Organizing Committee
Abstract

Spectra, the Association for LGBTQ+ Mathematicians, was conceived in the last ten years with its first official event in 2015 -- a panel discussion at the JMM in San Antonio. Since then, Spectra has organized events at various conferences to bring together people of the LGBTQ+ community.

Spectra is organizing this conference to provide opportunities for LGBTQ+ mathematicians both to celebrate achievements and to spark conversations of challenges in our community. This will be a space for attendees to share their research across all areas of mathematics (theoretical, applied, and math education) and to interact and create support networks within and across their research communities.

Spectra is proud to organize its first official conference and create an intentional space for LGBTQ+ mathematicians. This will be an event where LGBTQ+ mathematicians at all career stages can interact and network with their peers. Further, it will facilitate discussions for creating better environments and promoting mathematics in our community.

For this conference, which will be virtual, we aim for a simple format: three days consisting of:

one plenary speaker per day (one in theoretical math, one in applied math, and one in math education);

contributed short talk sessions on each of the three days;

several social events geared towards networking;

a concluding panel discussion.

This will be the first in a series of general mathematics conferences showcasing the achievements of LGBTQ+ mathematicians.

Note, Graduate Students are NOT required to provide statements of support or poster session information during the application process.

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Confirmed Speakers & Participants

Talks will be presented virtually or in-person as indicated in the schedule below.

