by Diana Davis
As previously discussed, it’s a good idea to go to the MAA/AMS Joint Meetings in January. However, it’s expensive to fly there and stay in a hotel, so you’ll need to find some funding to cover it. Here are some places you should look. I have ordered this list from most obvious to least obvious:
The AMS has $500 travel grants for grad students who want to attend the joint meetings. Alas, the deadline has already passed.
Your advisor may be able to fund you. Especially if his or her grant is running out soon, using the extra money on conference travel could be perfect.
Your math department may be able to fund you. Many departments have funds set aside for this purpose.
Your graduate school may have funding to send graduate students to conferences. It may seem strange to head outside your department to the whole university-wide graduate school for funding, but they sometimes have specially earmarked funds just for this purpose.
Your undergraduate institution may be able to fund you. A friend of mine is presenting research that she did as an undergrad, so her undergrad university has funding to send her to the joint meetings.
The key in all of this is that you have to ask! Often, the funding is there, waiting for someone to request it. Perhaps you can get some funding from one source and some from another, and cobble together a full package to send yourself to New Orleans.
Have you attended the joint meetings, or other conferences? How did you obtain funding?