The EDGE Foundation (Enhancing Diversity in Graduate Education) is an organization based in

Claremont, California Claremont () is a suburban city in eastern Los Angeles County, California, United States, east of Los Angeles. It lies in the Pomona Valley at the foothills of the San Gabriel Mountains. As of the 2010 United States Census, 2010 census it had ...

, United States, that was established in 2013. The foundation sponsors the EDGE Program, which was established in 1998 to help women get advanced degrees in mathematics.

History

The EDGE program was launched in 1998 by Sylvia Bozeman and Rhonda Hughes to support female students pursuing graduate degrees in the mathematical sciences. The first EDGE summer session was held at

Bryn Mawr College Bryn Mawr College ( ; Welsh language, Welsh: ) is a Private college, private Women's colleges in the United States, women's Liberal arts colleges in the United States, liberal arts college in Bryn Mawr, Pennsylvania, United States. Founded as a ...

in 1998 and the location alternated between Bryn Mawr and

Spelman College Spelman College is a Private college, private, Historically black colleges and universities, historically black, Women's colleges in the United States, women's Liberal arts colleges in the United States, liberal arts college in Atlanta, Georgia ...

until 2003. Since 2003 the summer program has been hosted by

Pomona College Pomona College ( ) is a private university, private Liberal arts colleges in the United States, liberal arts college in Claremont, California. It was established in 1887 by a group of Congregationalism in the United States, Congregationalists ...

Florida A&M University Florida Agricultural and Mechanical University (FAMU), commonly known as Florida A&M, is a Public university, public Historically black colleges and universities, historically black land-grant university in Tallahassee, Florida, United States. ...

Harvey Mudd College Harvey Mudd College (HMC) is a private liberal arts college in Claremont, California, focused on science and engineering. It is part of the Claremont Colleges, which share adjoining campus grounds and resources. The college enrolled 902 undergra ...

Mills College Mills College at Northeastern University in Oakland, California is part of Northeastern University's global university system. Mills College was founded as the Young Ladies Seminary in 1852 in Benicia, California; it was relocated to Oakland in ...

New College of Florida New College of Florida is a public university, public liberal arts college in Sarasota, Florida, United States. The college is a member of the Council of Public Liberal Arts Colleges. New College has the smallest student enrollment in the State U ...

North Carolina A&T State University North Carolina Agricultural and Technical State University (also known as North Carolina A&T State University, North Carolina A&T, N.C. A&T, or simply A&T) is a public university, public, Historically black colleges and universities, historicall ...

North Carolina State University North Carolina State University (NC State, North Carolina State, NC State University, or NCSU) is a public university, public Land-grant university, land-grant research university in Raleigh, North Carolina, United States. Founded in 1887 and p ...

Purdue University Purdue University is a Public university#United States, public Land-grant university, land-grant research university in West Lafayette, Indiana, United States, and the flagship campus of the Purdue University system. The university was founded ...

, and Texas Tech. In 2013, the Sylvia Bozeman and Rhonda Hughes EDGE Foundation was established. The mission of this 501(c)(3) non-profit organization is to support and oversee all EDGE programming.

Purpose

The EDGE program is designed to offer comprehensive mentoring for women pursuing careers in the mathematical sciences. Activities are designed to provide ongoing support toward the academic development and research productivity at several critical stages, including entering graduate students, advanced graduate students, postdocs and early career mathematicians. Along with its signature summer session, the Foundation supports an annual conference, mini-sabbaticals for research collaborations, regional research symposia, regional mentoring clusters, travel support for research talks, and other open-ended mentoring activities. The EDGE Summer Session is a four-week residential program for women entering graduate programs in the mathematical sciences. The workshops are immersion experiences that simulate the fast pace of studying graduate level mathematics.

