by Keith Hautala

(Dec. 16, 2013) — Katharine Ott, assistant professor in the University of Kentucky Department of Mathematics, has been chosen by the Association for Women in Mathematics to receive its annual service award for 2013.

The award was created in 2012 to honor volunteers who have made extraordinary and sustained contributions to the organization. Recipients are chosen based on contributions made over the past seven years. Ott was one of two recipients to be honored this year.

Ott was selected because of her service to the association as a principal investigator on the successful Sonia Kovalevsky Day grant from the National Science Foundation. Sonia Kovalevsky Days, named for a pioneering Russian woman mathematician of the 19th century, consist of a program of workshops, talks, and problem-solving competitions for female high school and middle school students and their teachers, both women and men.

The Sonia Kovlevsky Days are intended to encourage young women to continue their study of mathematics, to assist them with the sometimes difficult transitions between middle school and high school mathematics and between high school and college mathematics, to assist the teachers of women mathematics students, and to encourage colleges and universities to develop more extensive cooperation with middle schools and high schools in their area.

Ott will receive a certificate and will be formally recognized at the 2014 Joint Mathematics Meeting in January in Baltimore.