Mathematical Sciences Sponsorship Fund

About the sponsorship

Applications for the 2024 Mathematical Sciences Sponsorship Fund (MSSF) are now closed. The 2024 MSSF selection committee will notify applicants about the selection results in late November 2024.

Thank you to all who submitted applications.

The next round of MSSF applications opens on 1 April 2025.

The 2025 MSSF theme is "Mathematics For All: Cultivating Inclusive Excellence." This theme focuses on creating pathways for underrepresented groups in mathematics to thrive through innovative programs, mentorship, and community-building initiatives.

Proposals are welcome for single-year grants typically ranging from US$500 to US$4,000.

We encourage you to submit your ideas and proposals how sponsorship from the Elsevier MSSF could help your ideas and goals in the areas of gender equality, race equality, LGBT+ equality and accessibility for mathematicians with disabilities.

Submissions should be focused and well-defined, and address the following elements:

• Objectives: Provide a description of the objectives and key activities of the program.

• Goals and plan: A clear description of the program goals and implementation plan, including timeframe.

• Budget: The total amount of the grant requested and justification for the requested amount, including a clear budget overview spreadsheet that indicates in as much detail as possible intended expenditures and other sources of funding, if any.

• Organization and partnership: A description of the organization requesting the grant, confirmation of its status as a non-profit entity, and a listing of key officers and staff who will direct the implementation of the program. Description of key program partners, if any.

• Impact: The significance of the program’s intended impact on the mathematical sciences research community or general public science, in that country or globally.

The sponsorship fund will not provide support for:

• Conference Organizers

• Religious or political causes (including lobbying)

• For-profit organizations

• Purchase of electronic equipment such as computers, laptops, mobile telephones etc.

Eligible proposals will go through rounds of peer review conducted by the members of the MSSF 2024 Selection Committee. The MSSF 2024 Selection Committee consists of representatives from the Mathematical Sciences Community and the Honorary Selection Committee Members (the MSSF 2023 winners). We are expecting to notify the applicants about the selection results in late November 2024.

Incomplete proposals will not be reviewed and correspondence on decisions will not be entered into.

If you have any queries about the submission process or want to withdraw an application, please contact the Elsevier MSSF Team ([email protected] opens in new tab/window).

2023 winners

Introducing the 2023 winners of the Mathematical Sciences Sponsorship Fund

It is one of the most prestigious institutions of Pakistan, and since 1922 has proved its worth as the highest seat of learning for science subjects. Currently, Botany, Chemistry, Physics, Zoology, Biotechnology, Mathematics, Economics, Statistics, Electronics, Environmental Science, Computer Science and Pharmacy are taught at Graduate, Postgraduate and Doctoral levels.

How they plan to use the funding: To promote diversity and inclusivity by providing education opportunities for girls who have lost their sight. Funding will be used to train faculty to teach these students a course in Quantitative Reasoning I and Quantitative Reasoning II at undergraduate level. The grant will also support the development of basic physical resources for this group.

Established in 1962, Punjabi University opens in new tab/window is a distinguished public university in Patiala, India. The university has been at the forefront of promoting the Punjabi language, art and literature. The institution is deeply rooted in a rich cultural heritage and is dedicated to fostering academic excellence and cultural preservation.

How they plan to use the funding: To spearhead research addressing crucial issues in mathematical communities, such as diversity and inclusivity. For example, they plan to:

1. Comprehensively research the existing state of diversity and inclusivity in mathematical communities, identifying strengths and areas that require improvement.

2. Delve into the challenges faced by individuals from underrepresented groups, working to pinpoint and understand the barriers that hinder their active participation in mathematical endeavors.

3. Develop effective strategies for promoting diversity and inclusivity, including, but not limited to mentorship programs, networking opportunities and outreach initiatives.

The Rwandan Association for Women in Science and Engineering (RAWISE) opens in new tab/window is a non-governmental organization dedicated to promoting gender equality and inclusivity in the fields of science, technology, engineering and mathematics (STEM).

RAWISE aims to empower and support women and girls in Rwanda, particularly in rural areas, by providing mentorship, role models and training opportunities. Through various initiatives, including interactive workshops, career development programs and policy advocacy, RAWISE strives to break barriers and biases that hinder women and disabled students from fully participating and succeeding in these fields.

How they plan to use the funding: To organize an event that fosters diversity and inclusivity in the mathematical sciences community. The event will focus on two main activities:

1. Mathematics outreach to high schools for disabled children

2. A one-day round table and presentation on empowering women in mathematics

How they plan to use the funding: To organize a community event, ‘Interactive Galois Mathematics Museum’. This is based on the concept of a travelling museum and will be accessible to everyone.

The main objective of the event is to provide an encouraging environment for students, families and teachers to develop their mathematical skills and knowledge in rural communities throughout Ecuador. The goal is to ignite energy and enthusiasm in math conversations throughout Ecuadorian classrooms, and break down the negativity currently serving as a barrier to math application and comprehension.

To achieve that goal, it persistently seeks and adopts innovative methods to improve standards and has a Memoranda of Understanding with various international universities. The campus has a cosmopolitan atmosphere with students from all corners of the globe. The highly motivated youngsters on the campus are a constant source of VIT pride.

How they plan to use the funding: To empower an underprivileged section of women through mathematics education. Objectives include:

• Reaching the unreached through mathematics

• Promoting mathematics education in the rural areas of Tamilnadu, India

• Creating a forum to enhance mathematics education for rural students

How they plan to use the funding: With the support of his team, Dr. Dinh Hai Dung, Academic Coordinator of the Master Study Program Business Information Systems (BIS) will organize training sessions and workshops for disadvantaged female students from Vietnamese public universities. The goal is to improve their mathematical skills; for instance, teach them Quantitative Methods and Mathematical Modeling that will help them understand current trends in Big Data Analytics, Machine Learning and Business Intelligence. They will also learn how to combine those mathematical skills with business problem-solving skills to succeed in the age of digital transformation.

With this project, the VGU aims to realize the UN’s Sustainable Development Goal 5: Achieve gender equality and empower all women and girls.

Previous years

The Mexican Mathematical Society (SMM) opens in new tab/window is a non-profit organization that was founded in 1942 with the following goals and purposes:

• To stimulate, promote and support research in the mathematical sciences in Mexico and to seek the cooperation of academics and intellectuals interested in this research.

• To publish scientific journals and encourage the development and publication of mathematics textbooks.

• To engage in and organize activities such as conferences, workshops, seminars, mathematics competitions etc.

• To contribute to the improvement of the teaching of mathematics in Mexico at all levels.

• To promote the inclusion of underrepresented groups, particularly women, in all mathematical activities.

• To stimulate interest in mathematical activity and encourage the recognition of its impact and importance on the development of culture, innovation, and scientific and technological competitiveness in Mexico.

• To promote the exchange of all types of mathematical activities with those of other nations.

The SMM will use the Mathermatical Sciences Sponsorship grant to create the first national initiative to advance mathematical education with a gender perspective in Mexico.  It will support six students doing research in mathematical education from an intersectional perspective via two research, two graduate and two undergraduate grants. We hope that this will generate paths for the grantees to occupy leadership positions in Mexico in the future.

Operator Algebras Mentor Network (OAMN)

The Operator Algebras Mentor Network (OAMN) opens in new tab/window is a non-profit organization that was initially founded to provide early-career women operator algebraists with a trusted ally in the event of abuse or harassment. Its goals have since expanded to supporting and retaining early-career operator algebraists who are underrepresented or in minority within mathematics due to gender. The Network consists of three tiers: senior mentors (permanent faculty), junior mentors (postdoctoral fellows), and mentees (graduate students from underrepresented genders in mathematics). Mentoring takes place in small groups that include member(s) from each tier.

The Board of OAMN organizes workshops and meetups to forge connections among the members, increase the visibility of people of underrepresented genders, and improve the mentorship skills of members in our community.  Currently, the Network consists of 24 Mentees, 24 Junior Mentors, 21 Senior Mentors. The Network includes members with PhDs obtained between 1982 and 2026 (projected), located across 20 different countries spanning North America, Europe, Asia, the Middle East, and Oceania.

Our mission is as follows:

• Retain operator algebraists who are underrepresented or in minority within mathematics due to gender.