  • Speaker
  • Poster Presenter
  • Attendee
  • Virtual Attendee
  • Tomás Aguilar-Fraga
    Harvey Mudd College
  • Shreya Ahirwar
    Mount Holyoke College
  • Hina Ahmed
    Scripps College
  • Kara Allum
    University of Oxford
  • Kayo Armodium
    University of Michigan
  • Alessandro Arsie
    University of Toledo
  • Riti Bahl
    Bard College
  • Francesca Balestrieri
    The American University of Paris
  • Audrey Baumheckel
    California State University, Fresno
  • Midas Beglari
    University of Waterloo
  • sarah-marie belcastro
    Mathematical Staircase, Inc.
  • Anthony Bonato
    Ryerson University
  • Debra Borkovitz
    Boston University
  • Juliette Bruce
    University of California, Berkeley / MSRI
  • Laura Brustenga i Moncusi
    University of Copenhagen
  • Ron Buckmire
    Occidental College
  • Danielle Burton
    University of Wisconsin, Madison
  • Marco Carfagnini
    University of Connecticut
  • Anne Cawley
    Cal Poly Pomona
  • Ralph Chikhany
    New York University
  • Juniper Cocomello
    Brown University
  • Felipe Augusto Comelli
    Pontifical Catholic University of São Paulo
  • Emma Cooper
    Pitzer College
  • Haridas Kumar Das
    Oklahoma State University
  • André de Laire
    Université de Lille
  • Aram Dermenjian
    York University
  • Mitchell Eithun
    Detroit Country Day School
  • Frank Farris
    Santa Clara University
  • Robin Gaudreau
    University of Toronto
  • Christopher Goff
    University of the Pacific - Stockton, CA
  • Simon Gritschacher
    University of Copenhagen
  • Helen Grundman
    Bryn Mawr College
  • Rowel Gundlach
    Eindhoven university of technology
  • Kevin Hare
    University of Waterloo
  • Oskar Henriksson
    University of Copenhagen
  • Michael Hill
    UCLA
  • Will Hoffer
    University of California, Riverside
  • Kenan Ince
    Westminster College
  • Cole Irwin
    University of Chicago
  • Dagan Karp
    Harvey Mudd College
  • Jakini Kauba
    University of North Carolina - Greensboro
  • Aubrey Kemp
    California State University, Bakersfield
  • Ella Koenig
    St. Olaf College
  • Quinn Kolt
    Rochester Institute of Technology
  • Miriam Kuzbary
    Georgia Institute of Technology
  • Max Lahn
    University of Michigan
  • Lisa Lajeunesse
    Capilano University
  • Wesley Lautenschlaeger
    Universidade Federal do Rio Grande do Sul (UFRGS)
  • Rachel Lee
    University of Chicago
  • Douglas Lind
    University of Washington
  • Shen Lu
    Franklin and Marshall College
  • Robert Lubarsky
    FAU
  • Sammy Luo
    Stanford University
  • Sophie MacDonald
    University of British Columbia
  • Sarah MacQueen
    University College Dublin
  • Alex Manchester
    Rice University
  • Vince Matsko
    Independent consultant
  • Clover May
    UCLA
  • May Mei
    Denison University
  • Matt Menickelly
    Argonne National Laboratory
  • Annie Meyers
    Self-Employed
  • Brittney Miller
    Coe College
  • Joe Moeller
    NIST
  • Hermie Monterde
    University of Manitoba
  • Leah Mork
    Concordia College
  • Joseph Nakao
    University of Delaware
  • Ashwin Nayak
    University of Waterloo
  • Seppo Niemi-Colvin
    Duke University
  • Lauren Nowak
    San Francisco State
  • Jessie Oehrlein
    Fitchburg State University
  • Gavin Orok
    University of Waterloo
  • Omayra Ortega
    Sonoma State University
  • Stephan Patterson
    Louisiana State University in Shreveport
  • Marta Pieropan
    Utrecht University
  • Elinor Poole-Dayan
    McGill
  • Edward Price
    Grinnell College
  • Piotr Przytycki
    McGill
  • CJ Quines
    Massachusetts Institute of Technology
  • Gregorio III Raymundo
    University of the Philippines Diliman
  • Steph Reyes
    Loyola University New Orleans
  • Thomas Richards
    University of Warwick
  • Oliver Rinne
    HTW Berlin - University of Applied Sciences
  • Vanessa Rivera Quiñones
    Freelancer & Universidad Sagrado Corazón
  • Michael Robert
    Virginia Commonwealth University
  • Lucy Rycroft-Smith
    Cambridge Mathematics
  • Felix Rydell
    KTH
  • Marcin Sabok
    McGill University
  • Keri Sather-Wagstaff
    Clemson University
  • Mariya Savinov
    New York University
  • Sarah Seger
    Concordia College
  • Min Seo
    University of Waterloo
  • Jessica Sklar
    Pacific Lutheran University
  • Evan Sundbo
    University of Toronto
  • Shel Swenson
    University of Tennessee at Knoxville
  • Vivek Tewary
    TIFR Centre for Applicable Mathematics
  • Benjamin Thompson
    Cornell University
  • Agnes Totschnig
    McGill University
  • Lee Trent
    Rose-Hulman Institute of Technology
  • Madhusmita Tripathy
    Andhra University
  • Mike van Santvoort
    Eindhoven University of Technology
  • Francisco Verón Ferreira
    Brandeis University
  • John Voight
    Dartmouth College
  • Matthew Voigt
    Clemson University
  • Daniel Wallick
    Ohio State University
  • Katrin Wehrheim
    UC Berkeley
  • Amanda Wilkens
    University of Texas at Austin
  • Alex Wilson
    Dartmouth College
  • Karl Winsor
    Harvard University
  • Christian Woods
    Rutgers University
  • Isiah Zaplana
    KU Leuven