Impact and awards

In 2015 EDGE received the Presidential Award for Excellence in Science, Mathematics and Engineering Mentoring (PAESMEM)OSTP and NSF to honor 140 individuals and organizations with highest US award for teachers and mentors
NSF News release: June 25, 2018 The citation for the award commented on the phenomenal success of this organization, and noted that at the time of the award over 200 women had participated in 16 EDGE summer sessions. Fifty-six women (of whom 46 percent are minorities) had completed Ph.D. programs, and over 65 were still working toward their Ph.D. Remarkably, in 2009, EDGE participants accounted for over 35 percent of all Ph.D.s granted to African-American women. In 2019,

Karen Uhlenbeck Karen Keskulla Uhlenbeck ForMemRS (born August 24, 1942) is an American mathematician and one of the founders of modern geometric analysis. She is a professor emeritus of mathematics at the University of Texas at Austin, where she held the Sid W ...

became the first woman to be awarded the prestigious Abel Prize, which is considered the Nobel Prize of mathematics. On May 21, 2019, Uhlenbeck was presented the Abel Prize by King Harald of Norway, and in an interview with Ionica Smeets following the ceremony, Uhlenbeck announced that she will be donating half of her Abel Prize award to the EDGE program and the

Institute for Advanced Study The Institute for Advanced Study (IAS) is an independent center for theoretical research and intellectual inquiry located in Princeton, New Jersey. It has served as the academic home of internationally preeminent scholars, including Albert Ein ...

's Women and Mathematics (WAM) Program.
EDGE to receive extraordinary gift from Abel Prize winner, Karen Uhlenbeck
' EDGE News, May 21, 2019
By Martin Toft, Online newspaper for the University of Oslo, May 22, 2019 n Norwegian/ref> On April 11, 2015, the

Association for Women in Mathematics The Association for Women in Mathematics (AWM) is a professional society whose mission is to encourage women and girls to study and to have active careers in the mathematical sciences, and to promote equal opportunity for and the equal treatment o ...

presented their “A Mathematics Program that Makes a Difference” Award to EDGE and commended Sylvia Bozeman and Rhonda Hughes for their success in promoting diversity. The citation reads, in part: In September 2019, the book ''A Celebration of the EDGE Program's Impact on the Mathematics Community and Beyond'' (edited by Susan D'Agostino, Amy Buchman, Sarah Bryant, Michelle Craddock Guinn, and Leona Harris) will be published by

Springer Springer or springers may refer to: Publishers * Springer Science+Business Media, aka Springer International Publishing, a worldwide publishing group founded in 1842 in Germany formerly known as Springer-Verlag. ** Springer Nature, a multinationa ...

in their Association for Women in Mathematics Series.

The Karen EDGE Fellowship Program

When Karen Uhlenbeck won the Abel Prize she donated a large part of it to the EDGE Foundation, which subsequently set up the Karen EDGE Fellowship Program.Gift from Uhlenbeck Funds Karen EDGE Fellowship
Notices of the AMS, Vol 67, No 2, pp 228-230 The Karen EDGE Fellows include: * Pamela Harris – 2020 Inaugural Class of Fellows * Mohamed Omar – 2020 Inaugural Class of Fellows * Bobby Wilson – 2020 Inaugural Class of Fellows * Emille Lawrence – 2021 * Manuel Rivera – 2021 * Malena Español – 2022 * Henok Mawi – 2023 * Mariana Smit Vega Garcia – 2024

Similarly named organizations

This EDGE foundation should not be confused with the similarly named Evidence and Data for Gender Equality (EDGE) project, an initiative of the

United Nations The United Nations (UN) is the Earth, global intergovernmental organization established by the signing of the Charter of the United Nations, UN Charter on 26 June 1945 with the stated purpose of maintaining international peace and internationa ...

Statistics Division that seeks to improve statistics associated with gender issues. There is also a science and technology think tank and website named Edge Foundation, Inc.Edge.org website
/ref> and a UK-based educational foundation called

Edge Edge or EDGE may refer to: Technology Computing * Edge computing, a network load-balancing system * Edge device, an entry point to a computer network * Adobe Edge, a graphical development application * Microsoft Edge, a web browser developed by ...

References

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External links

EDGE Foundation home page
Mathematics education organizations in the United States Women's education in the United States Educational organizations established in 1998 Foundations based in the United States