• Provide early-career operator algebraists with a trusted ally in the event of abuse/harassment.

• Provide a source of career advice for mentees outside of their home institutions and to support

• their careers.

• Provide nonjudgmental, confidential, solicited advice on work-life balance and career.

• Provide a network for people supporting this mission.

• Improve mentorship skills of operator algebraists.

2021 winners

This year Elsevier has reworked how they choose the beneficiaries. Instead of asking mathematicians to apply with their initiatives, we have chosen to seek out exemplary institutions that they believe have greatly contributed to the pursuit of a common goal or ideal. This year that goal is ‘diversity within mathematics’. We are proud to support the below organization.

• To engage in activities, projects, programs, conferences, workshops, seminars, etc. which are designed to inspire, motivate, promote, and assist persons of all ages to seek, embark or maintain an active interest/career affinity in some area(s) of the mathematical sciences.

• To promote and assist in the continued professional development of practicing mathematical scientists and educators, especially those groups that are underrepresented in the mathematical sciences.

• To support the continued development of excellence in teaching and curriculum enhancement in the mathematical sciences, especially at Historic Black Colleges and Universities/Minority Institutions.

• To advocate, promote and support research in the mathematical sciences, especially for underrepresented minorities.

• To increase the mathematical sciences community and general public's awareness of issues of importance in areas of the mathematical sciences, especially those that are of great interest to underrepresented minorities.

For more information on NAM membership, programs, and activities go to www.nam-math.org opens in new tab/window.

Women in Combinatorics was first formed in 2019 as the result of the women’s lunch at CanaDAM. We began as a database of nearly 300 women from around the world to provide a comprehensive list of over 250 women who are willing to be conference speakers and organizers, grad student and postdoctoral supervisors, and interested in potential collaboration.

In early 2020 we began a weekly virtual colloquium, and we have now hosted over 50 colloquium talks from researchers at all levels in nearly every area of combinatorics from matroids to enumeration. In the upcoming academic year, we will we will begin a mentorship network that connects young mathematicians with senior researchers as a formal assignment of mentorship to support women navigating this male-dominated field. Our next initiative is to begin a scholarship program in Mexico and across Africa. We will be providing need -based scholarships to exceptional women who are pursuing graduate education in combinatorics.

For more information visit www.womenincombinatorics.com opens in new tab/window.

2020 winners

Bio

Her scientific interest is in the fields of combinatorics, discrete mathematics, and coding theory. In addition to engaging in science and teaching, she is very active in the popularization of science. She published 17 scientific papers and actively participated in 14 international scientific conferences. In addition, she published 5 professional papers, held numerous professional and popular lectures, organized many popularization activities (Science Festival, Evenings of Mathematics, Exhibition Imaginary - through the eyes of mathematics in Rijeka...) and led several projects aimed at popularizing science, mathematics and mathematics studies.

Editorial

The Department of Mathematics, as a part of the University of Rijeka, Croatia, is a modern research and teaching department focused on the development of human resources in the field of mathematics. Apart from scientific activity, the Department also participates in organizing and conducting study programs in the field of mathematics and mathematics courses on other University’s departments.

The Department is aware of the need to bring science, and especially mathematics, closer to the young and that is why the Department participates in numerous manifestations aimed at bringing scientific methods closer to the citizens, children, and students. The goal of this project is to design a mathematical room escape, Math Escape, with an original approach to bring mathematics closer to primary and secondary school students, to show how mathematics can be interesting, fun and exciting, and to create a positive attitude about mathematics. In order to do that we designed and 3d printed materials necessary for solving the math escape room tasks, recorded images and movies with 360 camera, programmed VR interface in Unity and we designed the story, tasks, and hints. The persons who participated in the design and implementation of this activity are Bojan Crnković, Vedrana Mikulić Crnković, and Ivona Traunkar.

The Department is constantly working with students and is always developing new and creative ways to work with children and students. We plan to use all the equipment obtained through this project to continue doing that. Our goal is to engage math students, future teachers, in the realization of the project and hopefully help them to convey their enthusiasm for mathematics to students in their future work.

Editorial

PROMYS is an intensive high-school summer program based out of Boston for over 30 years, focused on teaching number theory and methods of mathematical research. As a trustee of the PROMYS Foundation, I have worked this year in the areas of fundraising and international development to continue their mission to ensure that every student who could benefit from PROMYS has the opportunity to do so, regardless of financial need. Recently, we have been working towards launching PROMYS India, the second international offshoot of PROMYS. The goal is to introduce the PROMYS philosophy to diverse students in India and foster a democratic spirit of community and learning. The support from the Mathematical Sciences Sponsorship Fund will help fund the many challenging parts of opening an innovative mathematics camp in a foreign country - including supporting logistics, marketing, travel and admissions of PROMYS India. As the inaugural director of PROMYS India, I am particularly excited to establish a unique global community of mathematics through the PROMYS programs.

2019 winners

He is actively engaged in math outreach activities and has taught classes  on the mathematics of Lego and Rubik's cubes for almost a decade. His course lectures, many of his talks and research papers and expository  handouts are available online at https://web.williams.edu/Mathematics/sjmiller/public_html/ opens in new tab/window. He also maintains a math riddles page at https://mathriddles.williams.edu/ opens in new tab/window.

Editorial

I live in a very rural county, where declining enrolments make school budgets a challenge. I know this first hand, as I serve on our regional school committee. I devised a formula which convinced two towns to fully regionalize and better both communities, but there are sadly many great activities that are not funded because of higher priorities, especially social issues. These funds will be used for math outreach activities concentrated on the schools in my area; however, there is an opportunity for greater impact as I do a lot of math outreach. In particular, I annually teach continuing education lectures to teachers, visit math summer camps, and write modules for high school teachers. Thus, the lessons I learn in building units in my area can be transferred to wide audiences easily.

Abraham  has very keen interest in applications of geospatial analysis, machine  learning and internet of things. A member of the International  Statistics Institute, International Biometric Society and the American  Statistical Association.

Editorial

The Elsevier Mathematical Science Sponsorship Fund will enable me to attend the 62nd World Statistics Congress 2019 in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia to learn from  the many very diverse sessions, gain insight on applications of  statistical methodologies and new technologies especially towards  achieving Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), network with other participants and initiate collaborative and learning platforms. Besides this will be an opportunity to experience the Malays culture.

Her research interests are in the area of group analysis of differential  equation. This includes study of different kinds of symmetries of  differential equations, admissible and equivalence transformations in  classes of such equations, as well as construction of conservation laws and exact solutions for equations of mathematical physics and  mathematical biology. She is a member of American Mathematical Society  and European Women in Mathematics.

Olena Vaneeva has received a  number of national and international awards. These are, in particular, Prize of the President of Ukraine for young scientists (2010), Abel  Visiting Scholar Grant from the Niels Henrik Abel Board (2014), Prize of  the Presidium of the National Academy of Ukraine for young scientists  (2014), Award “For women in science” from L’Oreal foundation (2018). She  collaborates with researchers from Cyprus and Czechia and made 18 short  scientific visits abroad as well as gave over 30 talks at international conferences. Olena is also actively involved in popularization of mathematics, being among the organizers of many events for schoolchildren and students like PhysMathDay, Pi Day and others.

Editorial

The event “Women in mathematics: history and perspectives” will take place  on April 20, 2019, at the Institute of Mathematics of the National  Academy of Sciences of Ukraine in Kyiv.

This is a one-day event  for historical and modern perspectives on the role and impact of women  in mathematics. The key speakers will be female researchers who are at  the higher level of their careers. By their personal stories these women  will encourage high school girls and students to become professional  mathematicians. The main objectives of the event are reducing gender gap  in mathematics, popularization of mathematics and giving an opportunity  for high school girls and students to establish contacts with successful female mathematicians.

There will be three parts of the  event, which symbolize past, present and future of women in mathematics.  In the first part talks on history of women in mathematics will be  given, enlightening biographies of such prominent female mathematicians  as Maria Gaetana Agnesi, Sophie Germain, Sofia Kovalevskaya, Emmy  Noether and others. In the second part Ukrainian female mathematicians  who is at the higher levels of academic career will give inspirational  talkы which are based on their personal stories. In the third part we  will discuss how mathematics forms a basis for STEM, and then some talks  will be given by school girls and students who will present their  projects for popularization of mathematics.