Workshop Schedule

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Wednesday, August 18, 2021
  • 12:50 - 1:00 pm EDT
    Welcome
    Virtual
    • Brendan Hassett, ICERM/Brown University
  • 1:00 - 1:10 pm EDT
    Opening Remarks
    Virtual
    • David Crombecque, University of Southern California
  • 1:10 - 2:10 pm EDT
    How to swim through goo
    Virtual
    • Speaker
    • Becca Thomases, University of California, Davis
    • Session Chair
    • Konstantina Trivisa, University of Maryland (Virtual)
    Abstract
    Non-Newtonian or complex fluids describe a wide class of materials from biological fluids like mucus and blood to everyday household products like shampoo and paint. There are many problems in physics and biology where understanding motion of (or in) complex fluids is essential for understanding natural phenomena. Tools from mathematical analysis and computational simulations can shed light on these complex problems that are significant in many biological, environmental, and industrial applications. I will describe some recent work on modeling micro-organism swimming in viscoelastic fluids, and understanding the mechanisms that lead to speed changes in complex fluids
  • 2:10 - 2:20 pm EDT
    Break
    Coffee Break - Virtual
  • 2:20 - 2:40 pm EDT
    1. Diagram-Like Basis for the Multiset Partition Algebra
    CONTRIBUTED TALKS SESSION A (Breakout room 1) - Virtual
    • Speaker
    • Alex Wilson, Dartmouth College
    • Session Chair
    • Alexander Wiedemann, Randolph-Macon College (Virtual)
    Abstract
    There's a classical connection between the representation theory of the symmetric group and the general linear group called Schur-Weyl Duality. Variations on this principle yield analogous connections between the symmetric group and other objects such as the partition algebra and more recently the multiset partition algebra. The partition algebra has a well-known basis indexed by graph-theoretic diagrams which allows the algebra to be understood very visually. I will present an analogous basis for the multiset partition algebra.
  • 2:20 - 2:40 pm EDT
    2. Continuous-time quantum walks on graphs
    CONTRIBUTED TALKS SESSION B (Breakout room 2) - Virtual
    • Speaker
    • Hermie Monterde, University of Manitoba
    • Session Chair
    • Rustum Choksi, McGill University (Virtual)
    Abstract
    Let $G$ be an undirected graph representing a quantum spin network, where the vertices and edges of $G$ are the qubits and their interactions in the network, respectively. One of the main interests involving quantum spin networks is the transmission of quantum states from one vertex in $G$ to another with a particular level of probability. By assigning a quantum state to a vertex of $G$, the matrix $U(t)=e^{itM}$, where $M$ is a matrix associated to $G$, determines a continuous-time quantum walk on $G$, and governs the evolution of the quantum state in the underlying graph. The entries of $U(t)$ provide information about the probability of quantum state transfer between any two vertices of $G$ at time $t$. Various types of quantum state transfer arise depending on the level probabilty set. In this talk, we discuss the different types of quantum state transfer and their properties, as well as examine how the combinatorial and spectral properties of the graph affect each type of quantum state transfer.
  • 2:40 - 3:00 pm EDT
    1. Mathematics as Relational Discourse
    CONTRIBUTED TALKS SESSION A (Breakout room 1) - Virtual
    • Speaker
    • Ezra Gouvea, Tufts University
    • Session Chair
    • Alexander Wiedemann, Randolph-Macon College (Virtual)
    Abstract
    This talk will be about the span of a conceptual basis for the space of mathematical practice. Using an approach to discourse aligned with feminist and queer theories, I analyze the origin of the Lorenz attractor as a collection of conversations with multiple entities: modeling equations, a computing machine, Lorenz's coding and syntax of the programming language he used, his colleagues who helped him refine his ideas (and refine his metaphor of the “butterfly effect”), and his emotions that told him he was seeing something worth investigating. We will end with a discussion of implications and new approaches to pedagogy.
  • 2:40 - 3:00 pm EDT
    2. Predicting confirmation times of Bitcoin transactions
    CONTRIBUTED TALKS SESSION B (Breakout room 2) - Virtual
    • Speaker
    • Rowel Gundlach, Eindhoven university of technology
    • Session Chair
    • Rustum Choksi, McGill University (Virtual)
    Abstract
