In 2017, Maria Vlasiou became President of EWM-NL.
After 5 years, yesterday was Maria’s last day as President of our association.
EWM-NL achieved impressive milestones under Maria’s leadership and we, as Executive and Advisory Boards, would like to summarize the main successes.
In 2017, EWM-NL underwent a process of professionalization: our communication channels, mission statement, website, and promotional material were settled. Second, our monthly newsletter was created, and Maria visited all the Dutch mathematical institutes with our “Tour events”.
In 2018, EWM-NL started a long-term project based on policy. This was done by taking all university-level recommendations to the universities, contacting NWO about policy on funding levels, and promoting the advertisement of open female-targeted positions.
To maintain our visibility, in 2018 we organized the first EWM-NL session at the National Mathematics Congress. In addition, we organized an Annual Meeting, a soft-skills workshop, a photo exhibition with grand opening.
In 2019, we started sponsoring girls participating in the national, Benelux, and European Girls mathematics Olympiads. Moreover, we organised outreach days and contributed to outreach activities of the International Mathematical Union.
Despite the COVID-19 pandemic, we continued our activities in 2020 and our primary goal was to maintain networking alive within our community. We successfully launched the collaboration with the Nieuw Archief voor Wiskunde to showcase research of women mathematicians in the Netherlands.
Our long-term projects (mentoring, monitoring, outreach) remained active. To increase the visibility of female academics in mathematics, we updated/translated/created Wikipedia pages of women mathematicians.
In 2021, the focus was on fostering a community spirit in the Dutch community of women in mathematics. This was achieved by maintaining our previous activities and promoting online events and workshops.
The Advisory and Executive Boards of EWM-NL would like to express deepest gratitude to the commitment that Maria Vlasiou dedicated to our association. Maria’s leadership was outstanding. She is perceptive and effective, and her enthusiasm and passion is infectious.
EWM-NL is a recognized and appreciated association of women researchers in mathematics in the Netherlands mainly because Maria maintained high the principles of our association and worked incessantly to implement every step of our mission.
The EWM-NL Board members take this chance to congratulate Svetlana Dubinkina on her role as new President. We look forward to working with you and establishing new achievements together.
Maria, we know that you will always support us and be by our side. Θα θέλαμε να εκφράσουμε τη βαθύτατη ευγνωμοσύνη μας για τη δέσμευση που αφιέρωσε η Μαρία Βλασίου στον οργανισμό μας. Μαρία, σου ευχόμαστε ό,τι καλύτερο και σε ευχαριστούμε για όλα όσα έκανες για το EWM-NL.
Sincerely/Με εκτίμηση,
The Advisory and Executive Boards of EWM The Netherlands
You can find a more detailed list on our annual reports: https://www.ewmnetherlands.nl/bookshelf/annual-reports/.