We will use the grant  from the Elsevier Mathematical Sciences Sponsorship Fund to cover travel  expenses of participants from other Ukrainian cities. This will give  them opportunity to take part in the meeting. We believe that our event  will have great impact on future careers of young female mathematicians.

My research work focuses on solutions of Partial Differential Equations by Finite Element Methods. My research interests revolve around the notion  of accuracy and reliability of numerical approximations and are typically related to enrichment methods, model-order reduction methods,  as well as error estimation and adaptivity.

Editorial

I am deeply grateful to the Elsevier Mathematical Sciences Sponsorship  for this grant that will allow me to participate in the fifteenth US  National Congress on Computational Mechanics (USNCCM). This conference  is to be held in Austin, Texas in July 2019 and is one of the major  conferences in my research area. The sponsorship will thus enable me to present my results to experts from my field. It will also allow me to attend other researchers’ presentations, which will be a great  opportunity to keep up with the most recent findings and developments in  the fields of computational mechanics and applied mathematics. I look forward to this opportunity to meet fellow researchers and potentially foster future collaborations.

Editorial

I  express my acknowledgment to Elsevier Mathematical Sciences Sponsorship  Fund for providing me with a grant for the participation in the XVIII  SLALM (Latin American Symposium of Mathematical Logic), which will be  held in Concepción de Chile (Chile), 16-20 December 2019. This grant  will help me to present results of my recent research work. It is really  a great opportunity for me to hear some of the leading experts of many  mathematical topics concerning mathematical logic, in order to know  about the problems that the scientific community is working on and to  get the possibility to establish future collaborations.

A. De Cezaro research interest is included in the field of applied  mathematics with a focus on the topic of parameter identification  problems (inverse problems), usually modelled by differential equations.  Inverse problems describe the need to infer information about specific parameters through the partial knowledge (measurements) of solutions of differential equations. Such problems are characterized by their  intrinsic difficulty associated with instability (or ill-conditioning).  Furthermore, data are usually obtained by measurements and hence,  corrupted by noise, without mentioning the difficulties related to the  massive volume of observations that must be processed. Techniques for  dealing with the instability and noise in the data in order to find  satisfactory solutions to such problems are known as regularization methods. These tools involve interaction between theory (functional  analysis, optimization), scientific computing and practice (iteration  with professionals of many areas - industry and academia).

Editorial

I would like to express my gratitude to Elsevier Mathematical Sciences  Sponsorship Fund for the grant for attending and present my current  research at the Applied Inverse Problems Conference (AIP 2019) which  will be held in Grenoble, France, 08-12 July 2019 and the International  Congress of Industrial and Applied Mathematics (ICIAM 2019) which will  be held in Valencia, Spain 15-19 July 2019. Those are the most important  conferences in Inverse Problems and Applied Mathematics, respectively.  Furthermore, given the number of researchers in topics of my interest that will attend the aforementioned conferences, this opportunity will  surely enhance collaboration projects in the field of applied  mathematics.

An  advocate for students and young faculty, she is a member of the  National and Gulf States Math Alliance whose mission is to increase  participation of minority populations in math graduate programs, and a  co-organizer of the Women in Commutative Algebra Research Network and a  Banff Workshop 2019.

Editorial

The Elsevier Mathematical Sciences Sponsorship Fund will be used to recruit and  support a minority graduate student in Mathematics at the University of  Mississippi. In particular, the student may use the funds as a summer  stipend to continue the uninterrupted study of mathematics, or apply the  funds to purchase supplementary supplies like textbooks or other material, and conference travel. Moreover, the University of Mississippi, through the office of the Vice Chancellor for Diversity and Community and Community Engagement, will provide additional support to  this program to maximize the impact of the Elsevier award.

2018 winners

My name is Iryna Fryz. I am from Ukraine. Still while being a student at Vinnytsia Mykhailo Kotsiubynsky State Pedagogical University, I aspired to tie up my further activity with research work in Mathematics. In 2009, I received Master's degree in Mathematics. After my Master study, I had the chance to work with Doctor of Mathematics Fedir Sokhatsky under his supervising and I cooperate with him now. We do research in quasigroup theory and theory of n-ary operations.

Recently I have graduated from PhD course of study at Khmelnytskyi National University. The topic of my PhD thesis is “Orthogonal operations and algorithms for their construction”. Currently I am working at Vasyl' Stus Donetsk National University in Vinnytsia. I combine work at PhD and Doctoral Studies Department and scientific investigation with bringing up of my young son.

My research is in the area of algebra, combinatorics, discrete mathematics and it is related with mathematical aspects of computer science. I investigate tuples of n-ary operations and hypercubes, namely, their combinatorial properties; compositions and decompositions of n-ary operations and related problems. My scientific results can be applied in coding and encryption of information, discrete geometry, experimental design etc.

Editorial describing

I express my gratitude to Elsevier Mathematical Sciences Sponsorship Fund for providing me with a grant for the participation in the International Congress of Mathematicians 2018 (IMC 2018) which will be held in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, 1-9 August 2018. It is the most important international Mathematics event and a good opportunity to attend talks of researchers in related fields and lectures of invited speakers who will present the major scientific achievements in Mathematics. Since the scientific program of ICM 2018 covers wide range of fields of Mathematics, this grant will help me to present the results of my research work for broader scientific audience. Also, I am interested in getting new knowledge which is especially useful for an early-career researcher.

I believe that participating in international high-level scientific events enhances international scientific communication and this helps to receive new ideas for research and to establish networks with other mathematicians, consequently, all this creates a background to become a better researcher.

Dr. Suvra Pal is currently an Assistant Professor of Statistics in the Department of Mathematics at University of Texas Arlington in USA. Prior to joining UT Arlington, he was a Lecturer (research track) in the School of Statistics and Actuarial Science at University of the Witwatersrand in South Africa. He earned his Ph.D. in Statistics from the Department of Mathematics and Statistics at McMaster University in Canada. Before joining McMaster University, he worked with Tata Consultancy Services in India as an Assistant Systems Engineer. Dr. Pal’s current research interests are in Survival Analysis, Model Discrimination, and Computational Statistics.

Project Editorial: 2018 Joint Statistical Meetings (JSM) in Vancouver, Canada

Joint Statistical Meetings (JSM) is one of the world’s largest annual statistical event that attracts over 6500 participants from 52 countries. It is also the largest gathering of statisticians and data scientists in North America offering a unique opportunity for statisticians from different fields (academia, industry, and government) to gather together and explore collaborative opportunities. The Elsevier Mathematical Sciences Sponsorship Fund will enable me to attend the 2018 JSM and give a presentation based on my most recent research on cure rate models. This will be a great opportunity to disseminate the results of my research, network with experts in the field, gain insights in new research areas, and establish new collaborations.

My publications and current research interests focus on statistical inference for estimable functions and variance components, in linear mixed models with commutative orthogonal block structure (COBS). I completed my Ph.D. in 2006 at the University of Beira Interior, where I am teaching courses in basic statistics, quantitative methods, hierarchical linear models and multivariate analysis. I am a member of the working group (WG) CMStatistics (this WG focuses on all computational and methodological aspects of statistics) and member of IEOM Society. Also belong to several conference committee and serve the editorial board of several journals.

Editorial

Many benefits from conference attendance are hard to quantify, but where else can you find so many contacts facing the same problems as yours?

The conference specifically brings back to me and my university a payback for my scientific investment. In the conference there will there be training sessions in areas that will immediately benefit myself and my work group and help us overcome current or future challenges.

I will be able to take the pulse of what is happening for tools, technologies, and processes, and hear ideas we weren’t even aware of.

This will help me to discuss tools, technologies, and processes and how I can might apply them in our university to improve our knowledgements.

My name is Ana Djurdjevac and I come from Serbia where I finished my bachelor and master studies at the University of Belgrade, Serbia. Now I am a PhD student at the Free University of Berlin, Germany and the member of the Berlin Mathematical School (BMS). I am a member of the research group Numerical Analysis of Partial Differential Equations and my PhD advisor is Prof.  Dr. Ralf Kornhuber. The topics that I am interested in are analysis and numerical analysis of PDEs with random coefficients, geometric PDEs, and stochastic PDEs (sPDEs).

