Weekend Getaway Guide: A Mathematics Research Conference

Do you feel confused or puzzled when you are facing bunches of conferences or seminars? Katharine from University of Kentucky has some good points on that. In the article, Weekend Getaway Guide:  A Mathematics Research Conference, she thought one should start attending math conferences early in the mathematical career, and attend them on a regular basis. That will help you to begin to build a network of colleagues in your research area. This network can have a profound influence on your entire mathematical career. In my view, this article is a good “travel guide” for young mathematician or PhD candidates. This article is separated into 4 sections: a) Where Should I Go? Choosing A Conference to Attend? b) What Should I Pack? Things to Do before You Attend a Conference c) What Should I Do while I’m There? Maximizing Your Time at a Conference d) What Souvenirs Should I Bring Back from the Trip? Things to Do When You Return from a Conference. As you can see, it’s in detail and very specific. Some suggestions like “After you return from a conference and catch up on some sleep, take the time to organize everything that you collected from the meeting. If you gave a contributed talk, add the talk to your CV. Save a copy of the program in which your name is printed, and keep this in a folder dedicated to materials of this type. If there were unanswered questions from your talk, you should try to find an answer and, if possible, send an email to whomever posed the question. If there was a preprint that interested you, download the paper from the arXiv or email the author for a copy. Read or file these documents where you can refer to them later. Finally, you should send a short email thanking the organizers and take care of any reimbursement paperwork.” are very important and precious. However, I still feel confused about maximizing the time at a conference. Katharine suggested readers to go to talk with some senior researchers and renown professors. According to me experience, I think it’s much easier to talk with other graduate students. The attempt to talk with senior researchers are always hard and need a lot techniques. Do you have some ideas about that? Please share with us.