SIAM Welcomes Three New Student Chapters
September 30, 2003
SIAM's vice president for education, Bill Briggs of the University of Colorado, Denver (left), took the opportunity in Montreal to share ideas with Darin Gillis (middle) and Aaron Windfield of the University of Colorado, Boulder, who were at the meeting to present their winning solution to the discrete problem in this year's Mathematical Contest in Modeling. The students, members of the Boulder Student Chapter of SIAM, described their motivation, plan of attack, and enthusiasm (once the fatigue had passed) for the MCM in the May issue of SIAM News. Briggs is the faculty adviser of the newly approved Denver chapter.
At the SIAM Annual Meeting in Montreal this spring, the Board of Trustees approved the formation of three new student chapters: at the University of Colorado at Denver, the University of Pittsburgh, and Worcester Polytechnic Institute. The addition of these new chapters brings the total number of SIAM student chapters to 19.
Student chapters of SIAM can be established at universities and colleges, as well as at industrial firms and government labs. To date, all chapters are at universities and colleges, but SIAM hopes to welcome some non-academic groups in the near future. Regardless of their home base, all chapters have the same objective: the promotion of applied mathematics and computational science to young mathematicians.
Chapters provide students with opportunities to get to know faculty members outside the classroom, share ideas and research with people who have similar interests, learn about careers in applied and computational mathematics, and become part of networks with professors and fellow students. The current chapters tend to draw members from various departments across colleges and universities, including not only the obvious mathematics and applied mathematics, statistics, and computer science, but also engineering, physics, and biology departments.
Those interested in creating SIAM chapters at their institutions should be aware that SIAM provides some funding for activities, along with complimentary SIAM memberships for all student members of chapters. To learn more about student chapters, including the procedure for starting a chapter, see http://www.siam.org/students/chapters/. SIAM's membership manager, Susan Whitehouse ([email protected]), and vice president for education, Bill Briggs ([email protected]), are always happy to provide additional information.