Editorial

Thanks to the Elsevier Mathematical Sciences Sponsorship Fund, I will be able to attend the ICM 2018 (International Congress of Mathematics) where I have been selected to present my work in a short communication session. ICM is one of the largest and most prestigious meetings in mathematics and takes place every four years. The most distinguished prizes, such as Fields medals, are awarded during the conference. Therefore this will be a great opportunity to meet and hear some of the leading experts of many mathematical topics. The variety and the topic range is very wide, which gives a great opportunity to get an overview of current state of art of mathematics. ICM is an unique event that can for me, as a young researcher, have a big effect.

Yuan Wang received her Ph.D. degree in Mathematics from Rutgers University in 1990. Since then she has been with the Department of Mathematics at Florida Atlantic University, where she is currently a Professor. She was a visiting scholar at the Institute of Mathematics and Its Application, University of Minnesota, in 1993; at Universite Claude Bernard Lyon I, France, in 1994; at the Australian National University in 1996, and at the Academy of Mathematical Sciences, Chinese Academy of Sciences, for several months annually from 2000 to 2005. She received an NSF Young Investigator Award for her research in systems and control theory in 1994. She is an IEEE Fellow.

Dr. Wang's research interests are in several areas of control theory, including realization theory, stabilization and stability analysis of nonlinear systems. Her publications of research can be found at https://scholar.google.com/citations?user=SdG1gusAAAAJ&hl=en&oi=ao opens in new tab/window. She is serving or has served as an Associate Editor for IEEE Conference Editorial Board, Systems & Control Letters, Journal of Control Theory and Applications, European Series of Applied and Industrial Mathematics: Control, Optimization and the Calculus of Variations. She also serves as a moderator for math.OC and cs.SY for arXiv.org opens in new tab/window.

Dr. Wang is also engaging in promoting diversity of graduate students in mathematical sciences.  She is currently the faculty advisor for the Student Chapter of Association for Women in Mathematics at her university, and she became a mentor and facilitator for Math Alliance in Fall 2015 opens in new tab/window.

How the funding will be of benefit to our recruitment efforts

It has been recognized at the national level in USA that there is an increasing need to increase the participation and advancement in academic careers by under-represented groups which include women and minorities. This is especially a concern for graduate programs which are at the forefront in producing the next generation of mathematicians. As the Graduate Director of the Department of Mathematical Sciences, the funding will support me to recruit under-represented groups to our Master’s and PhD programs.  The grant will enhance our recruitment efforts by supporting visits of potential students from diverse backgrounds, and for us to recruit students in conferences or workshops with components of undergraduate participations.

Cesar Ceballos is a postdoctoral fellow at the Faculty of Mathematics at the University of Vienna who specializes in algebraic combinatorics and discrete geometry. He is a young Colombian mathematician who received his bachelor and master degrees in pure mathematics from Universidad del Valle and Universidad de Los Andes in Colombia, respectively. He finished a Master Class programme on Aspects of Calabi-Yau Geometries at the University of Utrecht in The Netherlands in 2009, and obtained his Ph.D. in mathematics under the supervision of Günter Ziegler at the Freie Universität Berlin in Germany in 2012. He holds a postdoctoral position at FU Berlin (2012-2013), was a Banting Postdoctoral Fellow at York University in Canada (2013-2015), and a visitor member of the Fields Institute (2013-2015). He has received several distinctions, including the Government of Canada’s most prestigious award for postdoctoral researchers: a Banting Postdoctoral Award.

Short editorial

The purpose of this project is to fund the participation of Latin American young researchers in the summer school ``Combinatorics meets Algebra, Geometry and Optimization - ECCO 2018”, which will take place in Barranquilla, Colombia during June 5-16, 2018. The main objective of the school is to bring young mathematicians from the region into close contact with international researchers and leading experts in various fields of combinatorics and its applications. We aim at promoting mathematical research and education among young students in a motivating environment, and to consolidate a regional research network in Combinatorics.

My name is Radouane YAFIA from Morocco. I am a full Professor at Ibn Zohr University, Agadir since December 2006. I have my PhD in Chouaib Doukkali University in my country under the supervision of the Prof. Hamad Alaoui Talibi.  As an applied mathematician, I work in a wide variety of fields. I have contributed to theoretical and applied mathematics in population dynamics and dynamical systems. My collaborators, M. A. Aziz Alaoui and Samira El yacoubi from france, A.Tridane and F. Rihan from UAE, H. Merdan From Turkey and Ali Moussaoui from Algeria.

This grant will help me to attend and present my recent work in The 5th International Conference on Complex Dynamical Systems in Life Sciences: Modeling and Analysis (5^th ICCDS’2018) 10-12 May 2018, in Aveiro, Portugal. It will be a great opportunity to meet many researchers in my field, collaborate and discuss with colleagues about the last results in complex systems. Thanks to the support from the Elsevier Mathematics Sciences Sponsorship Fund.

2017 winners

Daniele Bartoli is a researcher at the Department of Mathematics, University of Perugia, Perugia, Italy. His main research interest are the following:

1. Algebraic Geometry in positive characteristic (automorphisms of curves, maximal curves);

2. Construction and classification of objects in finite projective and affine spaces over Galois fields (complete arcs, complete caps, saturating sets, semiovals, blocking sets);

3. Coding Theory (functional codes, AG codes, quantum codes, additive codes, subspace codes);

4. Permutation Polynomials;

5. Semields.

Project Editorial: The study of connections between Coding Theory and non-linear geometric objects in Galois spaces

The primary objective of this project is to study connections between Coding Theory and non-linear geometric objects in Galois spaces, by using both theoretical and computational instruments. Linear error correcting codes are deeply involved in the process of transmission of information, since they protect information against errors occurring during the transmission process; without this protection information received could be unusable. Linear error correcting codes are fundamental tools, and they are used to transmit digital information in many different contexts, such as military transmissions and web transmissions. The main aim is to study Algebraic-Geometry Codes (AG Codes for short), which have huge applications in Coding Theory. Among them, Reed-Muller codes and more general Goppa codes are the most studied in the literature, since they have high performances and very good parameters. The study will also focus on particular types of non-linear geometric objects: arcs, (n; r)-arcs, caps, saturating sets, and algebraic varieties. These objects can be viewed as projective systems or dual projective systems of points, and therefore they correspond to specific types of linear codes. The construction of this type of codes is based on curves over finite fields having many Fq-rational points and a large automorphism group. In general maximal curves, that is curves attaining the upper bound given by the Hasse-Weil Theorem with respect to their genus, are used for this purpose since they have both a large number of Fq-rational points and a large automorphism group. In particular, maximal curves of Kummer type ym = f(x), with f(x) polynomial over the finite  field Fq will be studied in order to both collect theoretical results on Weierstrass semigroups at many points and construct many points algebraic geometric codes with good parameters.

Dr Francky Fouedjio is a Postdoctoral Research Fellow - Statistician at CSIRO Mineral Resources in Australia. He completed his undergraduate studies in Statistics and  Economics at the Sub-regional Institute of Statistics and Applied Economics in Yaounde, Cameroon. He earned a Master of Science in Statistics & Econometrics from Toulouse 1 Capitole University and a Master of Research in Statistical Information Processing from Paris Dauphine Unversity in France. He received his PhD in Geostatistics from MINES ParisTech, France. Francky's current research focuses on the development of spatial statistics and machine learning methods for use in geoscience applications spanning the minerals value chain.

Project Editorial: Attending the Spatial Statistics 2017 Conference

Dr Francky Fouedjio applied for funding to attend the Spatial Statistics 2017 conference. This will be a great opportunity for him to present his paper on clustering of multivariate geostatistical data, hear from leading edge speakers, network with peers, gain insights into new research interests, and emerging trends in spatial statistics.