    We study the distribution of confirmation times of Bitcoin transactions, conditional on the size of the current memorypool. We argue that the time until a Bitcoin transaction is confirmed resembles the time to ruin in a corresponding Cramer-Lundberg process. This well-studied model gives mathematical insights in the mempool behaviour over time. Specifically, for situations where one chooses a fee, such that the total size of incoming transactions with higher fee is close to the total size of transactions leaving the mempool (heavy traffic), a diffusion approximation leads to an inverse Gaussian distribution for the confirmation times. The results are particularly interesting for users that want to make a Bitcoin transaction during heavy-traffic situations, as evaluation of the well-known inverse Gaussian distribution is computationally straightforward.
  • 3:00 - 3:20 pm EDT
    1. Kinetic Monte Carlo Methods for Simulating Brownian Motion with Mixed Boundaries
    CONTRIBUTED TALKS SESSION A (Breakout room 1) - Virtual
    • Speaker
    • Claire Plunkett, University of Utah
    • Session Chair
    • Alexander Wiedemann, Randolph-Macon College (Virtual)
    Abstract
    Simulating Brownian motion in domains with mixed boundary conditions using standard methods can be computationally expensive. A class of methods with increased computational efficiency is kinetic Monte Carlo (KMC) methods. These methods break the process of Brownian motion into two or more steps, where each step can be exactly and efficiently simulated. One use of these KMC methods is numerically calculating the capacitance of lower-dimensional objects embedded in higher-dimensional space, which is used for homogenization of mixed boundaries among other applications. I will describe several KMC methods I have developed and their application.
  • 3:00 - 3:20 pm EDT
    2. Failure to Quit: Reflections on how Queer Activism has Influenced the Way I Teach Math
    CONTRIBUTED TALKS SESSION B (Breakout room 2) - Virtual
    • Speaker
    • Debra Borkovitz, Boston University
    • Session Chair
    • Rustum Choksi, McGill University (Virtual)
    Abstract
    In 1987, when I was a graduate student at MIT, I proudly pleaded guilty to the charge “failure to quit,” and was sentenced to three days in jail for participating in a mass civil disobedience action at the Supreme Court, protesting the court’s upholding of sodomy laws. Also while I was in graduate school, I co-founded one of the first grassroots organizations in the country addressing domestic violence in queer relationships and participated in many other forms of activism. My queer activist experiences thoroughly inform my work to make math education more just, more accessible, and more joyful. In this talk, I will share some history, some connections, and some musings.
  • 3:20 - 3:25 pm EDT
    Intersection of LGBT Identity and Mathematics is Non-Empty
    Lightning Talks - Virtual
    • Speaker
    • Ron Buckmire, Occidental College
    • Session Chair
    • David Crombecque, University of Southern California (Virtual)
    Abstract
    In this talk I will discuss the ways that LGBT identity and applied mathematics intersect. I will also argue that mathematics is a human endeavor and thus the identities of “who does the math” is important. I believe diversity, equity, inclusion and justice (JEDI) efforts in the applied mathematics community should include LGBTQ+ people. I will provide examples that demonstrate the intersection of LGBT identity and the applied mathematics community is non-empty.
  • 3:30 - 4:30 pm EDT
    SOCIAL HOUR on GATHER.TOWN
    Coffee Break - Virtual
Thursday, August 19, 2021
  • 1:00 - 2:00 pm EDT
    Exploring Mechanisms and Disruptions of White Cisheteropatriarchy in Undergraduate Mathematics Instruction
    Virtual
    • Speaker
    • Luis Leyva, Vanderbilt University
    • Session Chair
    • Brian Katz, California State University, Long Beach (Virtual)
    Abstract
    This presentation highlights features of undergraduate STEM instruction, including mathematics classroom practices, that preserve and resist white cisheteropatriarchy -- the interlocking functions of antiblack racism, misogyny, and cisheterosexism. I begin by employing my research framework of mathematics education as a white, patriarchal space to depict mechanisms of mathematics instruction that reinforce racial-gendered inequalities for Black and Latin* students as well as pedagogical disruptions of such oppressive influences. Next, I dovetail these perspectives with findings from my research on the experiences of LGBTQ+ students of color as STEM majors to explore how cisheterosexism figures into mechanisms and disruptions of white cisheteropatriarchy in undergraduate mathematics instruction. I conclude with implications for mathematics departments to inform the development of socially-affirming instructional practices
