Participant Testimonials

Aug 18 - Aug 23, 2013

My participation in the WIT workshop had had and will continue to have a strong impact on my current research. Our team was more productive than I would have dared to dream it could be. This new collaboration will lead to the submission of at least two articles in the near future, of which one to the workshop proceedings, and we fully intend to continue collaborating over the next few years, as we have numerous exciting ideas for extensions of our project. It was altogether an amazing week, professionally and personally.

Kathryn Hess Professor
MATHGEOM, Ecole Polytechnique Federale de Lausanne

My participation in the BIRS workshop had an impact on my current research and allowed me to get a fresh insight into some aspects of my thesis. I was happy to meet some new and old colleagues there, from whom I learned new things, useful to me. The workshop week was very productive and fantastic!

Varvara Karpova EPFL MATHGEOM SB GR-HE, EPFL

The WIT workshop was extremely productive and I am still amazed of what we all managed to do in just four (long) days. I admit that I was sceptical about the concept, but it worked! Our team plans to submit a paper to the workshop proceedings and I am sure that we will continue our joint work in the future. It was a great opportunity to meet women in topology and the atmosphere at BIRS was really inspiring. The workshop was also the starting point for a 'Women in Topology' network. I hope and expect that this will in particular help young women in the field.

Birgit Richter Professor
Department of Mathematics, University of Hamburg

This was the most productive workshop I've attended in my career. We went from a few half-baked ideas to enough material for a research paper over the span of four (albeit rather long) days. I now have new collaborators with whom I'm eager to work in the future. I expect this week to pay dividends for a long time.

Emily Riehl Benjamin Peirce and NSF Postdoctoral Fellow
Mathematics, Harvard University

I have no hesitation to say that the WIT workshop was the best and most successful and productive mathematical event that I have ever attended, and here is why: - One of the workshop's goals was to forge collaborations between women in topology, and it has been accomplished. In my case (and I believe many others too), the collaboration will be continuing well beyond the scope of the workshop. - The collaborative project that I participated in during the WIT workshop was my initiation into a subfield of homotopy theory that I had not previously worked in. As a consequence, my research has been significantly broadened, which is yet to positively influence my career. - My team obtained significant new results that will be written in two research papers. - Our results will be a basis for follow up research projects. - The atmosphere of the workshop was more friendly and supportive than most math meetings I've attended. - The evening discussion groups on issues of concerns to women in math/topology were extremely helpful, especially for us younger mathematicians. - As a result of these discussions, a network of women in topology is being formed as a forum to continue the support and collaboration of the WIT workshop.

Vesna Stojanoska MIT

This was an excellent event. It certainly had an impact on my research and I expect the effects to continue for a long time. In the short term, our research team involves me with three new junior collaborators. We expect to submit a research article to the conference proceedings. We have also discussed possible future meetings of our team and plans for possible longer term projects. The meeting marks the start of an international Women in Topology network. This will be an excellent contribution to supporting young women in the field. For me the meeting was a great opportunity to get to know many of the younger women. I expect it might have an indirect effect on future hiring, in that I will now be aware of potential applicants I might otherwise not have known of. The workshop was a very positive experience for all involved, I think. I very much look forward to future Women in Topology events.

Sarah Whitehouse Reader in Pure Mathematics
School of Mathematics and Statistics, University of Sheffield