Hudson River Abstracts Due March 4

You can sign up to give a 15-minute talk by March 4, 2013.

On Saturday April 6, 2013 Williams College will be hosting the 20th Annual Hudson River Undergraduate Mathematics Conference (HRUMC). One of the first conferences of its kind, HRUMC was founded by four local schools: Siena College, Skidmore College, Union College, and Williams College. It’s a one-day conference with talks for, and mostly by, undergraduates. Over the years, HRUMC has been lucky to have some fantastic keynote speakers, including John Conway, Ron Graham, Bob Devaney, Ken Ribet, and Carl Pomerance, just to name a few. This year, we are excited to hear from Manjul Bhargava (pictured) from Princeton University who will be speaking on “How likely is it for a polynomial to take on a square value?” Student talks are 15 minutes and cover a wide range of topics. While some of the talks may discuss research the student presenter has done as part of an REU or senior thesis, most of the talks are expository. Williams last hosted the conference in 2005. We had about 500 attendees, with over 150 talks. In the years since HRUMC began, other one-day mathematics conferences have sprung up around the country, many modelled on the HRUMC format. I was a freshman at Union College during the first year of HRUMC and attended the conference at Siena College. Two years later, as a junior, I gave a talk on “Even Primes” when Skidmore hosted. This was a fun topic that my professor had shared with me, and I still cover that topic when I teach number theory today. During my senior year, the conference was held at Williams, and that was the first time I set foot on this campus. Little did I know that I’d be back six years later as a faculty member! HRUMC is a terrific opportunity for students to share their excitement about mathematics, learn about myradia exciting topics they have not had the chance to encounter yet, and become part of the mathematics community. I’m very excited to still be a part of the HRUMC experience.

Allison Pacelli is Associate Professor of Mathematics at Williams College. You can sign up to give a 15-minute talk by March 4, 2013.