Dr. Gehan Abouelseoud graduated from EGC School in 1994, a place that helped her develop a love for teaching, endeavor for mathematical modelling and enthusiasm for seeking innovation. She finished her B.Sc, M.Sc. and first PhD in electrical/communications engineering in 1999, 2002 and 2007, respectively. In 2011, she started research in biomedical engineering and in 2013 she registered a second PhD on the topic. She worked as a part-time instructor of mathematics and automatic control engineering at the same university from 1999 to 2009. During this period she noticed that many students lack motivation for learning mathematical details. They believe that these details are not important for successful engineering practice. This motivated her to adopt proving that rigorous mathematical understanding of a problem's nature is the route to reliable problem solving as a common principle in all her research.

Project Editorial: Educational kits for mathematical courses in Alexandria University, Faculty of Engineering, Egypt.

The true continuous progress of mathematical sciences can only be guaranteed by preparing generations of scientists from different disciplines who master mathematics just as much they master their own field of specialization. Unfortunately, this is jeopardized by several factors. In many developing countries the quality and capacity of laboratories are quite limited. This makes it difficult to include suitable labs in mathematical courses to illustrate motivating practical applications. Even in developed countries, existing educational kits use advanced software tools that mask mathematical details from students. Together these factors, lead to lack of motivation in learning mathematics. The Elsevier mathematical sciences grant will help us to start an initiative seeking to overcome these factors. We plan to use the funding to prepare a series of educational kits that will be used in mathematical courses in Alexandria University, Faculty of Engineering, Egypt. We plan to share some of the kits with the faculty of medicine as well. The kits will be control and signal processing projects in which the students will be involved in all mathematical details. They will be carefully prepared to prove to students how understanding these details is the only route to reliable, innovative designs.

My name is Lubna Amro from Palestine. I am a PhD student in Ulm university since October 2015. Since I was in high school in Palestine, I believed that mathematics, especially statistics, is an important factor in this life. All human activities in several fields will run well if they are cited in a good mathematics framework. This simulated me to do a Bachelor in Applied Mathematics and later on a Master of Statistics in my country Palestine.

During and after my master study, I had the chance to be a lecturer of mathematics and statistics. Also, I worked as a statistical consultant for private and institutional clients. Working as a statistics lecturer needed a deep knowledge of fundamental mathematics and experiences in advanced research of applied statistics. Unfortunately, we don’t have PhD degrees of statistics in Palestine universities. I was lucky to get the DAAD  PhD Scholarship  to do research under the supervision of Prof. Markus Pauly. Our main research area is investigating  the effect of applying randomization tests on handling the missing values in matched pairs and independent factorial designs. During the last year, we were able to develop a statistical test for incomplete paired data that is robust against deviations from normality, 0-symmetry or homoscedasticity of the data and also leads to valid inference in case of heteroscedasticity or skewed distributions. We were able to achieve it by applying a clever randomization approach to handle missing data.

Project Editorial: Funding the participation of the European Meeting of Statisticians (EMS) during 24-28 July 2017 in Helsinki, Finland

This grant will help me to attend and present some recent results of my PhD study in the European Meeting of Statisticians (EMS), 24-28 July 2017, in Helsinki, Finland. It is an international conference and the main conference in statistics and probability in Europe. It will be a great opportunity to enrich my skills and broaden my knowledge. I have the opportunity to present my research in front of many great statisticians, discuss its results with them and hear their very valuable comments. As I’m coming from a developing country with few resources and I’ve not had the chance to participate in an international conference. I feel that by attending or participating in conferences, helps me become a better researcher.

Luca Rizzi is a Charge de Recherche CNRS, at the Institut Fourier, in Grenoble, France. He received his degree in Physics in 2010 at University of Insubria, Como, Italy. He then received his PhD degree in Geometry, at the International School for Advanced Studies (SISSA), Trieste, Italy, on May 2014. His thesis, on the curvature of optimal control problems with applications to sub-Riemannian geometry, has been awarded the SISSA "Lutman Prize" for the Best Ph.D. Thesis in Mathematics, 2015. From June 2014 to September 2016 he held a postdoctoral research fellowship at CMAP, Ecole Polytechnique, France. His research interests involve sub-Riemannian geometry, in particular the aspects related with curvature, and geometric inequalities, spectral geometry of singular spaces, with special attention to almost-riemannian structures.

Project Editorial: Sub-Riemannian geometry seminars

Since 2011, the sub-Riemannian geometry seminars in Paris are a recurrent seminar cycle which attracts all the main experts in the field of sub-Riemannian geometry and related fields. The seminars are held from October to May, for a total of 8 sessions each year. Thanks to the support from the Elsevier Mathematics Sciences Sponsorship Fund, I will be able to finance round trips to Paris to participate to the seminars, collaborate with colleagues, and discuss about last results in the field.

Nantel Bergeron is a York Research Chair and full professor of pure mathematics at York University who specializes in algebraic combinatorics. He received his BSc and MSc in pure mathematics from Université du Québec à Montréal (UQAM). He completed his PhD in 1990 at the University of California at San Diego and was a postdoctoral fellow at Princeton. Before being hired by York University in 1994, he held a Benjamin Pierce Assistant Professorship at Harvard 1991-94. He has received several distinctions, including a Canada Research Chair from the Government of Canada (2001-11), Premier’s Research Excellence Award from the government of Ontario (2000-05) and Fields Institute Fellow (2012). He also appears in the documentary “20 moves” by Harvey Glazer (2014, 2015).

Project Editorial: Combinatorics Summer school in Medellin, Colombia

Our project is a two weeks summer school in Medellin, Colombia June 18-28, consisting of four introductory mini-courses in combinatorics taught in Spanish. The school will attract undergraduate and masters students with no previous (or very little) experience in combinatorics, eager to become active part of the combinatorial community. The Elsevier Mathematical Sciences Sponsorship Fund will be used to sponsor student participants from Colombia. This is crucial for our project to be successful and we are very thankful to have such help.

Dr. Prasanna Kumar is a resourceful mathematician with huge background and active engagement in research on topics in Geometric Function Theory, Geographic Information Science and Algebra. He has been associated with Department of Mathematics, Birla Institute of Technology and Science, Pilani K K Birla Goa Campus, Goa India, one of the premier institutes in India, in various capacities for last twelve years and currently working as the Chair, in the same department.  Dr. Kumar is well-known in his field of research with profound expertise in mathematics teaching/research at the undergraduate and graduate level for last fifteen years. His proven record of scholarly accomplishment with several published research articles; demonstrated academic credentials in leading sponsored research projects, and his involvement in interdisciplinary research reflect  the academic journey he had through his carrier. Dr. Kumar is also a Visiting Associate Professor at Department of Mathematics and Statistics, Auburn University, Alabama, USA.

Project Editorial: Teaching Strategies in Mathematics – Workshop for College Teachers during 28-29 April 2017 at Birla Institute of Technology and Science Pilani K K Birla India.

Goa is a well-known and popular hotspot on the tourist map of India and the world. This charm and beauty sets the right ambience for Birla Institute of Technology and Science Pilani K K Birla India, an Institute of excellence in Technology and Sciences.  BITS, Pilani - K. K. Birla Goa Campus, which was commissioned in 2004. In the midst of idyllic, sylvan beauty, the Campus houses the Main building, having academic and administrative offices, Guest House, Hostels for boys and girls, Student Activity Centre, faculty and staff quarters, Medical Centre, Playground and Shopping Complex. The Campus, in keeping with the tradition of innovation and creativity, has given a state-of-the-art touch to the infrastructure of the entire institute without diminishing in the least, the natural beauty of Goa, surrounding its Campus. Spacious Labs State of art Classrooms with soundproof acoustics, modern furniture, computer labs with Internet facility and Library define the infrastructural counters of the institution.

Goa is one of the smaller states in India with relatively less awareness about mathematical happenings in the world. That is why we a premier institute in India decided to conduct a series of training and workshops for faculty of college/university level. This project will be a first one in this series. We invite mathematicians to share their knowledge with as many as fifty participants in the vicinity of Goa state, India. We intend to give the adequate and up-to­date information on ongoing works in mathematics teachers’ instructional improvement and current research. The impact of the workshop will be the effective classroom practice, teachers’ pedagogical shaping and motivating them towards research supported teaching.  Internationally renowned scholars like Dr Gururaj Karjage, Director, Academy of Creative Teaching, Bengalure, Prof. V. D. Sharma, Department of Mathematics, IIT Bombay, Prof. Veerappa Gowda, TIFR Bengaluru, Prof. Nagaraj D S, IMSc Chennai and Prof. S. Arumugam, Director n-CARDMATH, Kalasalingam University Tamilnadu, India will train the participants for two days.

