Mathematical Association of America
Encyclopedia
The Mathematical Association of America (MAA) is a professional society that focuses on mathematics
accessible at the undergraduate level. Members include university
, college
, and high school
teachers; graduate and undergraduate students; pure and applied mathematician
s; computer scientist
s; statistician
s; and many others in academia, government, business, and industry.
The MAA was founded in 1915 and is headquartered at 1529 18th Street
, Northwest in the Dupont Circle neighborhood of Washington, D.C.
. The organization publishes mathematics journals and books, including the American Mathematical Monthly
(established in 1894 by Benjamin Finkel
), the most widely-read mathematics journal in the world according to records on JSTOR
.
and cosponsors with the American Mathematical Society
the Joint Mathematics Meeting
, held in early January of each year. On occasion the Society for Industrial and Applied Mathematics
joins in these meetings. Twenty-nine regional sections also hold regular meetings.
The MAA has for a long time followed a strict policy of inclusiveness and non-discrimination.
In previous periods it was subject to the same problems of discrimination that were widespread across the United States. One notorious incident at a south-eastern sectional meeting in Nashville
in 1951 has been documented by the mathematician and equal rights activist Lee Lorch
, who recently received the highest honour of the MAA for distinguished services to mathematics. The citation delivered at the 2007 MAA awards presentation, where Lorch received a standing ovation, recorded that:
The Association's first woman president was Dorothy Lewis Bernstein
(1979–1980).
The Association publishes an online resource, Mathematical Sciences Digital Library (Math DL). The service launched in 2001 with the online-only Journal of Online Mathematics and its Applications (JOMA) and a set of classroom tools, Digital Classroom Resources. These were followed in 2004 by Convergence, an online-only history magazine, and in 2005 by MAA Reviews, an online book review service, and Classroom Capsules and Notes, a set of classroom notes.
for undergraduate students, and the American Mathematics Competitions
(AMC) for middle- and high-school students. This series of competitions is as follows:
Through this program, outstanding students are identified and invited to participate in the Mathematical Olympiad Program
. Ultimately, six high school students are chosen to represent the U.S. at the International Mathematics Olympiad.
Allegheny Mountain, EPADEL, Florida, Illinois, Indiana, Intermountain, Iowa, Kansas, Kentucky, Louisiana/Mississippi, MD-DC-VA, Metro New York, Michigan, Missouri, Nebraska - SE SD, New Jersey, North Central, Northeastern, Northern CA - NV-HI, Ohio, Oklahoma-Arkansas, Pacific Northwest, Rocky Mountain, Seaway, Southeastern, Southern CA - NV, Southwestern, Texas, Wisconsin
and the Carl B. Allendoerfer
, Trevor Evans, Lester R. Ford, George Pólya
, Merten M. Hasse, and Henry L. Alder awards.
(JPBM, http://www.jpbm.org/index.html), and participates in the Conference Board of the Mathematical Sciences
(CBMS, http://www.cbmsweb.org/), an umbrella organization of sixteen professional societies.
appears in . Further details of its history can be found in . In addition numerous regional sections of the MAA have published accounts of their local history.
occupied the house while he was Secretary of State (1921–1925) and a Supreme Court Justice (1910–1916 and 1930–1941).
The Carriage House would have been used by the owners as a livery stable to house the family carriage, though little else is known about its history today. There are huge doors that were once used as an entrance for horses and carriages. Iron rings used to tie up horses can still be seen on an adjacent building. The Carriage House would have perhaps also been used as living quarters for a coachman, as was typical for the time period.
The building is owned by the MAA since 1978. In Spring of 2007 an opening ceremony was held to mark its transformation from a mail room and publication warehouse into a first-rate conference center. It is now used for meetings, lectures, and other events.
Mathematics
Mathematics is the study of quantity, space, structure, and change. Mathematicians seek out patterns and formulate new conjectures. Mathematicians resolve the truth or falsity of conjectures by mathematical proofs, which are arguments sufficient to convince other mathematicians of their validity...
accessible at the undergraduate level. Members include university
University
A university is an institution of higher education and research, which grants academic degrees in a variety of subjects. A university is an organisation that provides both undergraduate education and postgraduate education...
, college
College
A college is an educational institution or a constituent part of an educational institution. Usage varies in English-speaking nations...
