JMU professor returns from national math museum to speak at SUMS

For anyone who doesn't think math is fun, there's a whole museum that could change your opinion.

"At MoMath, one of the main missions is to show that math is cool and interesting, and that it goes beyond what people typically learn about in school," said Dr. Laura Taalman, a professor of mathematics at JMU who is spending this year as mathematician-in-residence at the only museum dedicated to mathematics in the United States.

Taalman is returning to JMU Saturday where she will be the closing speaker for the Shenandoah Undergraduate Mathematics and Statistics Conference. The conference, which Taalman helped start 10 years ago, will be held in the Health and Human Services Building on the JMU campus east of Interstate 81. Taalman will discuss knot theory, experimental mathematics and 3-D printing.

The SUMS Conference is an annual event that includes undergraduate research presentations, panels about graduate school, invited talks and math career talks. The conference has grown over the years to include more than 300 participants from more than 35 different schools.

MoMath, the National Museum of Mathematics, is located in Manhattan and features a wide variety of exhibits and programs designed to make high-level math accessible to all ages. For the last few years, Taalman volunteered at MoMath to help with events and conferences. This led her to her current position as a mathematician-in-residence.

Taalman assists with existing programs at MoMath and has even created a series of 3-D printing workshops. The first one she offered had participants from the ages of seven to 74.