Víctor Rivero was born in México city in 1976. He graduated from the Universidad Nacional Autónoma de México in 1999. After this he got a Diplôme d’Études Approfondies in the University of Paris VI and obtained his PhD in 2004 at the University of Paris VI. From 2003 to 2005 he held a position in the University of Paris X, Nanterre. During a year in 2007-2008 and a further one in 2014-2015, he realized an academic stay in the University of Bath, where he maintains a rich collaboration. He collaborates with colleagues in France, England and Mexico. He is continuously invited to give talks in the most important events in the fields of Probability and Stochastic Processes around the world. In August 2013 he obtained the price of Mathematical Congress of the Americas for outstanding results obtained in the early years of his mathematical career. Since his PhD studies he realizes researches in Lévy, self-similar Markov, branching and general Markov processes. He has been developing his career in the Centro de Investigación en Matemáticas in Guanajuato since August 2005.

Finally, in addition to his mathematical merits, Víctor Rivero has also contributed significantly to the positive environment at CIMAT. In particular, it is worth to point out his role as chair of graduate studies in probability and statistics and, currently, as Interim Director, as well as in the organization of several international academic events in probability and stochastic processes in Guanajuato and in Mexico overall.

Project editorial: Funding the participation of up to 6 young researchers in the various prestigious academic events to be held at CIMAT during the year 2017

The main purpose of this project is to fund the participation of up to 6 young researchers in the various prestigious academic events to be held at CIMAT during the year 2017. Their participation would contribute to increase their expertise in advanced and contemporary research topics that are at the edge of knowledge, to disseminate their research work, for the younger ones to have the experience to present their work in an international forum, to establish new contacts for collaboration or continue their training as independent researchers, and to get acquainted with the academic community in Latin America. With this project it will increase and diversify its portfolio of collaborators and research activity, and at the same time, it will help to build a model to consolidate the Department of Probability and Statistics as one of the world's leading centers of excellence in the theory and applications of probability and statistics.

The expected outcome of this project will be that a long-term strategy for engagement will be formalized, leading to a strengthening of the Mexican research network in probability and statistics through quality projects and people.

2016 winners

Project Editorial: Bernoulli - ISI World Congress pre meeting for young researchers

The Bernoulli society is one of the most esteemed societies in the field of probability, statistics and stochastics. Every four years, it hosts a world congress lasting one week. This is a huge event that sees a rich variety of parallel and invited sessions coupled with special named lectures and hundreds of attendees. In 2016, the Bernoulli World Congress will be hosted in the week of 11-15^th July, this year in collaboration with the International Statistical Institute. Since 2012, an additional feature to this long-standing symposium series has been instituted. Preceding the World Congress, there is a two-day meeting focused predominantly at young participants (typically PhD/postdoc level) and participants from developing countries. The event consists of lectures/mini-courses at an appropriate level on a selected theme, as well as some additional lectures/open discussion concerning the development of an academic career, gender issues, publishing, grants etc. Representatives of learned societies and publishers will also be invited to attend. For this, the second such event in the series, the academic theme of the event is Big Data: Statistical, Computational and Mathematical Issues. This is an emerging field which offers many opportunities and low hanging fruit to young researchers. The generous funds committed by Elsevier join with those of other sponsors (The Bernoulli Society, The Fields Institute, ISI, The World Bank and Springer) to form a total of circa USD 27,500, the overwhelming majority of which will go towards scholarships that will financially assist young researchers in attending both the Bernoulli pre-meeting and the World Congress thereafter.

From March 1st to October 15th, 2007 she held a Postdoctoral Research Fellowship in Operations Research, Computation & Analysis of Systems Research Group, at Department of Mathematics & Statistics of University of Guelph, Canada. From November 2nd, 2007 to December 15, 2010 she held a Postdoctoral Research Fellowship on Mathematical Analysis at University of Catania, Italy. From December 16, 2010 to September 30, 2015 she was a Researcher in the Department of Mathematics and Applications “Renato Caccioppoli” at University of Naples “Federico II”, Italy. Her research interests involve the variational and quasi-variational inequality theory, network equilibrium problems, the infinite-dimensional duality theory, hyperbolic partial differential equations, the differential inclusion theory. She participated to many national and international conference giving, also on invitation, communications. She is a member of Editorial Boards of several international journals. Moreover, she is director and member of the organizer committee of several international conferences.

Project Editorial: 66th International Workshop Advances in Convex Analysis and Optimization

The 66th International Workshop “Advances in Convex Analysis and Optimization” will take place from July 5 to 12, 2016 at “Ettore Majorana” Foundation and Center for Scientific Culture located in Erice (Sicily), Italy.

The aim of the Workshop is to review and discuss recent developments of the theories of Convex Analysis and Optimization and to provide a forum for fruitful interactions in closely related fields of research and their applications. Particular emphasis will be placed on novel ideas and promising research developments.

Thanks to the support from the Elsevier Mathematics Sciences Sponsorship Fund, two scholarships have been established to provide financial assistance to young researchers who are either PhD students or got their PhD degree less than three years ago.  These scholarships will allow them not only to participate in the workshop but also to give a contributed talk. Assistance is provided towards conference fees, accommodation and local expenses for attending the conference.

For the last few years, he have been engaged in a number of research and teaching initiatives in East Africa, and has been Scientific Coordinator of the EAUMP (East African Universities Mathematics Programme) Summer Schools since 2013, coordinating schools in Mombasa, Arusha and Kampala. He has also been on the council of AIMS-SA, the African Institute of Mathematical Sciences in South Africa, since 2014.

Michael Gahirima is a Rwandan, currently Lecturer at the College of Science and Technology of the University of Rwanda. He is the EAUMP Network Coordinator for his institution. He has a B.Sc. degree in Mathematics and Chemistry from Makerere University, Uganda, where he graduated in 1979. In 2005, he also earned an M.Sc. degree in Mathematics from PSG College of Arts and Science, Coimbatore, South India.

Project Editorial: 2016 EAUMP-ICTP School in Number Theory

The 2016 ICTP-EAUMP School in Number Theory is the latest in the series of EAUMP schools, a series started in 2004. The School will familiarize participants, Masters and doctoral students and young faculty from sub-Saharan Africa, with trends in modern number theory. Topics covered will include finite fields, p-adic numbers, elliptic curves and modular forms. The School will also be a forum for young scientists from different countries to meet and to socialize, to get to know senior mathematicians from the region and elsewhere, to start collaborations, and to explore opportunities for further study. Funding from the Elsevier Mathematical Sciences Sponsorship Fund 2016 will allow the organizers to fund the participation of about 5-8 worthy participants from sub-Saharan countries, covering their travel expenses to Rwanda and local expenses.

After completing my education in Holy Child School (2010), India, I joined University of Delhi (India) and completed my undergraduate degree in mathematics in  2013. Then I got funding for my master's programme in mathematics in University College Dublin which was a great opportunity for me to have an international experience and to explore different areas of mathematics. I did my master's from University College Dublin under the supervision of Dr. Marius Ghergu (2013-2014). Then I received Research Demonstratorship in University College Dublin for my PhD programme and since then I am doing my research under the supervision of Dr. Marius Ghergu.

Project Editorial: Partial Differential Equations and their Applications

This funding will help me to attend the 7th European Congress of Mathematics (7th ECM) in Berlin, Germany from 18-22 July 2016. This would be a great opportunity for me to present my research in front of great mathematicians from all around the world and it will help me in improving my relationships with other great mathematicians from my own field.

Without this funding, it would be difficult for me to attend such an international event . This funding will cover my registration, visa fees and travel expenses. Thanks a lot for all your support and considering my application.

In 2012 he accepted a full professorship at Vienna University where he is currently representing the field of Ergodic Theory and Dynamical Systems. In this area, he has published most of his work, with many co-authors. He has supervised/ is supervising 8 PhD students and postdocs, and he has (co)organised numerous workshops in dynamical systems and topology. In addition, he is Editor for "Topology and its Applications" and "Monatshefte fuer Mathematik".

