This features contributions by and about some of the luminaries of American mathematics. Included here are essays based on presentations made during the symposium Celebration of 100 Years of Annual Meetings, held at the AMS meeting in Cincinnati in 1994. The papers in this collection form a vibrant collage of mathematical personalities. This book weaves a tapestry of mathematical life in the United States, with emphasis on the past seventy years. Photographs, old and recent, further decorate that tapestry. There are many stories to be told about the making of mathematics and the personalities of those who meet to share it. This collection offers a celebration in words and pictures of a century of American mathematical life.

Part of the A Century of Mathematics in America collection, this book contains articles that describe the mathematics and the mathematical personalities in some of the nations' prominent departments: Johns Hopkins, Clark, Columbia, MIT, Michigan, Texas, and the Institute for Advanced Study.

Mathematicians like to point out that mathematics is universal. In spite of this, most people continue to view it as either mundane (balancing a checkbook) or mysterious (cryptography). This fifth volume of the What's Happening series contradicts that view by showing that mathematics is indeed found everywhere-in science, art, history, and our everyday lives. Here is some of what you'll find in this volume: Mathematics and Science Mathematical biology: Mathematics was key tocracking the genetic code. Now, new mathematics is needed to understand the three-dimensional structure of the proteins produced from that code. Celestial mechanics and cosmology: New methods have revealed a multitude of solutions to the three-body problem. And other new work may answer one of cosmology'smost fundamental questions: What is the size and shape of the universe? Mathematics and Everyday Life Traffic jams: New models are helping researchers understand where traffic jams come from-and maybe what to do about them! Small worlds: Researchers have found a short distance from theory to applications in the study of small world networks. Elegance in Mathematics Beyond Fermat's Last Theorem: Number theorists are reaching higher ground after Wiles' astounding 1994 proof: new developments inthe elegant world of elliptic curves and modular functions. The Millennium Prize Problems: The Clay Mathematics Institute has offered a million dollars for solutions to seven important and difficult unsolved problems. These are just some of the topics of current interest that are covered in thislatest volume of What's Happening in the Mathematical Sciences. The book has broad appeal for a wide spectrum of mathematicians and scientists, from high school students through advanced-level graduates and researchers.

The first section of the book deals with some of the influential mathematics departments in the United States. Functioning as centers of research and training, these departments played a major role in shaping the mathematical life in this country. The second section deals with an extraordinary conference held at Princeton in 1946 to commemorate the university's bicentennial. The influence of women in American mathematics, the burgeoning of differential geometry in the last 50 years, and discussions of the work of von Karman and Weiner are among other topics covered.

The MAA was founded in 1915 to serve as a home for The American Mathematical Monthly. The mission of the Association-to advance mathematics, especially at the collegiate level-has, however, always been larger than merely publishing world-class mathematical exposition. MAA members have explored more than just mathematics; we have, as this volume tries to make evident, investigated mathematical connections to pedagogy, history, the arts, technology, literature, every field of intellectual endeavor. Essays, all commissioned for this volume, include exposition by Bob Devaney, Robin Wilson, and Frank Morgan; history from Karen Parshall, Della Dumbaugh, and Bill Dunham; pedagogical discussion from Paul Zorn, Joe Gallian, and Michael Starbird, and cultural commentary from Bonnie Gold, Jon Borwein, and Steve Abbott. This volume contains 35 essays by all-star writers and expositors writing to celebrate an extraordinary century for mathematics-more mathematics has been created and published since 1915 than in all of previous recorded history. We've solved age-old mysteries, created entire new fields of study, and changed our conception of what mathematics is. Many of those stories are told in this volume as the contributors paint a portrait of the broad cultural sweep of mathematics during the MAA's first century. Mathematics is the most thrilling, the most human, area of intellectual inquiry; you will find in this volume compelling proof of that claim.

This is the story of American mathematics during the past century. It contains articles and excerpts from a century of the American Mathematical Monthly, giving the reader an opportunity to skim all one hundred volumes of this popular mathematics magazine without actually opening them. It samples mathematics year by year and decade by decade. The reader can glimpse the mathematical community at the turn of the century, the controversy about Einstein and relativity, the debates about formalism in logic, the immigration of mathematicians from Europe, and the frantic effort to organize as the war began. More recent articles deal with the advent of computers and the changes they brought, and with some of the triumphs of modern research.

In the summer of 1988 in Providence, the AMS celebrated its centennial with a wide range of mathematical activities. Among those was a symposium, Mathematics into the Twenty-first Century, which brought together a number of the top research mathematicians who will likely have a significant impact on the mathematics of this century. This book contains the lectures presented by 16 of the 18 individuals who spoke during the symposium. Written by some of the major international figures in mathematical research, this group of articles covers a panorama of the vital areas of mathematics at the turn of the 21st century and gives the general mathematical reader a broad perspective on some of the major trends in research.

The Association for Women in Mathematics (AWM), the oldest organization in the world for women in mathematics, had its fiftieth anniversary in 2021. This collection of refereed articles, illustrated by color photographs, reflects on women in mathematics and the organization as a whole. Some articles focus on the situation for women in mathematics at various times and places, including other countries. Others describe how individuals have shaped AWM, and, in turn, how the organization has impacted individuals as well as the broader mathematical community. Some are personal stories about careers in mathematics. Fifty Years of Women in Mathematics: Reminiscences, History, and Visions for the Future of AWM covers a span from AWM’s beginnings through the following fifty years. The volume celebrates AWM and its successes but does not shy away from its challenges. The book is designed for a general audience. It provides interesting and informative reading for people interested in mathematics, gender equity, or organizational structures; teachers of mathematics; students at the high school, college, and graduate levels; and members of more recently established organizations for women in mathematics and related fields or prospective founders of such organizations.

This volume contains contains research and expository papers by African-American mathematicians on issues related to their involvement in the mathematical sciences. Little is known, taught, or written about African-American mathematicians. Information is lacking on their past and present contributions and on the qualitive nature of their existence in and distribution throughout mathematics. This lack of information leads to a number of questions that have to date remainedunanswered. This volume provides details and pointers to help answer some of these questions.