Current Activities

MathFest 2026 — Boston, Massachusetts

August 5–8, 2026. Join SIGMAA EM for a full slate of sessions, exhibitions, and our guest lecture at MathFest 2026.

Events & Sessions

• 1. Field Trip: Boston Museum of Science

  Wednesday, August 5, 2026 — 12:00 – 2:00 PM — Sponsored by SIGMAA EM

  Join us for an engaging visit to Boston's Museum of Science, organized by David Sittenfeld, PhD, Director of the Center for the Environment. The experience will include a brief presentation highlighting the Museum's environmental initiatives and projects with mathematical connections, followed by a guided tour of select exhibits and spaces. After the tour, attendees are welcome to explore the Museum informally at their own pace.

  Time: 12:00 – 2:00 PM — Meet at the museum entrance

  Directions: The Museum of Science is about 25 minutes from the Boston Marriott by the T. You can take the Green Line on the T from Copley Station (0.3 miles from the Boston Marriott) to the Science Park Station (0.2 miles from Museum of Science).

  Learn more: Center for the Environment | Museum of Science

• 2. SEVA Exhibition: Sustainability and Environmental Visual Arts — Triangle Tessellation

  Exhibit Hall (Clarendon/Berkeley Room) — Opens Wednesday, August 5, 6:30 PM; open through Friday, August 7, 5:00 PM

  The SIGMAA-EM SEVA Triangle Tessellation Exhibition will be installed in the MathFest 2026 Boston Conference Exhibit Hall on upright panels. This year's entries will be two congruent isosceles right triangles, joined at their hypotenuses to form a square, rotated 45 degrees to create a diamond shape.

  Additional submissions can be made in person during the exhibit and will be added to the community art installation.

  SEVA & MathArt Awards: Friday, August 7, 3:00 – 4:30 PM in the Exhibit Hall.

  SEVA 2026 Details & Submission

• 3. Contributed Paper Session: Mathematical Sciences in Research on the Environment

  Thursday, August 6, 2026 — 8:00 – 10:35 AM — Salon K

  Environmental challenges continue to play a major role in our society, requiring innovative approaches to understanding and addressing these issues. Analyzing complex data and modeling environmental phenomena are essential to meeting those challenges. The active engagement of the mathematical community can greatly enhance our ability to solve the complex problems that arise in these important systems.

  We welcome talks about current research, undergraduate research, and classroom research projects at the intersection of environmental sciences and mathematical methodologies, including but not limited to mathematics, data science, and statistics.

  Organizers: Russ deForest, Pennsylvania State University and Amanda Beecher, Consortium for Mathematics and its Applications (COMAP)

  Schedule of Talks

  • 8:00 – 8:15 AM — Mathematical Modeling of AI, Data Centers, and Sustainability
    Padmanabhan Seshaiyer, George Mason University
  • 8:20 – 8:35 AM — The Environmental and Economic Costs and Benefits of Biodegradable Packaging Materials
    Kayla Maisch and Ryan Savitz, Neumann University
  • 8:40 – 8:55 AM — Carbon Storage in Harvested Wood Products
    Eric Marland, University of Montana; Prakash Nepal and Abigail Meeks, USDA Forest Service
  • 9:00 – 9:15 AM — Data-Driven Modeling of Size-Structured Population Dynamics
    Kitavalia Colon and Viktoria Savatorova, Central Connecticut State University
  • 9:20 – 9:35 AM — Modeling Elephant Movement Using Random Walks
    Pratima Hebbar, Grinnell College
  • 9:40 – 9:55 AM — A Nonlinear Discrete Time Model Integrating Socioenvironmental Determinants for Dengue Control
    Mihaela Predescu and Moinak Bhaduri, Bentley University
  • 10:00 – 10:15 AM — Community-Informed Spatial Modeling of Flooding in Providence, Rhode Island
    Paige Bilich, Bates College
  • 10:20 – 10:35 AM — Markov Matrix Application for Impact Problems in Layered Elastic Media
    Ani Velo and Emma Dickson, University of San Diego; George Gazonas, Army Research Lab

• 4. Poster Session

  Thursday, August 6, 2026 — 1:00 – 2:15 PM — Poster Hall

  SIGMAA EM is participating in the MathFest 2026 poster session. Stop by the Poster Hall to see work at the intersection of mathematics and the environment and to connect with our members.

  

  Click the poster to enlarge, or download the full PDF.

• 5. Business Meeting and Guest Lecture

  Friday, August 7, 2026 — 6:15 – 7:45 PM — Provincetown Room

  Join us for the SIGMAA EM business meeting, followed by our guest lecture.

  Guest Lecture: Remote sensing data and models used in the US Famine Early Warning System

  Molly E. Brown, PhD — Research Professor, University of Maryland, College Park

  

  Molly E. Brown, PhD

  Abstract: This presentation will examine the critical evolution of food security monitoring. I will illustrate how satellite-derived data—such as vegetation indices and rainfall estimates—transformed famine prediction from reactive relief to proactive mitigation. Here I will discuss how biophysical data can be integrated with socioeconomic analysis using mathematical models and systematic analysis. While remote sensing identifies "where" crops fail, policy and markets determine "who" will be affected and by how much. By bridging the gap between space-based observations and humanitarian decision-making, this talk will discuss how geospatial tools can be used to stabilize global food systems.

  Speaker Bio: Molly E. Brown, PhD is a research professor at the University of Maryland Department of Geographical Sciences and is the science officer of 6th Grain Global Corporation. Molly has 15 years of experience in interdisciplinary research using satellite remote sensing data and models with socio-economic and demographic information to better understand food security drivers. She has projects in Africa and south Asia, and she travels extensively to engage with scientists and stakeholders in the food and agriculture sector on three continents. Molly has published over 100 journal articles in a variety of disciplines and has authored two books. In 2015, she was the lead author of a U.S. Climate Assessment report published by the U.S. Department of Agriculture entitled Climate Change, Global Food Security and the U.S. Food System. She is spending much of her time creating a 2nd version of her 2008 book Famine Early Warning and Remote Sensing Data, published by Springer.

• Call for Contributions

  Ongoing

  SIGMAA-EM is actively ramping up its activities. We welcome:

  • Suggestions for future sessions and activities
  • Proposals for contributed paper sessions
  • Ideas for collaborative projects
  • Educational resource recommendations
  • Volunteers for leadership positions

  Contact Us