Project Editorial: Taking the measure of one-dimensional dynamics

Whereas the days of an academic seem increasing filled with administrative chores of running a department, teaching and contact hours with students, and with additional editorial work, outreach, and administering research proposals, the "workshop" is a central feature in actual research. It is the time of true exchange of ideas and communication between (international) colleagues and getting to know new players in the field (that is, new postdocs). The current workshop at the Lorentz Center is intended to showcase achievements in one-dimensional dynamics, and, if not more, to outline new directions. It is therefore wonderful to have many founders of this field together for a week. Predominantly, the Elsevier funding will enable some of the young researcher to encounter some of the central figures in the area, and for me it is important to meet this group as it provides a first-hand measurement of how lively and regenerating the area is, and a chance to meet potential future colleagues at the university.

Project Editorial: Participation in homotopy type theory workshops

The grant money will allow Paige to participate in two workshops on homotopy type theory. The first workshop takes place at the Max-Planck-Institut in Bonn, Germany. The second workshop takes place at the Fields Institute, Toronto, Canada. There, Paige will present some results of her PhD.

He completed his PhD in Mathematical Engineering from University of Concepcion, Chile in 2008. Then moved to the Ecole Polytechnique Federale de Lausanne, Switzerland for a postdoc, subsequently was employed as senior researcher at the University of Lausanne, and currently holds a Lecturer position at the Mathematical Institute of Oxford University.

Project Editorial: Conferences Numerical Analysis

The funds granted by the Elsevier Mathematical Sciences Sponsorship will be employed to attend two major conferences in Numerical Analysis and Computational Mechanics, respectively. They will be of utmost importance in disseminating recent results by Dr. Ruiz Baier in the fields of mixed finite elements and cardiac electromechanics, and in the fostering of new collaborations.

The first event corresponds to the traditional "Mathematics of Finite Elements and Applications" to be held in Brunel University, UK during 14-17 June 2016. Jointly with R. Oyarzua, Dr. Ruiz Baier organizes a minisymposium on "Numerical methods for viscous flow in porous media", where he is also delivering a talk involving collaborators from Chile and India.

The second event is the "12th World Congress on Computational Mechanics", taking place in Seoul, Korea during July 24-29, 2016. Dr. Ruiz Baier has been invited to participate in the special session "Nonlinear Cardiac Dynamics and Multiphysics Coupling", organized by A. Gizzi and K.M. Lim and will present his recent results on "Mixed-primal methods for the electromechanics of the heart", developed in collaboration with researchers from UK, Switzerland, and USA.

High impact results are  expected, and most needed especially in the areas where Ruiz Baier is starting to exhibit more important productivity (as multiphase flows and porous media applications).

Project Editorial: Virtual Reality Research and Outreach

One of the visualization programs at the Mason Experimental Geometry Lab (https://meglab.wikidot.com opens in new tab/window) is to develop exploratory tools for mathematical research with virtual reality. Additionally, we develop outreach and educational tools with virtual reality to foster excitement and learning in young people.  This award will help purchase virtual reality equipment needed for this development.

Alongside this work Thomas collaborates with the University of Reading and researches mathematical models of stem cell movement. By coupling accurate mechanical models of the cell structure to a random protrusion model he is able to link cellular movement data, which is easy to generate, back to membrane properties of the cell, which are difficult to measure. The hope is that by understanding how stem cells move we can influence them and, thus, speed up the healing process.

When not doing mathematics he is a keen participant in mathematical outreach workshops and has given a variety of popular maths lectures nationally and internationally. He has previously worked for the BBC, illustrated Prof. Marcus du Sautoy's popular science book, “The Number Mysteries”, and he recently worked on the popular maths show "Dara O'Briains school of hard sums". He is currently the Fellow of Modern Mathematics at the London Science Museum and is helping redesign their mathematics gallery.

Project Editorial: 11^th AIMS Conference on Dynamical Systems, Differential Equations and Applications

I had always enjoyed mathematics, however, it was during my third year undergraduate course of “Mathematical Biology” that I first knew that I wanted to be a researcher. Critically, it was the first course where I felt that the application of the mathematics provided answers that were physical, realistic and useful. Further, these results could be used to either confirm or alter a biologist’s hypothesis. The rigorous power mathematics gave the user to test old ideas and predict new outcomes was revolutionary in my education and I followed this route ever since.

Of course, as I was trained as a mathematician, I had to pick up a lot of biological ideas and integrate these into my knowledge. Further, I have had to develop exemplary communication skills in order to translate ideas back and forth between the theoretical and experimental collaborators.

Crucially, by being an interdisciplinary scientist, I have to attend both mathematical and biological conferences separately, since there are few that cater to both audiences. Unfortunately, this can make dissemination of ideas slow as time and money are usually resources in low supply. However, gaining this Elsevier Mathematical Sciences Sponsorship Award has allowed me to attend a mathematical conference in Orlando, Florida. Consequently, the award has sped up the spread of my ideas, allowed me to expand my network of collaborators and hear about the cutting edge of new mathematical techniques in dynamical systems. My aim is to learn, adapt and apply these ideas to new biological problems, thus extending and diversifying my portfolio of skills and interests.

2015 winners

Amjad Ali is currently a faculty member at Centre for Advanced Studies in Pure and Applied Mathematics (CASPAM), Bahauddin Zakariya University (BZU), Multan, Pakistan. He completed his graduation in Computational Mathematics from BZU, Pakistan in 2001, received his M.S./M.Phil. degree in Computer Software Engineering from NUST, Pakistan in 2005, and a Ph.D. in Mathematics from BZU in 2013. His research interests include Computational Fluid Dynamics (CFD), High Performance Computing (HPC) and Parallel Computing. He has experience of developing parallel versions of some serial CFD applications as well as installation and management of cluster systems. He is also an experienced trainer for high performance parallel computing at national and international levels. Amjad Ali is playing a key role in organizing CRSOM-2 2015 (2nd CASPAM Regional Student Olympiad of Mathematics), just like his active role for CRSOM-1 2014.

Christopher Drupieski is an Assistant Professor in the Department of Mathematical Sciences at DePaul University in Chicago, Illinois. Christopher earned his PhD in Mathematics in 2009 under the supervision of Brian Parshall at the University of Virginia, specializing in the representation theory of algebraic groups, Lie algebras, quantized enveloping algebras, and related structures. After earning his PhD, Christopher held a VIGRE Postdoctoral Research Fellowship at the University of Georgia from 2009–2012, and was an active member of the University of Georgia VIGRE Algebra Group, a vertically-integrated research group comprised of faculty, postdocs, and graduate students. Christopher then joined the faculty at DePaul University in 2012. Christopher’s current research interests involve the representation theory and cohomology of algebraic groups and related structures, including Lie algebras, finite groups of Lie type, quantized enveloping algebras and quantum groups, Lie superalgebras, and strict polynomial functors. Christopher has 11 published papers in these areas, and has given conference and seminar presentations on these topics throughout the United States and Europe. His research has been supported by various internal grants from DePaul University, and was supported from 2013–2015 by an AMS–Simons Travel Grant. Christopher was awarded a Project NExT (New Experiences in Teaching) Fellowship from the Mathematical Association of America in 2010–2011. More recently, Christopher has been actively involved in the mathematical preparation of future elementary school teachers.

Dr. Veselin Jungic is a Senior Lecturer in the Department of Mathematics and a Deputy Director of the IRMACS Centre, Simon Fraser University. Most of his work is within Ramsey theory and the field of mathematics education. Dr. Jungic is a 3M National Teaching Fellow and a recipient of the Canadian Mathematical Society Excellence in Teaching Award.

Connections in Discrete Mathematics opens in new tab/window is a conference that is bringing together many prominent researchers in combinatorics, graph theory, number theory, computer science, and more. This gives young researchers a unique opportunity to participate in and connect with both young and senior researchers. The funding available through the Elsevier Mathematical Sciences Sponsorship Fund will help support the travel of several young researchers who might otherwise be unable to participate in this conference. The global nature of Elsevier is being mirrored in how the funding is being used to bring young researchers together from around the world.

