Author Archives: Karen Saxe

About Karen Saxe

Karen Saxe is Director of the AMS Office of Government Relations which works to connect the mathematics community with Washington decision-makers who affect mathematics research and education. Over many years she has contributed much time to the AMS, MAA, and AWM, including service as vice president of the MAA and in policy and advocacy work with all three. She was the 2013-2014 AMS Congressional Fellow, working for Senator Al Franken on education issues, with focus on higher education and STEM education. In Minnesota she has served on the Citizens Redistricting Commission following the 2010 census and serves on the Common Cause Minnesota Redistricting Leadership Circle. She has three children and, when not at work especially enjoys being with them and reading, hiking and sharing good food and wine and beer with family and friends.

Hidden Figures Honored in Congress

Posted on January 30, 2020 by Karen Saxe

Editor’s note: Andrea R. Williams works at the American Mathematical Society as an Assistant to the Associate Executive Director in the Office of Government Relations. New to the field of mathematics and all that it encompasses, Andrea is a citizen … Continue reading →

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AMS Education and Science Policy Activities at the Joint Mathematics Meetings

Posted on January 7, 2020 by Karen Saxe

Each year at the JMM, the AMS Office of Government Relations organizes four events. I look forward to greeting you at all of them. We host the Congressional Fellowship Session on Friday, January 17, 4:30 pm – 6:00 pm in the Colorado CC, … Continue reading →

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AMS President Jill Pipher to Congress: “No Longer Secure: Cryptography in the Quantum Era”

Posted on December 10, 2019 by Karen Saxe

On Thursday, December 5, AMS President Jill Pipher spoke to Congressional representatives and told her attentive audience about the long history—from Caesar to present—of cybersecurity; the deep theoretical mathematics involved, and the state-of-play regarding both the potential and perils of … Continue reading →

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After a slow start, the Trump White House is ramping up its science policy activities

Posted on November 21, 2019 by Karen Saxe

President Trump waited a long time before nominating a Director for the White House’s Office of Science and Technology Policy (OSTP). Indeed, OSTP lacked a director for over 700 days, the longest vacancy since the office was created in 1976. … Continue reading →

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Census 2020

Posted on November 6, 2019 by Karen Saxe

On October 9, I was interviewed by Macalester College President Brian Rosenberg about the Census. This was paired with a talk that Moon Duchin and I gave on campus two days earlier titled “Mathematical Interventions in Fair Voting,” and with … Continue reading →

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Meet the AMS Committee on Education

Posted on October 17, 2019 by Karen Saxe

The AMS has five “policy” committees, which were established in 1993 to correspond to the five major areas in which the mission of the AMS is concentrated: Education, Meetings and Conferences, the Profession, Publications, and Science Policy. Each policy committee … Continue reading →

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What you missed over the summer: balancing openness in science with threats to security by foreign researchers

Posted on September 23, 2019 by Karen Saxe

  “… to the members of our international campus community, without hesitation and with heartfelt affirmation, let me say: We value you. We support you. We will always welcome you. This is a campus that is unafraid of inclusivity. We … Continue reading →

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Gerrymandering and math in the era of state reform

Posted on September 4, 2019 by Karen Saxe

Editor’s note: Hope Johnson is a data scientist at the Princeton Gerrymandering Project, where she is on a team developing OpenPrecincts, a database of precinct and electoral data to help citizens participate fully in redistricting. Hope graduated from Macalester College … Continue reading →

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Some fun and interesting summer reading: A brief history of the National Science Foundation

Posted on August 14, 2019 by Karen Saxe

I blog regularly about annual appropriations for the National Science Foundation (NSF), and about NSF policies that might affect you. But, what is the NSF? When did it come to be? Why? What makes it different from all other federal … Continue reading →

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Addressing Threats and Vulnerabilities in Critical Interconnected Systems: Common Principles in Disease Outbreaks, Internet Malware, and Bank Failures

Posted on July 16, 2019 by Karen Saxe

On June 13, the AMS, together with MSRI hosted another in its series of biannual Congressional Briefings, with that title. Our presenter was Jon Kleinberg, the Tisch University Professor of Computer Science and Information Science at Cornell University. Introductory remarks … Continue reading →

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