AMS Graduate Student Chapter

The American Mathematical Society (AMS) Graduate Student Chapter at the University of Mississippi is a unique group of mathematicians from various backgrounds, fields, and career stages. The Chapter is a resource for all graduate students in the math department, and almost all students are actively engaged in its mission and endeavors. The AMS is a professional society with over 30,000 individual and 570 institutional members worldwide. Members of the Society have access to different events, seminars, and opportunities for professional networking and the society serves people who want to pursue interests in mathematics.

At UM, faculty and graduate students have cultivated a great relationship in the group, and many wonderful things are happening within the AMS Chapter. Christopher Schwanke (now Dr. Schwanke) was the co-founder of the AMS Graduate Student Chapter in Oxford and the first chapter president, graduating in 2015 and now holding a tenure-track position at Lyon College. Dr. Sandra Spiroff is one of the faculty advisors and the other co-founder. She is a professor of mathematics, working in Commutative Algebra, currently on assignment at the National Science Foundation.

“One thing I really like about this chapter is that it is student driven,” Spiroff said. She noted that faculty primarily serve to answer questions and provide guidance, “but the students are very much in the driver’s seat.”

A main component of the AMS Chapter is the Graduate Student Seminar, hosted by the students, where the presentations all have a mathematical theme, including theory, application, and career opportunities. Speakers are always sought, with the opportunity to present essentially open to whomever volunteers. “Sometimes we bring in outside speakers, and that is supported by the funds we get from the American Mathematical Society. Folks talk about their research, so that’s one of the professional aspects of the chapter activities,” Spiroff added, in describing the student-led seminars. The seminar provides opportunities to develop skills that are transferrable outside of academia. Graduate students in any department need to practice speaking and presenting topics, and these seminars prepare graduate students to become academics or enter the job market after school. Public speaking can be a daunting task for many, and these events help ease nerves for people who may not like the idea of talking in a room full of people.

Moriah Lugar is the president for the AMS Graduate Student Chapter, and her first year as president was extra adventurous due to the COVID-19 pandemic. The students in the AMS chapter are close, and despite being constrained to online events, they made the best of the year.

“It was very different. It was a little sad not to be able to be in a room with somebody, to be able to just have that … comradery and just be right there with that person. We’re all fairly close as a smaller department, so we all know each other and can empathize with the struggles of trying to get through your research and all of these things.”

Like so many others this past year, they used Zoom to stay connected. The chapter hosted student speakers from the University of Alabama and the University of Georgia, with UM students presenting as well, all implemented online to facilitate access during the pandemic. These seminars were great opportunities for AMS members to network and foster professional connections in the mathematical field.

“Our main goal as a chapter is just to serve as a vehicle for sharing mathematical ideas, and we want to specifically open that up to graduate students…. What we do is we bring in student speakers. We bring in non-student speakers as well in mathematics. It’s just an opportunity for us to really have a colloquium that’s geared mainly towards graduate students,” Lugar shared on the overview of AMS at UM.

Dr. Andrew Pham completed his Ph.D. in 2021 in the math department, and he accepted a visiting assistant professor position at the Mississippi University for Women. He is the immediate past president of the UM AMS chapter, having served before Lugar, and he had some great memories from the society.

Pham shared: “I spoke in student seminar. That’s been great practice for me whenever I present at conferences, having the opportunity to speak to a group I was more comfortable with… It’s been great. Being able to meet other mathematicians from other colleges and also taking their perspective on some topics here and there.”

Networking and higher education research go hand in hand to be successful in and after school. Dean of the Graduate School, Dr. Annette Kluck said, “In the Graduate School, we are thrilled to have the AMS Graduate Student Chapter at UM. Professional societies offer a powerful opportunity for our graduate students to acclimate to their profession. That UM has an AMS Graduate Student Chapter is really something. We have the only recognized chapter in the state at this time.” Congratulations to our Mathematics department on building an organization that supports the mathematical achievements of UM graduate students.

The chapter also engages in social activities, like Game Night, joint with the Physics grads, Movie Night, joint with Physics and ASB, and Pizza Grading Parties during finals week. In December, the AMS Chapter hosted a contest for their graduate students to design a T-shirt. The design of math graduate student Kanchana Gamladdalage was selected, for anyone who wanted a shirt from this year. “It was something that I felt in the midst of [the COVID-19 pandemic], just having something … like that to connect us and just something that we can enjoy” was important and it was something they could do, Lugar recalled.

To learn more about the chapter, visit https://amsgsc.olemiss.edu/.

Picture from the AMS at UM.
2020-2021 Officers
Back, from left: Page Thorn (Secretary), Apoorva Mate (Treasurer), Moriah Lugar (President)
Front, from left: Samuel Lisi (Interim Faculty Advisor), Phil Kains (Vice President),
Qinghong Zhao (Webmaster)

AMS Graduate Student Chapter

Newsletter Spring/Summer 2021 Articles