Every Wed. at 4 p.m. the Sonoma State University Department of Mathematics and Statistics will be hosting a virtual “Math Colloquium” event. These meetings are described as “a series of informal talks open to the public”. People can join in every week via Zoom or choose to watch the talks once they are posted online via the SSU Mathematics and Statistics department webpage.

The Colloquium has a long standing history at SSU, starting on campus in 1973. This fall series is the 93rd consecutive semester where members of the math and statistics community speak on either applied or theoretical, aka “pure”, mathematics.

For normal in-person meetings, students have face to face access to professionals across multiple fields, campuses in Calif. and more. Then attendees are invited to join the speaker for dinner to ask more questions or have a deeper discussion on their topic. 

Coordinator Brigette Lahme, a professor of mathematics and statistics at SSU says that they seek to have speakers from, “…a variety of backgrounds…. Genders, ethnicities/races,” to host at these weekly talks. 

Lahme said, “What makes SSU Colloquium special is that we make it very clear when inviting speakers that the talks are accessible to undergraduate students with maybe only one semester of statistics or one semester of calculus. We want to make it accessible to a wide audience”. 

This semester, talks will cover topics such as: “My Experiences Being Black and Trans in Physics”, “Modeling Turbulent Particle-Laden Flows” and  “Using Mathematics and Statistics to Understand Disease”. The speakers this semester range from SSU alumni to professors at colleges and universities across California. 

Since mid March, the colloquiums have all moved to a virtual Zoom platform and in some cases it is actually easier to lock in speakers since there is no travel requirement for them to come to campus. It is also simpler for students to access. If they were not on campus during the normal meeting times, from 4 p.m. to 5 p.m., they now can hop onto Zoom and watch from anywhere. 

Students attending these events get a snapshot of what real people in mathematical fields do on a day to day basis and what they might be researching at the time. Some students have discovered where they want to go to graduate school, new information, passions or intriguing careers fields after attending these events. 

Sonja Satour, a senior Math major with an emphasis in applied mathematics, said she discovered a desired career path after attending a past Colloquium called “Applications of Group Theory in Theoretical Physics” hosted by Sonoma State Professor Alexandra Miller.  

“I thought to myself this is exactly what I want to do. I could totally do this for the rest of my life,” said Satour. 

When reflecting on if anything has changed now that the program meets on Zoom, Satour said, “I think a lot of people were going during quarantine but there is less this semester. Maybe people are distraught over having to do this [virtual school] all over again.” 

She added that it was an easy transition to Zoom and the only thing really different is, “…there usually would be free cookies and coffee in person.”

Many students that attend find the Colloquiums the perfect time to take a break from school, work or normal life stressors and learn something new and interesting. 

Since the announcement that SSU and all other CSUs will remain virtual through the spring 2021 semester, Lahme hopes that the Colloquium will continue to be “a way to be connected to emeritus facilities, alumni, local colleges, high schools and the community.” 

Students, faculty or community members interested in attending future Math Colloquiums via Zoom can find a link at http://web.sonoma.edu/math/nsf/colloquium.shtml as well as a posters of future and past Colloquium topics by semester.