Pacific Northwest section of the Mathematical Association of America serves the states of Alaska, Northern and Western Idaho, Montana, Oregon, and Washington; as well as the Canadian Provinces of British Columbia and Alberta, and the Northwest, Yukon, and Nunavut Territories. The PNW section compiles two editions of Mathematical Matters published each year: one in Spring and one in Fall. Submissions are accepted by the Newsletter Editor, Erik Tou at any time. Submissions made by late October usually make it into the Fall Newsletter while those in by late February usually make it into the Spring Newsletter. See the Governance tab or followin for information about the Current Officers and Upcoming Events for the Section as a whole as well as its associated New Experiences in Teaching (NExT) community. Additional material such as the Section History, Archived Newsletters, and Past Officers can be found in the library at MAA Connect.
News
Upcoming Events
The 2027 PNW Section NExT and Spring meetings are hosted by Whitworth University. More information about the meeting will be available soon. If you have questions, or would like to contribute, contact the Local Arrangements Chair, Nathan Moyer.
Recent [Past] Events
The Great Puzzle Hunt is like a scavenger hunt adventure with puzzles. Teams travel on foot to various locations solving a total of four hour-long puzzles gathering clues along the way to solve one final meta puzzle.
The 2026 PNW Section NExT and Spring meetings are hosted by Linfield University. More information about the meeting is available at the meeting website.
The dates of the PNW MAA Annual Section Meeting usually rotate through a three-year cycle. Two of the three years, the meeting is held in spring (typically April) at a location relatively close to the section's center (in terms of population density, not geographic area). Every third year, the meeting is held in early summer (typically June) at a location closer to the periphery.
The Great Puzzle Hunt is like a scavenger hunt adventure with puzzles. Teams travel on foot to various locations solving a total of four hour-long puzzles gathering clues along the way to solve one final meta puzzle.
Pacific Inland Mathematics Undergraduate Conference (Π-muc) is a conference to provide a Spring venue for undergraduates to present work toward their Senior Capstones, Individual Research Projects, Original Solutions to COMAP, and other Mathematical Contest.
κρυπτοσ, or kryptos, is a contest open to any and all undergraduate students. The theme of the contest is centered around the breaking, or cryptanalysis, of ciphers (secret writing). Each challenge presents contestants with a brief scenario together with some ciphertext (encoded message). The goal is to discover the original English plaintext message!
The 15th annual Northwest Undergraduate Mathematics Symposium will be held online by Oregon State University on Saturday November 11, 2023. See more details below. An in-person meeting will be held at OSU in April 2024!
The 2027 PNW MAA sectional will be hosted by Whitworth University, June 24-26.
Jennifer Firkins Nordstrom was awarded the 2026 PNW Section of the MAA Distinguished Teaching Award.