  • 2:00 - 2:10 pm EDT
    Break
    Coffee Break - Virtual
  • 2:10 - 2:30 pm EDT
    1. Posets and Parking Functions
    CONTRIBUTED TALKS SESSION A (Breakout room 1) - Virtual
    • Speakers
    • Shreya Ahirwar, Mount Holyoke College
    • Aurora Vo, Mount Holyoke College
    • Session Chair
    • Freda Li, United States Military Academy, West Point (Virtual)
    Abstract
    In 1997, Richard Stanley found a bijection between maximal chains in the Kreweras lattice and parking functions. We investigate this relationship and discuss whether Stanley's bijection is preserved when the Kreweras lattice is restricted to certain induced sublattices. We specifically discuss the properties of bond lattices of paths and cycles. We also consider how the labeling of a graph affects the structure of its bond lattice.
  • 2:10 - 2:30 pm EDT
    2. Pursuit-evasion games on graphs
    CONTRIBUTED TALKS SESSION B (Breakout room 2) - Virtual
    • Speaker
    • Anthony Bonato, Ryerson University
    • Session Chair
    • Alexander Wiedemann, Randolph-Macon College (Virtual)
    Abstract
    In pursuit-evasion games, a set of pursuers attempts to locate, eliminate, or contain the threat posed by an evader in a network. The rules, specified from the outset, greatly determine the difficulty of the questions posed above. For example, the evader may be visible, but the pursuers may have limited movement speed, only moving to nearby vertices adjacent to them. Central to pursuit-evasion games is the idea of optimizing certain parameters, whether they are the search number, burning number, or localization number, for example. We report on progress in several pursuit-evasion games on graphs and conjectures arising from their analysis. Finding the values, bounds, and algorithms to compute these graph parameters leads to fascinating topics intersecting graph theory, the probabilistic method, and geometry.
  • 2:30 - 2:50 pm EDT
    1. Geometric algebra: a novel powerful tool to solve robotic kinematic problems.
    CONTRIBUTED TALKS SESSION A (Breakout room 1) - Virtual
    • Speaker
    • Isiah Zaplana, KU Leuven
    • Session Chair
    • Freda Li, United States Military Academy, West Point (Virtual)
    Abstract
    In this talk, we will illustrate how geometric algebra provides a compact and easy formulation of the kinematics of serial industrial robots and how we can take advantage of this mathematical framework to develop efficient geometric strategies to solve some fundamental problems in robot kinematics.
  • 2:30 - 2:50 pm EDT
    2. Overlapping identities
    CONTRIBUTED TALKS SESSION B (Breakout room 2) - Virtual
    • Speaker
    • Lucy Rycroft-Smith, Cambridge Mathematics
    • Session Chair
    • Alexander Wiedemann, Randolph-Macon College (Virtual)
    Abstract
    Making space for identities to intersect as mathematicians- rather than then pulling away from one another in tension- is key. Here, I explore what that could look like.
  • 2:50 - 3:10 pm EDT
    1. 0.5-solvability & closed Seifert surfaces for links
    CONTRIBUTED TALKS SESSION A (Breakout room 1) - Virtual
    • Speaker
    • Sarah Seger, Concordia College
    • Session Chair
    • Freda Li, United States Military Academy, West Point (Virtual)
    Abstract
    A slice knot was originally defined as a knot that occurs as a cross-section, or slice, of a sphere embedded in 4-dimensional space. Slice knots show up in many areas of mathematics, including low-dimensional topology, complex geometry, and even algebraic geometry. However they are difficult to detect, so it is important to find easily computable approximations of sliceness. One such approximation is algebraic sliceness, an algebraic condition on forms associated to Seifert surfaces of knots. All slice knots are algebraically slice and this condition, unlike sliceness, is completely classified. Algebraic sliceness is also equivalent to 0.5-solvability for knots (part of the n-solvable filtration on the knot concordance group defined by Cochran-Orr-Teichner 2003). Sliceness and n-solvability generalize easily to links, but there is no concept of "algebraically slice links." We examine specific generalizations of Seifert forms to links, find a necessary condition for a link to be 0.5-solvable, and use this result to determine that Arf invariants and Milnor's invariants are not sufficient to classify 0.5-solvable links.
  • 2:50 - 3:10 pm EDT
