Trachette Jackson of the University of Michigan and Margaret Cozzens of Rutgers University will speak at the 22nd annual Nebraska Conference for Undergraduate Women in Mathematics (NCUWM) on Jan. 31 and Feb. 1, respectively, in Lincoln. NCUWm offers undergraduate female mathematicians the opportunity to discuss their research and to meet other women who share their interest in mathematical sciences.
Jackson is a professor of mathematics who specializes in computational cancer research, or mathematical oncology. With an eye toward addressing critical challenges associated with cancer therapeutics, much of Jackson’s research is aimed at developing multiscale mathematical models that are designed to optimize the use of anticancer agents that specifically target active molecular pathways that cancer cells use to promote their growth and survival. Jackson is an award-winning educator and scholar who has been honored for her accomplishments in both areas. In 2003, she became the second African American woman to receive the prestigious Alfred P. Sloan Research Award in Mathematics; in 2005 she received the James S. McDonnell 21st Century Scientist Award; and in 2008 Diverse Magazine honored her as one of the year’s Emerging Scholars. In 2010 she received the Blackwell-Tapia Prize, which biannually recognizes a mathematician for both their research achievements and for their contributions to addressing diversity in mathematics. She has built her career on collaborative research and educational activities that cut across traditional disciplinary boundaries and envisions that this type of team science will eventually change the face of cancer research.
Jackson will give the opening plenary talk at 3:40 p.m. on Jan. 31 in the Nebraska Union Auditorium on city campus.
Cozzens, better known as Midge, is currently distinguished professor of mathematics and associate director for education at DIMACS, the Discrete Mathematics and Theoretical Computer Science Center at Rutgers. She has been engaged in education for over 50 years, from teaching high school math, to chair of Northeastern University’s Mathematics Department, to division director for ESIE at NSF, provost at the University of Colorado Denver, and president of the Colorado Institute of Technology. She has led curriculum development projects in BioMath, Computational Thinking and Sustainability, and is the PI for the Computational Thinking Online Professional Development project and the Planning for a Sustainable Future project. She is the author of nearly 100 research publications including five books and four book chapters in areas of graph theory, biomath, cryptography, and math psychology.
Cozzens will speak at 1:45 p.m. on Feb. 1 in the ballroom at the Embassy Suites in Lincoln.
Both lectures are free and open to the public. Student talks during the rest of the conference are also open to all audiences. To see the conference schedule, visit http://www.math.unl.edu/~ncuwm/22ndAnnual/schedule/.
The conference is sponsored by the Department of Mathematics and the Center for Science, Mathematics and Computer Education; the National Science Foundation; and the National Security Agency.