Mathematical Association of America

The Mathematical Association of America (MAA) is a group for people who love mathematics. It helps teachers, students, and anyone interested in math share ideas and learn from each other. Members include university, college, and high school teachers, students, mathematicians, computer scientists, statisticians, and many others who work with numbers.

The MAA started in 1915 and has its main office at 11 Dupont in the Dupont Circle area of Washington, D.C.. It creates books and magazines about math, such as the American Mathematical Monthly. This magazine is read by many people around the world. The MAA makes math fun and easy for everyone to understand.

Meetings

The MAA holds an annual summer event called MathFest. They also team up with the American Mathematical Society to host the Joint Mathematics Meeting each January. Sometimes, the Society for Industrial and Applied Mathematics joins these meetings as well. There are twenty-nine regional sections that meet regularly throughout the year.

Publications

The Mathematical Association of America works with Taylor & Francis to make journals and books about math.

Some of their journals are The American Mathematical Monthly, which helps students and teachers learn more about math, and Mathematics Magazine, which is good for teachers of undergraduate math classes.

They also publish MAA FOCUS, a newsletter for members, and many books for students studying math. These books cover many topics and help students understand math better.

Competitions

The MAA sponsors many math competitions for students. One famous competition is the William Lowell Putnam Competition for undergraduate students. For middle- and high-school students, there are the American Mathematics Competitions (AMC). These include:

• AMC 8: 25 multiple choice questions in 40 minutes
• AMC 10/AMC 12: 25 multiple choice questions in 75 minutes
• AIME: 15 short answer questions in a 3-hour period
• USAMO/USAJMO: 6 questions over 2 days, requiring proofs

Top students may join the Mathematical Olympiad Program. From this program, six high school students are selected to represent the U.S. at the International Mathematics Olympiad.

Sections

The MAA has twenty-nine regional sections across different areas. These include places like Allegheny Mountain, EPADEL, Florida, Illinois, and many others. Each section helps connect people who love math, from teachers and students to professionals in many fields.

Special Interest Groups

The Mathematical Association of America has seventeen Special Interest Groups. These groups help people who love math find each other. They support the MAA’s work by linking these groups to the larger math community.

Some groups are about Mathematics and the Arts, Business, Industry, Government, Environmental Mathematics, and History of Mathematics. Others focus on teaching math, using math in sports, and even doing math research while still in school.

Awards and prizes

The Mathematical Association of America gives out many prizes for great work in math. Some of these prizes are the Chauvenet Prize, the Carl B. Allendoerfer Award, the Trevor Evans Award, the Lester R. Ford Award, the George Pólya Award, the Merten M. Hasse Prize, the Henry L. Alder Award, the Euler Book Prize, and the Beckenbach Book Prize. There is also a prize called the Yueh-Gin Gung and Dr. Charles Y. Hu Award for Distinguished Service to Mathematics. These prizes celebrate great achievements in making math interesting and understandable for everyone.

Memberships

The MAA works with other groups to help with math learning. It is one of four partners in the Joint Policy Board for Mathematics. It also joins the Conference Board of the Mathematical Sciences, which brings together sixteen groups that care about math.

Historical accounts

The Mathematical Association of America began in 1915, but its story starts even earlier, in 1894, when the American Mathematical Monthly was created. Benjamin Finkel started this journal to make math more interesting and easier to understand for students and teachers. He thought that many math journals at the time were too difficult and didn’t focus enough on solving problems.

Many books and reports describe the early years of the MAA. The group’s records are kept safe in the Archives of American Mathematics.