Biographies of women mathematicians

http://www.agnesscott.edu/Lriddle/women/women.htm

The International Conference of Women Mathematicians (ICWM) 2010 will take place in Hyderabad, India, on August 17 and 18, 2010, over the two days immediately before the International Congress of Mathematicians in 2010. The meeting is aimed principally at women mathematicians attending the ICM (though men are also very welcome to attend), and in particular at young women mathematicians and women from Asia and from developing countries. More Information

Kirsten Wickelgren and Melanie Matchett Wood have been selected as this year's Five-Year fellows of the American Institute of Mathematics. Wickelgren received her undergraduate degree from Harvard University and her PhD at Stanford. She will use her fellowship to continue her research at Harvard. Wood, a graduate of Duke University with a Master's degree from Cambridge University and a PhD from Princeton, will work at Stanford University. For more information, see the announcement from the AIM or the Autumn 2009 AIM Newsletter (pages 4-5).

The seven members of the USA team for the 2009 China Girls Math Olympiad, held August 11-16 in Xiamen, Fujian Province, China, all won metals. Pictured in the front row, from left to right: Carolyn Kim, Patricia Li, Jing-Jing (Shiyu) Li, Joy Zheng, Cynthia Day, Ramya Rangan, and Elizabeth Synge; behind the team in the second row are the teams' coaches: Jennifer Iglesias (a member of the US CGMO team in 2007 and 2008) and Zuming Feng, of Phillips Exeter Academy and academic director of the USAMO Summer Program since 2003. Shiyu Li and Joy Zheng each received a Gold medal, while the other five received either a Silver or Bronze medal (for the full results, see the MSRI press release). Read their online journal at the website of one of the team's sponsors, the Mathematical Sciences Research Institute (MSRI). The journal describes their experiences at the Mathematical Olympiad Summer Program at the University of Nebraska and their trip to China. The website also has links to past US teams' travelogues.

"An analysis of contemporary data has provided new evidence discrediting the notion that females are innately less capable than males at doing mathematics, especially at the highest level." Read more about the report from Janet E. Mertz and Janet S. Hyde of the University of Wisconsin-Madison at the MAA Mathematical Sciences Digital Library.

Oscar winner filmmaker Alejandro Amenabar (of The Others) is the writer and director for a new movie called Agora, a historical drama set in early Egypt. According to the TimesofMalta.com website, "Oscar-winning actress Rachel Wiesz plays astrologer-philosopher Hypatia of Alexandria who fights to save the collected wisdom of the ancient world." The film was expected to be released in the United States in December 2009 but has been delayed to 2010