Featuring an in-person training seminar on July 9–11, 2025 in New York City
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MOST Fellows return to MoMath to give talks!
The application period will open on January 1, 2025.
Be sure to sign up for the MoMath mailing list to receive announcements and program updates.
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For early-career female mathematicians
Are you a woman (or someone who identifies as female) who is:
• An advanced PhD candidate in math* interested in sharing your passion for mathematics with others?
or
• An early-career** mathematician* with a PhD who wants to share your passion about the power of mathematics and its applications?
Apply for the Mathematics Outreach Seminar and Training (MOST) program!
*Mathematicians are preferred, but those in closely aligned fields will also be considered.
**For early career PhDs, preference will be given to those who are one or two years post-doctorate.
Program overview
This program starts in July with a multi-day training seminar hosted by the National Museum of Mathematics in collaboration with the Peoples Improv Theater (The PIT) in New York City. MOST Fellows will join a selective cohort of female mathematicians to develop their ability to share their knowledge and research with the general public in an engaging, easily accessible way.
Through training with the PIT, MOST Fellows will sharpen their diction and word choice, develop an economy of words, and identify their unique presentation style. By speaking passionately about their area of mathematics and receiving feedback from their peers as well as from outreach experts in the MoMath community, the Fellows will refine their voice and style as they create a talk designed to share their area of mathematical expertise with a general audience.
Then, over the course of the coming year and a half, each MOST Fellow will also present her talk to groups of young people in her own community, discussing her field of expertise and reaching hundreds of girl in middle and high school to excite them about math and serve as a role model as a female professional working in STEM.
Each MOST Fellow will participate in at least one online MoMath program, and will also return to the Museum at least once to present at an in-person MoMath event (travel and hotel and a speaker honorarium will be provided). An honorarium of $400 will be paid for successful completion of the program.
Apply for MOST
The application process consists of completing a brief online form. Applications will be evaluated on a rolling basis until all spaces have been filled. Preference will be given to candidates who are based in the US; non‐US–based candidates are welcome to apply, but they must be able to fulfill their presentation requirements in communities in the US.
The application period for the 2025-2026 MOST program will open on January 1, 2025. Be sure to sign up for the MoMath mailing list to receive announcements and program updates.
Program sponsors
The MOST program is presented with the generous support of Dexter Senft, Anthony and Miraldina Meyer, Jean Taylor, Marjorie Winkler and Paul Hohenschuh, Richard Lethin, and Qualcomm. This program is funded in part by Simons Foundation International and administered by the Simons Foundation’s Science, Society & Culture division.
Feedback from the 2024 MOST Fellows
- “I highly recommend this program to others. It provided an excellent networking opportunity and significantly enhanced my ability to communicate mathematics to a general audience… As mathematicians, it’s challenging to shed the dense jargon we often use, but this program equipped me with the tools to inspire a new generation effectively.”
- “The seminar not only taught me how to do math outreach but also gave me insights and experience to grow as a person. Thank you for this amazing opportunity! It was a very important experience at this point in my life.”
- “The program made me feel welcome, supported, and seen in the mathematical community… I will certainly be recommending others to participate next year!”
- “I didn’t think [the improv] was going to be as fun as it was… I will certainly be finding ways to incorporate some of those activities into my classrooms in the future.”
- “This was such a great experience… It’s just such a great opportunity to build a network of women in math and set yourself up for success in whatever you plan to do after graduate school.”
- “This program greatly exceeded my expectations.”
- “I appreciated the variety of mathematical areas and career goals of our cohort, but we all shared a certain kindness and investment in creating a positive atmosphere for the program.”
- “I was surprised by how far we were able to get with the talks in just three days — I imagine the improv catapulted us into being able to start brainstorming effectively.”
- “I would recommend the MOST program to any female math PhD student who is looking for a supportive community in which to grow outside of her comfort zone and begin to think about how to share her insights with the world.”
Want to hear more? Read what the 2023 MOST Fellows had to say.
MOST in the news
Check out this New York Times article, What Improv Can Do for Mathematicians, highlighting MoMath’s Mathematics Outreach Seminar and Training (MOST) program.
Past and upcoming presentations by MOST Fellows
- February 23, 2024 — “Quantum Keys and No More Spies: How Qubits Secure Our Ties” featuring Sarah Chehade (in person)
- January 26, 2024 — “Knot So Simple” featuring Lizzie Buchanan (in person)
- December 15, 2024 — “Clocks, Chords, and Counting: Exploring hidden structures of mathematics through the number 12” featuring Juliana Bukoski (in person)
- November 24, 2024 — “A Detective’s Guide to Graph Theory” featuring Rachel Lawrence (in person)
- October 20, 2024 — “I Will Not Excuse Your Dear Aunt Sally: An Exploration of Algebraic Operations” featuring Katie Grebel (in person)
- May 31, 2024 — Family Fridays: “Dazzling Diffraction Patterns” with Sarah Goodman (in person)
- March 28, 2024 — The MOST program celebrates Women’s History Month: Knot So Simple, with Lizzie Buchanan (online)
- March 21, 2024 — The MOST program celebrates Women’s History Month: What If Earth Were a Cube? Exploring mind-bending geometries in search of the shortest path, with Maddie Weinstein (online)
- March 14, 2024 — The MOST program celebrates Women’s History Month: Clocks, Chords, and Counting: exploring hidden structures of mathematics through the number 12, with Juliana Bukoski (online)
- March 5, 2024 — The MOST program celebrates Women’s History Month: Breaking Limits and Influencing the Future, a panel discussion with six early-career female mathematicians (online)
- February 13, 2024 — The MOST program presents: Mathematical Microscope: using X-ray diffraction to reveal the hidden structures of nature, with Dr. Sarah Goodman (in person)