, and high school
High school
High school is a term used in parts of the English speaking world to describe institutions which provide all or part of secondary education. The term is often incorporated into the name of such institutions....
teachers; graduate and undergraduate students; pure and applied mathematician
Mathematician
A mathematician is a person whose primary area of study is the field of mathematics. Mathematicians are concerned with quantity, structure, space, and change....
s; computer scientist
Computer scientist
A computer scientist is a scientist who has acquired knowledge of computer science, the study of the theoretical foundations of information and computation and their application in computer systems....
s; statistician
Statistician
A statistician is someone who works with theoretical or applied statistics. The profession exists in both the private and public sectors. The core of that work is to measure, interpret, and describe the world and human activity patterns within it...
s; and many others in academia, government, business, and industry.
The MAA was founded in 1915 and is headquartered at 1529 18th Street
18th Street NW (Washington, D.C.)
18th Street Northwest is a prominent north–south thoroughfare in the Northwest quadrant of Washington, D.C.Part of Pierre Charles L'Enfant's plan for Washington, the roadway today is one of the main streets in the Adams Morgan neighborhood . 18th Street also travels through downtown Washington and...
, Northwest in the Dupont Circle neighborhood of Washington, D.C.
Washington, D.C.
Washington, D.C., formally the District of Columbia and commonly referred to as Washington, "the District", or simply D.C., is the capital of the United States. On July 16, 1790, the United States Congress approved the creation of a permanent national capital as permitted by the U.S. Constitution....
. The organization publishes mathematics journals and books, including the American Mathematical Monthly
American Mathematical Monthly
The American Mathematical Monthly is a mathematical journal founded by Benjamin Finkel in 1894. It is currently published 10 times each year by the Mathematical Association of America....
(established in 1894 by Benjamin Finkel
Benjamin Finkel
Benjamin Finkel was a mathematician and educator most remembered today as the founder of the journal, American Mathematical Monthly. Born in Fairfield County, Ohio and educated in small country schools, Finkel received both a BS and MA from Ohio Northern University...
), the most widely-read mathematics journal in the world according to records on JSTOR
JSTOR
JSTOR is an online system for archiving academic journals, founded in 1995. It provides its member institutions full-text searches of digitized back issues of several hundred well-known journals, dating back to 1665 in the case of the Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society...
.
Meetings
The MAA sponsors the annual summer MathFestMathFest
MathFest is a mathematics conference hosted annually in late summer by the Mathematical Association of America. It is known for its dual focus on teaching and research in mathematics, as well as for student participation.- External links :*...
and cosponsors with the American Mathematical Society
American Mathematical Society
The American Mathematical Society is an association of professional mathematicians dedicated to the interests of mathematical research and scholarship, which it does with various publications and conferences as well as annual monetary awards and prizes to mathematicians.The society is one of the...
the Joint Mathematics Meeting
Joint Mathematics Meeting
The Joint Mathematics Meetings are a mathematics conference hosted annually in early January by the American Mathematical Society and the Mathematical Association of America . Frequently, several other national mathematics organizations also participate...
, held in early January of each year. On occasion the Society for Industrial and Applied Mathematics
Society for Industrial and Applied Mathematics
The Society for Industrial and Applied Mathematics was founded by a small group of mathematicians from academia and industry who met in Philadelphia in 1951 to start an organization whose members would meet periodically to exchange ideas about the uses of mathematics in industry. This meeting led...
joins in these meetings. Twenty-nine regional sections also hold regular meetings.
Inclusiveness
In previous periods it was subject to the same problems of discrimination that were widespread across the United States. One notorious incident at a south-eastern sectional meeting in Nashville
Nashville, Tennessee
Nashville is the capital of the U.S. state of Tennessee and the county seat of Davidson County. It is located on the Cumberland River in Davidson County, in the north-central part of the state. The city is a center for the health care, publishing, banking and transportation industries, and is home...
in 1951 has been documented by the mathematician and equal rights activist Lee Lorch
Lee Lorch
Lee Lorch is a mathematician and was an early civil rights activist, who is Professor Emeritus of Mathematics at York University in Toronto, Canada.-Background:...
, who recently received the highest honour of the MAA for distinguished services to mathematics. The citation delivered at the 2007 MAA awards presentation, where Lorch received a standing ovation, recorded that:
- "Lee Lorch, the chair of the mathematics department at Fisk University, and three Black colleagues, Evelyn Boyd (now Granville), Walter Brown, and H. M. Holloway came to the meeting and were able to attend the scientific sessions. However, the organizer for the closing banquet refused to honor the reservations of these four mathematicians. (Letters in Science, August 10, 1951, pp. 161-162 spell out the details). Lorch and his colleagues wrote to the governing bodies of the AMS and MAA seeking bylaws against discrimination. Bylaws were not changed, but non-discriminatory policies were established and have been strictly observed since then."
