European Women in Mathematics - Netherlands (EWM-NL) is the national association of women working in the field of mathematics in The Netherlands. Established in 2013, EWM-NL has several hundred members from academia, industry, and society at large.
EWM The Netherlands (EWM-NL) is a platform for all female professional mathematicians working in the Netherlands. It is supported and financed by Platform Wiskunde Nederland (PWN) and the Dutch Research Council (NWO). The association was established in 2013 by Valentijn Karemaker and KaYin Leung, who chose to link the name of the Dutch association to that of EWM. EWM, the European Women in Mathematics Association, is one of the oldest in Europe, having been founded in 1986.
EWM-NL has prepared a poster about women in mathematics, inspired by a poster on Notable Women in Computing. Below is the beautiful poster, prepared by a joint Dutch and UK team comprising Maria Vlasiou and Silvy Hendriks (NL), and Houry Melkonian. In the poster, you can learn about the contributions of these mathematicians in mathematics and science in general.
The poster is also available in Dutch. The University of Exeter ran a competition for its students to celebrate diversification in the culture of mathematics, and to support participation among underrepresented groups. Joining forces with EWM-NL, the goal assigned to the students was to prepare a biography about a female mathematician. The winning entries of the competition contributed to the poster of Women in Mathematics. Here you may find the winning entries of the UK competition.
May12
Every year, on the 12th of May, "International Women in Maths Day" is celebrated. This is a great opportunity to celebrate women in mathematics and make their achievements more visible, and encourage an open, welcoming, and inclusive work environment for everybody.
Why May 12? May 12th, 1977, is the birthdate of Maryam Mirzakhani, an Iranian mathematician who was one of the world’s leading experts in geometry and dynamical systems. Her beautiful and astonishing results and her life and career are an inspiration for everyone, women, and men, to pursue their dreams in science. She died tragically from cancer in 2017 at the early age of 40.
In 2014, Maryam Mirzakhani was awarded the Fields Medal for her outstanding contributions to the dynamics and geometry of Riemann surfaces and their moduli spaces, becoming the first woman, and the first Iranian, to be recognized for her mathematical achievements by this top mathematical prize.
Next week many events are organized in various countries to celebrate this occasion. Have a look here for a list of all the events organized next week!
Last Tuesday, the 8th of March, was the International Women's Day. On this occassion we would like to share some stories of women in science. We start with this video made bij IFL Science, which was published five years ago, but is still relevant. It shows some great women who changed the world.
Two weeks ago I had the pleasure to attend two events where prizes for outstanding research in mathematics were awarded, one of them was the CWI Best Thesis in Applied Math 2024. It was a great pleasure to be there, to chat with (most of) the candidates, and to learn what they have done during their bachelor and master thesis'.
Almost one year ago the Minister of Education, Culture, and Science Robbert Dijkgraaf announced that a national center for science communication (NEWS) will be founded.
