to high school girls from the greater Providence, RI area who will have just completed either grade 9 or grade 10 by July 2015.
GirlsGetMath@ICERM will encourage 20 young women to... (more)
Organizing Committee
- Katharine Ott

GirlsGetMath@ICERM: Summer Math Camp for High School Girls
Jul 14 - 18, 2014
GirlsGetMath is a weeklong mathematics summer day-program for 9th and 10th grade high school girls in the Providence, RI area.
GirlsGetMath occurs in an encouraging environment that builds young women's confidence in math and science.
GirlsGetMath expands participants' understanding and knowledge of mathematics through computations and experimentations.
GirlsGetMath provides expert mathematical training and mentoring.
GirlsGetMath@ICERM 2014 is the first of what will become a replicable national model of mathematical outreach for high school girls, with an emphasis on mathematical experimentation.
This five-day non-residential mathematics program is open to high school girls from the greater Providence, RI area who will have just completed either grade 9 or grade 10 by July 2014.
GirlsGetMath@ICERM will... (more)
Organizing Committee
- Ruth Crane
- Maria Lorenz
- Irina Mitrea
- Katharine Ott
- Allison Pacelli

Modern Math Workshop 2013
Oct 2 - 3, 2013
As part of the Mathematical Sciences Collaborative Diversity Initiatives, nine mathematics institutes (including ICERM) are pleased to host their annual pre-conference event, the 2013 Modern Math Workshop. This event precedes the SACNAS National Conference.
The Modern Math Workshop is intended to re-invigorate the focus of mathematics students and faculty at minority-serving institutions and the research careers of minority mathematicians.
Organizing Committee
- Jeffrey Brock
- Ricardo Cortez
- Ruth Crane
- Snehalata Huzurbazar
- Jill Pipher
- Ivelisse Rubio

Blackwell-Tapia Conference 2012
Nov 9 - 10, 2012
This is the seventh in a series of biennial conferences honoring David Blackwell and Richard Tapia, two seminal figures who inspired a generation of African-American, Native American and Latino/Latina students to pursue careers in mathematics. Carrying forward their work, this one and a half day conference will
- Recognize and showcase mathematical excellence by minority researchers
- Recognize and disseminate successful efforts to address under-representation
- Inform students and mathematicians about career opportunities in mathematics, especially outside academia
- Provide networking opportunities for mathematical researchers at all points in the higher education/career trajectory
Organizing Committee
- Alejandro Aceves
- Edray Goins
- Trachette Jackson
- Robert Megginson
- Juan Meza
- Jill Pipher
- Bjorn Sandstede

NSF Mathematics Institutes Modern Math Workshop (at SACNAS)
Oct 26 - 27, 2011
The eight NSF mathematics institutes are pleased to offer three concurrent sessions immediately preceding the SACNAS annual meeting â one for graduate students and recent PhDs, and two for undergraduate students â to invigorate the research careers of minority mathematicians and mathematics faculty at minority-serving institutions. The âModern Math Workshopâ will highlight presentations on topics drawn from the institutesâ upcoming programs, a keynote speaker, and an informative panel presentation on the 2012-13 programs and workshops. The two undergraduate sessions (applicants will choose one) are appropriate for students of any major interested in learning how mathematics contributes to our understanding of various scientific topics. Activities will include lectures and group work.
All sessions will begin with lunch on Wed. Oct. 26 and include an evening reception. The sessions will continue on Thursday morning and will end at 12:30 pm prior to the SACNAS conference lunch.... (more)
