2021-22 GSO Activities

The American Mathematical Society Graduate Student Chapter May 2022 Newsletter featured our KU chapter activities.

This year has been a very busy year for the University of Kansas' AMS Graduate Chapter. Historically, the KU chapter has hosted Friday graduate student seminars where graduate students are given an opportunity to speak in front of their peers with the goal of sharing new discoveries, practice an upcoming talk, or just explore a new topic of interest. 

The KU chapter was able to keep up with its regular Friday seminars this year and add even more activities. They've incorporated skills workshops that cover topics such as how to use Tikz, how to create a CV, and what the academic job application process looks like. One of their favorite talks from this past year was an intro to LaTeX, given by one of their chapter officers. He was able to make the topic engaging and entertaining to all in attendance, including senior students who are well-versed in the subject.

Another round of talks gave senior graduate students a chance to discuss their fields of study with the hope of giving junior graduate students some insight as they begin to search for their advisors and research areas.

This year, in conjunction with the chapter and math graduate students at Kansas State University, the group planned and launched a graduate student only conference. The conference was inspired by the desire to share research while also making connections with other graduate students, which in the past had been difficult to do because of COVID.

Picnics were held at the beginning and end of the year, along with other informal events, that allowed the chapter to gather, relax and reconnect as a community.

When they were learning and studying completely remote on Zoom, the chapter was still able to maintain their seminars with great attendance. Once restrictions lifted slightly, they were able to offer a hybrid option where attendees could choose to participate in-person or virtually. Offering these options allowed the chapter to be respectful, inclusive and more flexible as restrictions changed.