The Association's first woman president was Dorothy Lewis Bernstein
Dorothy Lewis Bernstein
Dorothy Lewis Bernstein was an American mathematician known for her work in applied mathematics, statistics, computer programming, and her research on the Laplace transform....
(1979–1980).
Publications
The association publishes multiple journals:- The American Mathematical Monthly is expository, aimed at a broad audience from undergraduate students to research mathematicians.
- Mathematics MagazineMathematics MagazineMathematics Magazine is a refereed bimonthly publication of the Mathematical Association of America. Its intended audience is teachers of collegiate mathematics, especially at the junior/senior level, and their students. It is explicitly a journal of mathematics rather than pedagogy...
is expository, aimed at teachers of undergraduate mathematics, especially at the junior-senior level. - The College Mathematics Journal is expository, aimed at teachers of undergraduate mathematics, especially at the freshman-sophomore level.
- Math HorizonsMath HorizonsMath Horizons is a magazine aimed at undergraduates interested in mathematics, published by the Mathematical Association of America. It publishes expository articles about "beautiful mathematics" as well as articles about the culture of mathematics covering mathematical people, institutions, humor,...
is expository, aimed at undergraduate students. - MAA FOCUSMAA FOCUSMAA FOCUS is the newsmagazine of the Mathematical Association of America. It carries news items and short articles of interest to the organization's members....
is the association member newsletter.
The Association publishes an online resource, Mathematical Sciences Digital Library (Math DL). The service launched in 2001 with the online-only Journal of Online Mathematics and its Applications (JOMA) and a set of classroom tools, Digital Classroom Resources. These were followed in 2004 by Convergence, an online-only history magazine, and in 2005 by MAA Reviews, an online book review service, and Classroom Capsules and Notes, a set of classroom notes.
Competitions
The MAA sponsors numerous competitions for students, including the William Lowell Putnam examWilliam Lowell Putnam Mathematical Competition
The William Lowell Putnam Mathematical Competition, often abbreviated to the Putnam Competition, is an annual mathematics competition for undergraduate college students of the United States and Canada, awarding scholarships and cash prizes ranging from $250 to $2,500 for the top students and $5,000...
for undergraduate students, and the American Mathematics Competitions
American Mathematics Competitions
The American Mathematics Competitions are the first of a series of competitions in high school mathematics that determine the United States team for the International Mathematical Olympiad . This team, consisting of six high school students, competes in the IMO and has traditionally performed well...
(AMC) for middle- and high-school students. This series of competitions is as follows:
- AMC 10/AMC 12, a 25-question, 75-minute multiple choice exam
- AIMEAmerican Invitational Mathematics ExaminationThe American Invitational Mathematics Examination is a 15-question 3-hour test given since 1983 to those who rank in the top 5% on the AMC 12 high school mathematics contest , and starting in 2010, those who rank in the top 2.5% on the AMC 10.The AIME is the second of two tests used to determine...
, a 15-question, 3-hour short answer exam - USAMO/USAJMO, a 6-question 2-day 9-hour proof based olympiad
Through this program, outstanding students are identified and invited to participate in the Mathematical Olympiad Program
Mathematical Olympiad Program
The Mathematical Olympiad Program or MOP is an intensive summer program held at University of Nebraska-Lincoln. The main purpose of MOP, held since 1974, is to select and train the six members of the U.S. team for the International Mathematical Olympiad . Students qualify for the program by taking...
. Ultimately, six high school students are chosen to represent the U.S. at the International Mathematics Olympiad.
Sections
The MAA is composed of the following twenty-nine regional sections:Allegheny Mountain, EPADEL, Florida, Illinois, Indiana, Intermountain, Iowa, Kansas, Kentucky, Louisiana/Mississippi, MD-DC-VA, Metro New York, Michigan, Missouri, Nebraska - SE SD, New Jersey, North Central, Northeastern, Northern CA - NV-HI, Ohio, Oklahoma-Arkansas, Pacific Northwest, Rocky Mountain, Seaway, Southeastern, Southern CA - NV, Southwestern, Texas, Wisconsin
Awards & Prizes
The MAA distributes many prizes, including the Chauvenet PrizeChauvenet Prize
The Chauvenet Prize is the highest award for mathematical expository writing. It consists of a prize of $1,000 and a certificate, and is awarded yearly by the Mathematical Association of America in recognition of an outstanding expository article on a mathematical topic. The prize is named in...
and the Carl B. Allendoerfer
Carl B. Allendoerfer
Carl Barnett Allendoerfer was a prominent American mathematician in the mid-twentieth century, known for his work in topology and mathematics education.-Background:...
