McMaster hosts largest joint meeting of Canadian mathematical societies

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[img_inline align=”right” src=”http://padnws01.mcmaster.ca/images/leftcornertop.gif” caption=”logo courtesy of Math 2000 “]This week several hundred students and scholars will gather at McMaster University for a “Math 2000” extravaganza, the largest joint meeting ever of mathematical societies in Canada.

In an effort to promote the public image of mathematics as a key to social and economic development, UNESCO has declared 2000 as World Mathematical Year. The McMaster gathering of mathematicians is one of several math events taking place around the world.

Activities at McMaster, which commenced on Tuesday, June 6 with the Canadian Undergraduate Student Conference, and continue through Tuesday, June 13, will bring together more than 250 international scholars from around the world to discuss the latest in mathematical theory, history, philosophy, education , finance, technology and biology.

Teachers looking for tips on how to enliven the classroom will benefit from a public lecture of the same title on June 11. James Stewart, a former McMaster professor of mathematics and author of the world's best-selling calculus books and many high school math texts used in Ontario schools, will give the lecture at 7 p.m. in Togo Salmon Hall, Room 120.

A special symposium on education will address models for the education of future school teachers and new approaches and technologies for teaching math. Internet and e-commerce enthusiasts will find the sessions on cryptography and number theory and math on the internet of interest. A session on mathematical biology will explore the structure of DNA, gene networks and models of cancer treatment, while the financial mathematics session will discuss topics such as stock baskets and energy derivatives.

Members of the following societies will be attending: Canadian Mathematical Society, Canadian Applied and Industrial Mathematics Society, Canadian Operational Research Society, Canadian Undergraduate Mathematics Conference, 14th Canadian Symposium on Fluid Dynamics, and Canadian Society for History and Philosophy of Mathematics.

For more information about Math 2000 at McMaster, visit http://www.cms.math.ca/CMS/Events/math2000/symposia.html and http://http://www.cumc.math.ca

Other Math 2000 events are also being held in the Golden Horseshoe area this week. These include:

* A symposium at the Fields Institute of Mathematics in Toronto (The Legacy of John Charles Fields) featuring scientific and public lectures by nine recipients of the Fields Medal for outstanding mathematical achievement and two historical lectures on the development of mathematics over the past century and the life of John Charles Fields.
Visit: a href=”http://www.fields.utoronto.ca/jcfields-legacy.html

*The inaugural meeting of MITACS (Mathematics of Information Technology and Complex Systems) (also being held in Toronto), a new national research network which brings together industry and mathematicians in a collaborative effort to solve large-scale problems. The meeting will include an industry job fair consisting of exhibitions by leading Canadian businesses and occasions for students to investigate job opportunities. Visit: http://www.mitacs.math.ca

Math 2000 Selected Session Topics/Papers

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(Visit the Math 2000 Web site for presentation dates and times)

Education 1 Models for Education of Future School Teachers


But the students won't know I hate math ( Heinrich, University of Regina)


Teachers as mathematicians — Mathematicians as Teachers (Henderson, Cornell University)


Specific mathematics courses in teacher education: Some examples of primary and secondary teachers (Hodgson, Universite Laval)


Math fair (Liu, University of Alberta)


Mathematics Every Teacher Should Know (Weston, University of Regina)

History of Mathematics at the Dawn of a New Millennium


The leap year problem has not gone away (Cohen, University of Ottawa)


The mathematics of building and analyzing a medieval cathedral (McCague, York University)


Mathematics and fiction: A pedagogical comparison (Thomas, University of Manitoba)

Mathematical Biology

Structure and behaviour in gene networks (Edwards, University of Victoria)


Competition models of cancer treatment (Freedman, University of Alberta)

Math on the Internet


Interactive mathematics on the Web using Java and TeX (Cannings and Laflamme, University of Calgary)


Mathematica and mathematics on the Web (Wellin, Wolfram Research)

Financial Mathematics


Modelling and valuing energy derivatives (Lavassini, University of Calgary)