Female mathematicians make their mark

About 200 people participate in first of its kind event

SUKKUR: Promoting equality and encouraging young girls and women to pursue careers in mathematical science, the two-day international event of Institute of Business Administration (IBA), Sukkur, ‘Women in Mathematics Symposium’, concluded on Sunday.

The event was first of its kind in the region and was organised to open doors for women to study mathematics and pursue their careers in it. More than 200 people from 15 universities of Pakistan and five foreign scholars from United Kingdom, United States, China and Algeria participated in the event alongside female students and faculty members from different educational institutes of Pakistan.



It included seven talks by national and international speakers, who shared their research and work experiences as female mathematicians. Besides, there were 10 other national speakers, including PhD and research students from different higher education institutes of the country, who presented their research in this event.

Panel discussions were also arranged during the event to encourage female students to pursue careers in science, technology, engineering and mathematics.



The second day of the symposium comprised different sessions, including a talk by Dr Latifa Debbi of University of Boumerdes, Algeria. She spoke about the new class of fractional stochastic partial differential equations, the stochastic and D-quasi-geostrophic equation. She also spoke about the hurdles she overcame as a female researcher in the field.

Sukkur IBA assistant professor and organiser of the event, Dr Rida-e-Zainab, spoke about different women who made their mark in mathematics from ancient to contemporary times. She shared a brief history of women in the field and how mathematics has evolved over time.

Mehwish Iftikhar, a researcher from COMSATS Institute of Information Technology, Lahore, shared her knowledge on stability analysis of stochastic and deterministic vector borne disease models.

COMSATS, Islamabad, professor Dr Tazeen Athar talked about the alternative definition of the box-counting dimension to provide a better approximation for fractals involving rotation, such as the ‘Bradley Spiral’ structure. Dr Najma Abdul Rehman of COMSATS, Sahiwal, also presented her research during the event.



Sukkur IBA mathematics department head Dr Javeed Ahmed Brohi shed light on the struggles faced by mathematician Emmy Noether and her contribution to the field. Her inspirational story served as a motivation for many female participants of the symposium.

Some speakers also joined the event through Skype such as Dr Ferhana Ahmed of Suleman Dawood School of Business, Lahore University of Management Sciences, and Dr Sajida Kausar from International Islamic University, Islamabad. While Dr Ahmed presented her work on stochastic partial differential equations model for the pricing of mortgage-backed securities, Dr Kausar spoke about the non-Euclidean crystallographic groups.

In his concluding remarks, Sukkur IBA dean and director Nisar Ahmed Siddiqui thanked all the participants and congratulated the varsity for organising the first ever women in mathematics symposium. He later awarded shields and certificates to the participants.

Dr Zainab, Dr Brohi, and the varsity’s research director, Dr Parveez Ahmed Memon, also thanked the participants and the Sukkur IBA family for making the event successful.

The concluding ceremony was followed by a gala dinner and cultural night at the campus of the varsity, where local singers and musicians enthralled the audience with their majestic performance.

Dinner was served to familiarise the event’s participants with the culture of Sindh. All the guests, especially the foreigners, enjoyed the performances of local artists, Sindhi poetry and Pakistani food.

Published in The Express Tribune, January 2^nd, 2017.