, Trevor Evans, Lester R. Ford, George Pólya
George Pólya
George Pólya was a Hungarian mathematician. He was a professor of mathematics from 1914 to 1940 at ETH Zürich and from 1940 to 1953 at Stanford University. He made fundamental contributions to combinatorics, number theory, numerical analysis and probability theory...
, Merten M. Hasse, and Henry L. Alder awards.
Memberships
The MAA is one of four partners in the Joint Policy Board for MathematicsJoint Policy Board for Mathematics
The Joint Policy Board for Mathematics consists of the American Mathematical Society, the American Statistical Association, the Mathematical Association of America, and the Society for Industrial and Applied Mathematics....
(JPBM, http://www.jpbm.org/index.html), and participates in the Conference Board of the Mathematical Sciences
Conference Board of the Mathematical Sciences
The Conference Board of the Mathematical Sciences is an umbrella organization of seventeen professional societies in the mathematical sciences in the United States.-Member societies:* AMATYC American Mathematical Association of Two-Year Colleges...
(CBMS, http://www.cbmsweb.org/), an umbrella organization of sixteen professional societies.
Historical accounts
A detailed history of the first fifty years of the MAA appears in . A report on activities prior to World War IIWorld War II
World War II, or the Second World War , was a global conflict lasting from 1939 to 1945, involving most of the world's nations—including all of the great powers—eventually forming two opposing military alliances: the Allies and the Axis...
appears in . Further details of its history can be found in . In addition numerous regional sections of the MAA have published accounts of their local history.
MAA Carriage House
The Carriage House that belonged to the residents at 1529 18th Street, N.W. dates to around 1900. It is older than the 5-story townhouse where the MAA Headquarters is currently located, which was completed in 1903. Charles Evans HughesCharles Evans Hughes
Charles Evans Hughes, Sr. was an American statesman, lawyer and Republican politician from New York. He served as the 36th Governor of New York , Associate Justice of the Supreme Court of the United States , United States Secretary of State , a judge on the Court of International Justice , and...
occupied the house while he was Secretary of State (1921–1925) and a Supreme Court Justice (1910–1916 and 1930–1941).
The Carriage House would have been used by the owners as a livery stable to house the family carriage, though little else is known about its history today. There are huge doors that were once used as an entrance for horses and carriages. Iron rings used to tie up horses can still be seen on an adjacent building. The Carriage House would have perhaps also been used as living quarters for a coachman, as was typical for the time period.
The building is owned by the MAA since 1978. In Spring of 2007 an opening ceremony was held to mark its transformation from a mail room and publication warehouse into a first-rate conference center. It is now used for meetings, lectures, and other events.
See also
- American Mathematical Association of Two-Year CollegesAmerican Mathematical Association of Two-Year CollegesThe American Mathematical Association of Two-Year Colleges is an organization dedicated to the improvement of education in the first two years of college mathematics in the United States and Canada. AMATYC hosts an annual conference, summer institutes, workshops and mentoring for teachers in and...
- American Mathematical SocietyAmerican Mathematical SocietyThe American Mathematical Society is an association of professional mathematicians dedicated to the interests of mathematical research and scholarship, which it does with various publications and conferences as well as annual monetary awards and prizes to mathematicians.The society is one of the...
- National Council of Teachers of MathematicsNational Council of Teachers of MathematicsThe National Council of Teachers of Mathematics was founded in 1920. It has grown to be the world's largest organization concerned with mathematics education, having close to 100,000 members across the USA and Canada, and internationally....
- Society for Industrial and Applied MathematicsSociety for Industrial and Applied MathematicsThe Society for Industrial and Applied Mathematics was founded by a small group of mathematicians from academia and industry who met in Philadelphia in 1951 to start an organization whose members would meet periodically to exchange ideas about the uses of mathematics in industry. This meeting led...
External links
- MAA official website
- A Guide to the Mathematical Association of America Records, 1916-present: Homepage
- Mathematical Sciences Digital Library (MathDL)
- Convergence, the MAA's Math History and Math Education Magazine (part of MathDL)