Nearly 300 students and educators from 37 states, the District of Columbia and Canada will make their way to the University of Nebraska-Lincoln for the 18th annual Nebraska Conference for Undergraduate Women in Mathematics on Jan. 29-31.

The conference is one of the largest and oldest of its kind in the country. It will offer undergraduate women mathematicians at all stages of their careers opportunities to discuss their research and to meet other women who share their interest in mathematical sciences.

UNL faculty and staff can attend conference research presentations at no charge. Events are held on City Campus and at the Embassy Suites Hotel, 1040 P St.

A complete schedule of student research presentations is available at http://www.math.unl.edu/~ncuwm/18thAnnual/ncuwm_schedule.php.

The plenary speakers are Emina Soljanin of Rutgers University and Abigail Thompson of the University of California, Davis. Their lectures are open to the public.

Soljanin will discuss “How Does Applied Math Become Applicable?” at 3:40 p.m. on Jan. 29, in the Nebraska Union Auditorium. Soljanin is a professor of electrical and computer engineering and previously worked at Bell Laboratories.

Thompson’s presentation, “Knots and Low-Dimensional Topology,” is at 3:10 p.m. on Jan. 30 in the Embassy Suites, Regency Ballroom BC. Thompson is a professor of mathematics.

The conference also includes two poster sessions featuring the research of students. The sessions are 2-3 p.m. on Jan. 30 and 8:55-9:35 a.m. on Jan. 31 in the Embassy Suites, Regents Ballroom A.

Conference participants will have an opportunity to learn about life in graduate school from the perspective of current women graduate students representing math departments from across the country.

Panel discussions will be held featuring representatives from government and private companies who will talk about their careers and how conference participants can put their advanced math skills to use in a variety of careers.

For more information about the conference, go to http://www.math.unl.edu/~ncuwm/18thAnnual/index.php.

The conference is sponsored by UNL and its Department of Mathematics and Center for Science, Mathematics and Computer Education; the National Science Foundation; and the National Security Agency.