By Michael Pearson, Executive Director of the Mathematical Association of America

Welcome to Math Values!

Our goal is to use this platform to, in the words our mission, advance the understanding of mathematics and its impact on our world. Math Values is just one part of our overall strategy to communicate the power and beauty of mathematics to the members of the Mathematical Association of America (MAA), to everyone who shares our passion for mathematics, and to new audiences who are curious about the role of mathematics across our society.

MAA’s core values are reflected in the themes you’ll see on this site: community, teaching and learning, inclusivity, and communication. All of these are meant to support discovery and innovation across the mathematical sciences, as well as developing the mathematical capacity to tackle fundamental challenges in the many fields that depend on our beautiful discipline.

To those of you who are not new to MAA blogs, you’ll find familiar voices, such as Keith Devlin’s “Devlin’s Angle,” and David Bressoud’s “Launchings.” One of our series will be drawn from projects supported by the National Science Foundation. We will also bring you new and diverse voices, views and perspectives that reflect the power and beauty of mathematics.

For example, we’re featuring an introduction to a special issue of Oceanography on Mathematical Aspects of Physical Oceanography. I hope you’ll be as pleased as I am to see how our colleagues in oceanography use mathematics to gain new insights. It’s not only diverse fields like oceanography that will be included in Math Values. We’ll hear from experts in data science, quantitative literacy, and the teaching and learning of mathematics about the ways in which math is used to advance their studies and understanding of the world around us.

We have incredibly rich sources that will make Math Values a great source for our community. More than that, we welcome new audiences who will visit to challenge their thinking about the role of mathematics in the world, and (to paraphrase former MAA President Francis Su’s words) the potential for mathematics to promote human flourishing.