We celebrate the inaugural International Women in Maths Day

Today we hosted a lunch in the School to celebrate the inaugural International Women in Mathematics Day.

Around 50 attendees gathered in the staff room, and were welcomed by Professor Catherine Greenhill, who gave some background on the global initiative. The goal of the event is to inspire women everywhere to celebrate their achievements in mathematics, and to encourage an open, welcoming and inclusive work environment for everybody. The month of May was chosen to honour the first female Fields Medallist, the late Professor Maryam Mirzakhani, whose birthday fell on 12 May. 

Two short films were screened: Faces of Women in Mathematics, and Journeys of Women in Mathematics. 

The lunch brought together a range of attendees including School staff, undergraduate and postgraduate students, and academic staff members from across the university. 

Thank you to the event organisers: Amandine Schaeffer, Deborah Cromer, Catherine Greenhill, Kaye Sedgers and Susannah Waters. 

Women in the School of Mathematics and Statistics 

We continue to celebrate and promote the achievements of female staff and students. 

In late 2018, three of our female mathematicians, Catherine Greenhill, Frances Kuo and Moninya Roughan, were promoted to Level E, while one female mathematician, Yanan Fan, was promoted to Level D.

Five out of seven of our most recent academic appointments have been female mathematicians.

We have continued with our long-running Girls Do the Maths program, which engages female Senior High School students and encourages them to consider mathematics and statistics as an enriching career path. 

Our all-female Data Science and Decisions Ambassador program is now in its third year, and we have welcomed seven undergraduate students into the 2019 program.  

We will keep striving to improve the gender balance in all aspects of our School and in Mathematics, Statistics and the Mathematical Sciences in general and are proud of the progress made over the past year. 

For more information, see our Women in Mathematics and Statistics webpage.