A Workshop for Women in Number Theory!

I am sitting in a lobby

• I thought I might post these, as I have a bit of time before my shuttle arrives to the airport.
• I had an incredible time, first with the email that said that I had been accepted to this year’s WIN! Secondly, in realizing that my booked ride in Burlington didn’t show up after 10 minutes. This resulted in my texting my Maths advisor, and in her picking me up five minutes later, and telling me to have fun, but also to “be careful, because it’s a pretty wild time!”. I didn’t know what to expect, but it exceeded my expectations! I did not cut myself opening a wine bottle (true story from a past workshop apparently!), or break a leg skiing (another true story), or split my jaw open (another true story), so I came back all in one piece. I almost slipped on ice once going down to downtown Banff on the way to hot springs, but I did not fall or anything like that. So yay advisor giving me great advice! :)
• It is the ideal mindset and space to do research. Everyone is incredibly wonderful, and it is really just the community to grow as a junior researcher, while being mentored by senior researchers. And with luck, I was mentored by one of the founders of the group, and of the event! I’ve thought so highly of her for years as a pioneer in her field, and she greeted me eagerly with a hug!
• The event started to encourage these kinds of collaboration and research, because as one of the co-founders mentioned, it was found in studies that “men invite men to speak at conferences, and women invite both men and women”. I was so happy to be there, because it felt like everyone was taking the time to invest in you.
• I mentioned to one person that I couldn’t believe I had gotten in, and she mentioned that she had applied at every occasion during grad school (the workshop is only held every two years, with a maximum of 42 persons who can be at the venue / workshop, so it’s pretty competitive), but only got in as a postdoc, so that I must indeed be a special person. That warmed my heart, as did so many interactions this week. It was such a positive space for me!
• In the mornings, there were usually talks, with half an hour breaks, and then we launched into working groups. Then, we’d take a break for lunch, get back into working for most of the afternoon, and then head to dinner. In some cases, we continued working, as we were in the flow and it was just a good time; all the groups were really matched really well!
• My mentors, as one mathematician said about one of my mentors, who was her mentor years ago, “believed in you so much”. I felt so supported here!

Social

• We had one afternoon free, so I chose to go to the hot springs with three other ladies. It was wonderful!
• Some of the other groups went cross-country skiing and took gondola trips or went to Lake Louise and whatnot.
• And would you believe our group had so much energy that after some people went skiing, we still worked until after 11pm that night!?
• In the evenings, we also had panels where we sat in a circle in a foyer of a building and chatted about anything from postdoc advice to tenure track advice to grant funding and sabbaticals and the impact of COVID on teaching and grad school life, and afterwards we would sometimes get a drink at a bar on-site, or play pool.
• On another night, people went to the gym and the hot tub. There was just always so much to do, and so many people to interact with, and it was such a great time.
• It was really such an energizing space to be in; I enjoyed my time and my group so much!

Work

• We are advised not to speak about what we are working on until it is published, but we worked on a lot! Pretty much, it could be about 4 papers in the making. We also will plan at the least to publish in the proceedings for the workshop, too!
• Our group was unique in that we had two Computer Scientists and Two mathematicians and a remote Computer Scientist who is a mentee of one of our mentors / works with her (and is leaving to start grad school!). Our skillset was very unique, as will be the work we publish!
• Basically, we will keep working weekly on what we started this week, and as we publish (earliest summer), we also plan to continue working on the other projects / spinoffs we initiated at the group. Also, stay tuned for a possible trip, too related to this! (during summer!)

Photos

• The food was exceptional, but so was everything about my stay. I’m so thankful and happy I was able to attend!

• Lori and Bianca and myself! Part of the original RoUdies!

• The Hot springs! Highly recommend! We ended up staying there for 4 hours! Was so good! It is geothermally heated with a gradated entrance so that you start putting your feet into the water even before you get to the pool. The water was 40 degrees (I am from an ex-British colony so I don’t know what that is in Fahrenheit) on the day we went! However, I came back from Canada in March with a tan, apparently! :)

• We were working and someone spotted a deer! So we ran out and followed the little fella. And soon, we realized, it wasn’t just one, but two! They were everywhere! It was lovely!

• A fake deer (made of logs) next to a real one!

• We joked that this was really just an AI, and that people on the Slack aren’t real people :). The comments were all “we exist in the real world!” and everyone was pretty thrilled.

• Our group for the conference (sans one of our PIs, who was grabbing a coat and hat and just missed the photo op :(. Image courtesy of BIRS and WIN!

The adventure home!

• That was not the end! Getting home was an adventure!
• Firstly, I was able to catch up with my friend, Kevin, from the functional programming community at the Calgary airport! We’ve been chatting on and off for years online, but I finally got to meet him, and it was a blast! It was an amazing experience, and I could chat with him for hours but uh-oh..flights and stuff…
• So I made it to Chicago, except there was this crazy flash flood thing happening, and first my flight was delayed to Vermont by 5 hours, then by six, then six and a half, then cancelled. Fortunately, a bunch of other flights were cancelled, and the airport was nice enough to give us these really nice Coleman lounging chairs, a pillow and a blanket, and I was able to rebook my flight for the next morning (which was almost going to be midnight because of delays, but just ended up being a 5pm flight) successfully. So it all worked out and I was able to spend an evening resting.
• What a journey, what an experience!

And that’s it!