THE NOETHERIAN RING

Christine Heitsch

The Noetherian Ring is an organization devoted to strengthening the community of women in mathematics at Berkeley. Our membership is drawn primarily from the graduate students in the Berkeley Mathematics Department, but also includes post-docs, visitors, faculty, and undergraduates. In recent years, a particular effort has been made to include interested people from the Mathematical Sciences Research Institute (MSRI) as well as the departments of Statistics, Computer Science, Education, and other mathematically-related disciplines.

1997-98 N-Ring Officers (Left to Right): Monica Vazirani,

Laura DeMarco, Diane MacLagan, Lubna Chunawala

The core of the Noetherian Ring is our weekly Thursday afternoon meetings which are intended to provide a peer forum for female graduate students to present topics in our areas of research. Recently, we have also welcomed a number of young women faculty who spoke to us about their research and experiences after graduate school. The weekly talk is preceded by a half hour of informal socializing over refreshments. While the support and advice of more advanced students is particularly cherished, each person (male or female) attending the meetings contributes to the community of women in mathematics at Berkeley.

Left to Right: L. Walling, G. Barenblatt, C Reid, C. Moore

We maintain a visible presence in the department by sponsoring women in the departmental colloquia, who become our role models and potential mentors. In the past two years, we have been able to invite and/or fund visits by prominent women mathematicians such as Margaret Wright, Fan Chung, Judith Grabiner, Cathleen Morawetz, and Olga Ladyzhenskaya. We also make a concerted effort to contact and host prospective graduate students, assist with departmental functions like the recent book signing for Julia (Constance Reid's biography of her sister, Professor Julia Robinson), have luncheons honoring visiting women mathematicians, and hold a series of events designed to welcome new women students to Berkeley. To find out about current Noetherian Ring activities, see our webpage at http://math.berkeley.edu/~nring.

The Noetherian Ring Speakers Series has been a great success based on the overwhelming positive feedback we have received. In an effort to continue this level of quality, the Noetherian Ring has begun raising funds for a university endowment, the interest from which would be used to support our Speaker Series. We eagerly anticipate the opportunity to interact with many more mathematicians world-wide. With your donations, we can continue this endeavor. If you wish to make a donation to the endowment, please designate "Noetherian Ring" at the fourth box of the gift form (pg. 15) or contact the Noetherian Ring at nring@math.berkeley.edu.