    2. Predicting bee activity levels under climate change with a mechanistic ordinary differential equation model of thermoregulation
    CONTRIBUTED TALKS SESSION B (Breakout room 2) - Virtual
    • Speaker
    • Sarah MacQueen, University College Dublin
    • Session Chair
    • Alexander Wiedemann, Randolph-Macon College (Virtual)
    Abstract
    Being an ecological modeller often feels like pretending to be a biologist, physicist, physiologist… I will give a whirlwind tour of how I have combined results from these disciplines and others to build a mechanistic ODE model of heat exchange and thermoregulation in honeybees and bumblebees. This model can be used to make predictions about the bees’ activity levels, and thus the pollination services they provide, under future climate change scenarios. Bees are poikilothermic, i.e. their body temperature varies with the environment as well as their own internal heat production, so they are highly dependent on weather conditions for foraging activity. Since bees are the top pollinator of crops worldwide, climate change has the potential to have a big effect on pollination services and worldwide food supply.
  • 3:10 - 3:15 pm EDT
    Invariance of Knot Lattice Homology
    Lightning Talks - Virtual
    • Speaker
    • Seppo Niemi-Colvin, Duke University
    • Session Chair
    • Claire Plunkett, University of Utah (Virtual)
    Abstract
    This talk will give an overview of the invariance of knot lattice homology. In particular, it will cover the knots for which knot lattice defined and what presentation of the knot it uses as input (for it to be invariant over), along with mention of the context motivating knot lattice homology.
  • 3:15 - 3:20 pm EDT
    Counting ℓ-Interval Parking Functions
    Lightning Talks - Virtual
    • Speaker
    • Tomás Aguilar-Fraga, Harvey Mudd College
    • Session Chair
    • Claire Plunkett, University of Utah (Virtual)
    Abstract
    A well-studied combinatorial object is the set of parking functions of length n, vectors representing the number of ways n cars can park on a one way street. One way to generalise these is to consider each car as parking, at most, a fixed interval ℓ away from their preference. We call these ℓ-interval parking functions. Scholar Kimberly P. Hadaway has shown that, when ℓ=1, these functions are in bijection with the Fubini rankings of the same length. In this talk, we expand upon this work to present a generalised recursive formula for when ℓ is any natural number. Additionally, we present formulae for the number of nondecreasing ℓ-interval parking functions, while also finding new and interesting connections to objects such as Fubini rankings, Dyck paths, and the Fibonacci numbers.
  • 3:20 - 3:25 pm EDT
    My (Queer) Life as a Computational Mathematician at Argonne National Laboratory
    Lightning Talks - Virtual
    • Speaker
    • Matt Menickelly, Argonne National Laboratory
    • Session Chair
    • Claire Plunkett, University of Utah (Virtual)
    Abstract
    In this lightning talk, I'll simply introduce myself and the scope of my work as a computational mathematician at Argonne National Laboratory. My background is in mathematical optimization, and I work on applications spanning quantum computing, nuclear physics, infrastructure, and doppler reconstruction. I would love to connect with other queer mathematicians..
  • 3:30 - 4:30 pm EDT
    SOCIAL HOUR on GATHER.TOWN
    Coffee Break - Virtual
Friday, August 20, 2021
  • 1:00 - 2:00 pm EDT
    Square Tilings: Resistance to Rational Maps
    Virtual
    • Speaker
    • Dylan Thurston, Indiana University
    • Session Chair
    • Michael Hill, UCLA (Virtual)
    Abstract
    The very simple geometric construction of tiling a region by squares has many different appearances through out mathematics, from networks of resistors to understanding complex dynamics. We will tour through some of these appearances, from the 19th century to the 21st
  • 2:00 - 2:10 pm EDT
    Break
    Coffee Break - Virtual
  • 2:10 - 3:30 pm EDT
    Past, Present, Future: Constructing Queer Spaces in Mathematics
    Panel Discussion - Virtual
    • Moderator
    • Alexander Hoover, The University of Akron (Virtual)
    • Panelists
    • Ron Buckmire, Occidental College (Virtual)
    • Frank Farris, Santa Clara University (Virtual)
    • Seppo Niemi-Colvin, Duke University (Virtual)
    • Emily Riehl, Johns Hopkins University
    • Matthew Voigt, Clemson University (Virtual)
  • 3:30 - 3:40 pm EDT
    Closing Remarks
    Virtual
    • Rustum Choksi, McGill University
  • 3:40 - 4:30 pm EDT
    SOCIAL HOUR on GATHER.TOWN
    Coffee Break - Virtual

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