Megumi Harada

Teaching

Happenings

Check my Math Activities page for research/math events/conferences I'm organizing, attending, or am otherwise a part of. For more on what my research group does and for information pertaining to prospective students and postdocs, check the McMaster Combinatorial Algebraic Geometry page and the Algebra and Algebraic Geometry page. You can also see my Wikipedia page.

• I am an organizer of the 6-month Major Thematic Program at the Fields Institute on Commutative Algebra and its Applications, January -- June 2025.
• In Fall 2024, I was inducted as a Fellow of the American Mathematical Society.
• I am serving as an elected faculty representative to the McMaster Board of Governors for a 3-year term, 2024-2027.
• In 2024-2025, I am serving on the MUFA (McMaster University Faculty Association) Executive and as the MUFA Remuneration Chair.
• I'm honored to have received the 2022-2023 McMaster Student Union (MSU) Teaching Award in March 2023 as the faculty representative for the Faculty of Arts and Science. The Twitter announcement can be found here.
• I served as an (elected) member of the McMaster University Planning Committee for a 2-year term, 2021-2023.
• I'm humbled and honored that I was awarded the 2020-2021 McMaster Student Union (MSU) Teaching Award in March 2021 as the faculty representative for the Faculty of Arts and Science. I was a Finalist for the March 2022 competition for the same MSU Teaching Award.
• From 2020 to 2023, I served on the NSERC Discovery Grant's Evaluation Group for Mathematics and Statistics.
• I was a co-organizer of the 5-day BIRS Workshop on ``Toric Degenerations" to be held December 4--9, 2022, at the Banff International Research Station in Banff, Alberta, Canada.
• I was a co-organizer of an ISM Summer School on Hessenberg varieties and symmetric functions, originally scheduled to be held in Montreal, Canada, in June 2020. (Postponed due to COVID. New dates TBA, but likely to be Summer 2022.)
• I participated in the Summer Research for Women in Mathematics program at MSRI, in Berkeley, California, in Summer 2019.
• I was named a a Fields Institute Fellow in June 2018.
• I received the Canadian Mathematical Society Krieger-Nelson Prize in spring 2018.
• I was an organizer of the Combinatorial Algebraic Geometry Major Thematic Program at the Fields Institute held from July to December 2016.
• I am a Canada Research Chair (Tier 2) in Equivariant Symplectic and Algebraic Geometry (2014-2023).
• I was a 2013-2014 recipient of the Japan Society for the Promotion of Science Invitation Fellowship for Research in Japan.
• I was the 2013-2014 recipient of the Association for Women in Mathematics Ruth I. Michler Memorial Prize.
• I was on the air on CBC's radio show ``Fresh Air'' in conversation with host Mary Ito about the day-to-day mathematics of Christmas-season shopping in November 2010. You can listen to the interview at this CBC Fresh Air website (click on the 0800 segment).
• I spent the Spring 2010 semester at MSRI (Mathematical Sciences Research Institute) in Berkeley, taking part in the ``Symplectic and Contact Geometry and Topology'' year-long program.
• I gave a McMaster Origins Institute Colloquium titled ``Visualizing geometry: the shape of space in higher dimensions'' in March 2009. The video recording is available through McMaster or via iTunes University.
• I received the Ontario Early Researcher Award in 2008, a 5-year award given by the Ontario Ministry of Research and Innovation to young researchers in the province.
• As representatives of the McMaster Department of Math and Stats, one of my former students (Carolyn Junkins) and I participated in the making of an on-line video ``Stories of Science'' series (made by the Science Media lab) for the Faculty of Science at McMaster. See the results at this Science at Mac site.
• I participated in Dr. George Gadanidis' (Faculty of Education, U Western Ontario) Windows into Elementary Mathematics project (website hosted by the Fields Institute), an on-line resource for elementary-school mathematics teachers, via an exploration of spherical geometry, plus an interview about what it's like to be a mathematician. The link is here.
• I received the University Faculty Award in 2007, a 5-year research award given by NSERC to young women faculty in mathematics and the sciences.
• I was one of 10 finalists in TV Ontario's "Best Lecturer in Ontario 2005 " (the "intellectual's Canadian Idol") competition. As part of the competition for the final winner, I gave a televised public lecture on mathematics titled "Symmetry: Nature, Art, and Mathematics," aired October 2005 on TV Ontario's Big Ideas program. You can download the audio of my lecture here.
• During the 2005-2006 academic year, I regularly appeared on TV Ontario's "More 2 Life" program with host Mary Ito, discussing mathematics in everyday life.

Research Interests