Bryna Kra, President of the American Mathematical Society: “The CMM is a Treasure for Chile”|CMM

During her visit to Santiago, the leading academic received the distinction of Corresponding Member Abroad of the Chilean Academy of Sciences and participated in a new session of the International Scientific Board of the Center for Mathematical Modeling of the University of Chile. In this interview she delves into her extensive struggle for gender equity, reveals her formula to reduce the gaps, explains the role that mathematicians should take and highlights the work of the CMM as a leader in scientific research, training, innovation and solution of public and industrial problems.

The president of the American Mathematical Society, Bryna Kra, visited Santiago de Chile to fulfill her role as a member of the International Scientific Board of the Center for Mathematical Modeling (CMM) of the University of Chile, which evaluates the general structure of the institution, the scope and reach of its research, collaborations abroad, postdoctoral and student training, and gender equality in science, technology, engineering and mathematics (STEM). There he shares a team with other great eminences in the field, such as the British Sir John Ball, former president of the International Mathematical Union (IMU); the German Martin Grötschel, former president of the Berlin-Brandenburg Academy of Sciences and Humanities (BBAW); or his compatriot Solomon Friedberg, former president of the U.S. National Commission on Mathematics Instruction (USNC/MI).

Kra, 57, has a brilliant career in ergodic theory and dynamical systems. She received her Ph.D. degree from Stanford University in 1995 and since 2004 has taught at Northwestern University (Evanston, Illinois), where she was named the Sarah Rebecca Roland Professor of Mathematics in 2013. From 2009 to 2012 she chaired the Department of Mathematics at Northwestern, and since 2023 she has been the leader of the American Mathematical Society.

In addition to prestigious awards, fellowships and international recognition, she is also a member of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences, the National Academy of Sciences (NAS), the Association of Women Mathematicians and, recently, a corresponding member abroad of the Chilean Academy of Sciences.

Gender Equality

From her beginnings at Pennsylvania as now Northwestern, she has pushed and grouped women mathematicians for gender equity. As early as 2015, it co-founded the Graduate Research Opportunities for Women (GROW) conference and in 2020, the Causeway Graduate Program, both aimed at increasing the number of students from historically underrepresented groups.

–How do you assess the overall process that seeks to end gender gaps?

It is a huge challenge for society, and it will only advance when men and women are working together to change this. We cannot just have the women work on this. I run programs which aim at being inclusive in United States, and various axis of diversity, including gender, including race, including socioeconomic status, but in all of these my belief is that we cannot leave it to the people who are in the minority to be doing the work, it has to be the majority doing the work to fix the problems.

–At the American Mathematical Society, how have you materialized or do you hope to materialize this method?

In our government it is not legal to have programs at the moment that are focused entirely on reserving positions for women. It’s a different message. We have a long way to go, also in United States, but I don’t think we’re trying to change it all at once. I think this is more realistic, to go slowly and really support the young women researchers. In the long term having them focus more on their research and building that, and mentoring the women in ways, and not leading them too quickly into leadership would be a long term better way to solve the gender roles.

–In this regard, what is your opinion of the Chilean case in comparison with developed countries?

In my opinion, the goal in Chile of reaching parity, equality, fifty percent is not realistic currently, and is potentially harmful at the moment because it puts a large burden on women. For me reaching gender equality is something we need to strife for and work for. It’s not a women’s issue, but it is an issue for science and advancement of science. It has to be one that men and women work on together, equaly, without putting under pressure on women by having them take on more administrative and more leadership rules.

Bryna Kra in her office at CMM. | © Alonso Farías P.

International Scientific Board

Bryna Kra’s profound reflection is linked to the gender parity agenda promoted by the current administration of the Center for Mathematical Modeling. Precisely, in her position as a member of the CMM’s International Scientific Board (ISB), last June 3 and 4, she reviewed this issue, as well as other topics of relevance to the center: its international relations, the training provided, the attraction of new talent, and the general structure of the center.

–After these exhaustive meetings, what is your assessment of the work of the CMM?

It was extraordinary to see the breath of what CMM is doing and how much it is grown, it’s hasn’t even been a quarter century. It’s only twenty-four years, next year twenty-five. The incredible growth of topics that they’re touching on, it’s just impressive. I have to say that. It’s screenings from foundational research to applications, really impressive. Whether there is room to grow, there’s room to make for their collaborations, internationally, especially more collaboration within Latin America. Making it a better drawer to bring students and postdocs from international until Chile, to be part of the vibrant community.

–What was the main conclusion and what areas of improvement do you see?

To me the CMM is a treasure for Chile and something to be built up and supported deeply, because of the impact it’s having not just in Chile, but also internationality. This is my conclusion, it’s just very impressed from everything from education to basic research. In touching upon huge numbers of people involved. So this is something which is very difficult to build, but they have built this over many years and very difficult to maintain without a lot of resources. So this is something to really keep in mind, for more resources, for supporting the researchers who are here and attracting more to join.

Education

In addition to the central axes, Bryna Kra paid great attention to the work of the Mathematics Education Laboratory of the CMM, which is led by Professor Salomé Martínez and has a high national and international impact from basic to postgraduate level, for example, with the book series Sumo Primero, Matemática Conectada or Suma y Sigue.

–In your opinion, what role should mathematicians play in academic and teacher training?

Research mathematicians have to be involved in education and the training of even much younger students, for multiple reasons. One, is when doesn’t see the value, until much later where research mathematicians understand this. Two, it’s a pipeline issue. If we are going to change gender balance, we need to change it at a very early age. It’s much too late to only think about it at the university level. To have strong mathematical background and real training in the theoretical part of mathematics where it’s not just the simple computation, is something that started a very early age. To me, education is part of our mission as mathematicians.

–In that regard, what stands out about the work of CMM-Edu?

This outreach to the community and building educational resources, is something which is very naturally it has a permanent home at a university, and in a maths center, for a long-term health. The education lab project can eat the entire (CMM) budget and what it really needs is a separate kind of funding, with involvement of the mathematicians, and not just one person involved, but more people in the mission of this. This is very important for the long-term health of such project which really contribute to the long term health of the education in the whole country.

Center for Mathematical Modeling

The CMM is today the most active scientific research institution in mathematical modeling in Latin America. It is a center of excellence of the National Agency for Research and Development (ANID) of Chile, integrated by eight partner universities and located at the Faculty of Physical and Mathematical Sciences of the University of Chile. It is also the International Research Laboratory (IRL) #2807 of the French National Center for Scientific Research (CNRS).

Its mission is to create mathematics in response to problems in other sciences, industry and public policy. It seeks to develop science with the highest standards, excellence and rigor in areas such as data science, climate and biodiversity, education, resource management, mining and digital health.

Posted on Jul 12, 2024 in News

Bryna Kra, President of the American Mathematical Society: “The CMM is a Treasure for Chile”