The NDSU Department of Mathematics is scheduled to host the 23rd annual Sonia Kovalevsky Day on Saturday, Sept. 28, from 8:30 a.m. to 3:30 p.m. in the A. Glenn Hill Center’s room 300.
The program is for young women in grades 9-12, and features mathematics activities, games and career information. Breakfast and lunch are provided.
“The Sonia Kovalevsky Day provides a unique opportunity to high school girls to find out about the many applications of mathematics to fields such as medicine, finance, aviation, cybersecurity or city planning,” said Maria Alfonseca-Cubero, associate professor of mathematics and one of the event organizers. “The students meet professional women from the Fargo-Moorhead area who work in these areas – this is particularly important for small-enrollment high schools, where students may not have such female role models in their hometowns.”
Scheduled speakers and workshop leaders include:
• Heather McMonagle, Department of Defense
Key note speaker
• Megan Jensen, instructor of mathematics at Minnesota State University Moorhead
“Tabulations on Tableaux”
• Danny Luecke, NDSU mathematics graduate student
“The Game of SET”
• Dylan Heuer, NDSU mathematics graduate student
“Inversions of Permutations”
Between 20 and 50 students attend each year, coming to NDSU from Fargo-Moorhead, western Minnesota and across North Dakota.
“At Sonia Kovalevsky Day, students have the opportunity to experience the beauty of math in an encouraging environment, as they work together with their peers to uncover mathematical mysteries. All the activities of the day aim to help participants view mathematics and STEM careers as achievable and worthwhile,” said Jessica Striker, associate professor of mathematics and one of the event organizers.
Sonia Kovalevsky was a Russian mathematician who is considered to be the greatest female mathematician prior to the 20th century. She made numerous contributions in the areas of analysis and partial differential equations. She lived from 1850 to 1891.
The program is supported by the NDSU Department of Mathematics, the NDSU College of Science and Mathematics, ND EPSCoR, the NDSU Bookstore, Microsoft and Sanford Health.
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