So Okada, an associate professor of Mathematics at National Institute of Technology, Oyama College, Tochigi Japan; born in Recife Brazil in 1976;received BA and MA at International Christian University,Tokyo Japan; received PhD in 2006 at University of Massachusetts Amherst; full-time research fellow (postdoc visiting researcher) at Max Planck Institute for Mathematics, Bonn Germany, Sep 1 2006 - Oct 31 2007; full-time visiting research fellow at Institute des Hautes Etudes Scientifiques, Bures-surYvette France, Dec 5 2007 - Feb 24 2008, Nov 1 - Nov 30 2008, Nov 1 - Dec 31 2009, Nov 1 - Dec 31 2010; full-time research associate at Australian National University, Canberra Australia, May 9 2008 -Apr 14 2009; program-specific researcher (Global Center of Excellence) May 1 2009 - Mar 31 2011 and researcher (Global Center of Excellence) Apr 1 2009 - Sep 30 2012, Research Institute of Mathematical Sciences of Kyoto University, Kyoto Japan.

I would like to gratefully thank Elsevier Mathematical Sciences Sponsorship Fund to support the mathematics competition at National Institute of Technology, Oyama College. The intended impact of the competition is to encourage students to tackle and enjoy mathematics. The competition involves a one-day exam. Top scorers are awarded certificates of excellence. Prize monies are supported by Elsevier MSSF. In previous years, I spent my own money. When I was a graduate student in US, I noticed the undergraduate mathematics competition of the department. I found the idea is nice for students. I bet students at NIT Oyama College will benefit greatly from their mathematics competition supported by Elsevier MSSF.

I am an applied mathematician who specializes in solving problems originating at the interface of mathematics, physics, and biology taking advantage of the tools and data present in each field to build better models. The unifying theme among all my research topics is interactions (interparticle, molecular, fluid-mediated, ...) leading to the emergence of natural phenomena. My work consists of developing differential equations based models for biosystems and materials that predict the emergence of collective behavior and result in dramatic changes in the system’s effective properties. Mathematical analysis and simulations are used to uncover deeper understanding of the systems under consideration. I have always enjoyed learning new techniques as well as facing new challenges in hopes of applying my results to better understand the world around us.

My mathematical journey began at the University of Akron where I completed my Bachelors and Masters degrees in Applied Mathematics in their five year BS/MS program. Through hard work and a love of mathematics I was able to complete both degrees in four total years. I was also the first student at the University of Akron to be named a Barry M. Goldwater Scholar. In the summer between my second and third year I participated in a Mathematics REU at the University of Akron. It was at this point I discovered my passion for research and discovering new ideas. From this great experience, I was able to produce my first publication as well as my Masters thesis under the direction of Prof. D. Golovaty and Prof. J. P. Wilber. The main project was developing differential equations based models for interacting graphene sheets, components of carbon nanotubes.

Upon completion of my studies, I started to pursue a Ph. D. in Mathematics at Penn State University where I was fortunate enough to be awarded a University Graduate Fellowship to support my studies for five years. Here I was first exposed to what has become my research passion: mathematical biology. Over the next five years, under the direction of Prof. L. Berlyand, I developed models of bacterial suspensions and the resulting effective properties that emerge in the course of collective swimming. The study of complex structures and novel phase transitions exhibited by such simple systems continue to be the driving force behind my current research. A crucial part of my development was the three summers I spent as a research aide at Argonne National Laboratory with Dr. I. Aronson. Interacting with experimentalists working with the actual organisms I was trying to model provided a new perspective on how intricate active biosystems can be. Also, while at PSU I was able to teach numerous foundational courses such as differential equations and linear algebra. By this point I realized that my mission would be to combine my love for research and teaching into an ideal permanent job.

To this end, after the completion of my Ph. D. in Mathematics, I began a position as a Postdoctoral Research Associate with a dual appointment in the Department of Mathematical Sciences and Liquid Crystal Institute at Kent State University working with Prof. 1 P. Palffy-Muhoray and Prof. X. Zheng. Through this first year as a postdoc my research program is starting to develop. One project focuses on mathematical models used to study problems in material science developing an effective von Neumann law for interacting cells on the surface of a sphere evolving via curvature motion. Another project, in collaboration with Prof. C. Xue at Ohio State, involves the development of novel differential equations based models capable of capturing cell dynamics and aggregation through fluid-mediated interactions and chemical signaling. The final project involves individual work on ant foraging dynamics and an examination of the phase transition to an ordered state consisting of local traffic lane formation. Soon I will be looking for a permanent position as an Assistant Professor so that I can continue doing the work I love in an expended capacity.

As a broader goal, getting children interested in careers in math and science has always interested me. This past fall, in collaboration with Upward Bound at Kent State, Prof. B. Jaye, Dr. S. Nitzan, and myself organized a math skills academy with the purpose of showing local high school students the beauty of studying mathematics through interactive problem solving. In addition, the Palffy-Muhoray/Zheng research group at Kent State volunteered at the Akron Public Schools’ Science Fair to show participants and their families tricks and illusions from physics and mathematics. I will continue trying to find opportunities for outreach to younger people, because the need for skilled scientists is only growing with the advent of newer technology.

Derrick Stolee is an Assistant Professor of Mathematics and Computer Science at Iowa State University. His expertise is in computational combinatorics, graph theory, and theory of computer science. The Graduate Research Workshop in Combinatorics is a 2-week workshop where graduate students, postdocs, and faculty from around the world collaborate on research problems in combinatorics and graph theory. Students select the problems and work in groups to make initial progress during the workshop and continue the collaboration after the workshop to produce quality research papers. Primary support for the workshop comes from the organizing institutions and the National Science Foundation, but the Elsevier Sciences Sponsorship Fund specifically provides funds for four students from institutions outside the United States to participate in the workshop. These students are of the highest quality and will be excellent participants

My name is Gilles STUPFLER. I was born in Strasbourg, France on May 15, 1988. Having shown interest in mathematics from an early age, I enrolled in the highly competitive two-year French cycle of « classes préparatoires scientifiques » following my baccalauréat - the French high school diploma – in 2004. I then attended the University of Strasbourg, where I opted to study pure and applied mathematics. I obtained my B.Sc in 2007 and my M.Sc in 2009. It was during my M.Sc that I developed a specific interest in applied mathematics, specifically in probability and statistics. After my graduation, I asked for and was awarded a three-year doctoral grant from the French Ministry of Higher Education, which allowed me to undertake a Ph.D in statistics under the supervision of Armelle GUILLOU and Stéphane GIRARD, full professor at the University of Strasbourg and senior research scientist at INRIA Rhône-Alpes, respectively. I defended my Ph.D thesis, titled « A hidden Markov model in insurance and frontier and endpoint estimation » on November 10, 2011; for this work, I was awarded a thesis prize, worth €1500, by the University of Strasbourg in June 2012. During the French job market interviews in May 2012, I obtained a position of assistant professor at the Department of Economics of the University of Aix-Marseille, vacant from September 1, 2012, which I am currently holding. Although my research interests are diverse, I am mostly working in extreme value statistics, namely the study of rare events such as extreme rainfall, high temperatures, record losses by insurance companies... Part of my contributions to this field consist in accounting for the presence of random covariates in practical situations so as to improve the statistical analysis of data, using nonparametric techniques. I have lately become interested in understanding univariate extremes under missing-at-random frameworks such as censoring or truncation. Outside of extremes, I have written a couple of articles about modeling counting and loss processes in actuarial applications with Markov processes.

This grant greatly contributes to my participation in the EVA 2015 conference in Ann Arbor, Michigan, USA, by covering the registration fee and the costs for accomodation during a full week. EVA conferences occur every second year and are the main international meeting as far as extremes are concerned; for a young researcher working in this area like me, it is the major place to be in order to get known by senior specialists. It allows me to accept the invitation of Stéphane GIRARD, who is a senior research scientist at INRIA Rhône-Alpes, Grenoble, France, to present my work in his invited session on extreme quantiles and regression, which is a vibrant field, alongside internationally-renowned specialists of this topic. I hope that I will be able to get people interested in my research activities and establish research ties with foreign scientists during this conference so as to make further progress in my early career stage.