History

In the early 1990s, William Massey of Bell Laboratories (then AT&T, now Lucent Technologies) had an idea for an organization devoted mainly to addressing critical issues involving African-American researchers and graduate students in the mathematical sciences. It was envisioned that this organization would highlight current research by African-American researchers and graduate students in mathematics, strengthen the mathematical sciences by encouraging increased participation of African-Americans and members of other underrepresented groups, facilitate working relations among them, and provide assistance to them in cultivating their careers.

This organization became known as the Conference for African-American Researchers in the Mathematical Sciences (CAARMS).

It was Massey's industry, determination and energy, coupled with that of James Curry, Raymond Johnson, William Thurston, James Turner and many others, that led to the first conference (CAARMS1) which was held at the Mathematical Sciences Research Institute in Berkeley, California, June 1995. CAARMS2 was organized by Massey and Nathaniel Dean and held at DIMACS at Rutgers University in Piscataway, the Institute for Advanced Study in Princeton, both Bell Laboratories and the AT&T Laboratories in Murray Hill, New Jersey, June 26-28, 1996; CAARMS3 was held at Morgan State University in Baltimore, Maryland, and the National Security Agency in Fort Meade, Maryland, June 1997; and the CAARMS4 at Rice University in Houston, Texas, June 1998; CAARMS5 at the University of Michigan in Ann Arbor, June 1999; CAARMS6 at Morgan State University in June 2000; CAARMS7 at Duke University in June 2001; CAARMS8 at Princeton University in June 2002; CAARMS9 at Purdue University in June 2003; CAARMS10 at the Mathematical Sciences Research Institute (MSRI) in Berkeley and the Lawrence Berkeley Laboratory in June 2004; CAARMS11 at the Institute for Pure and Applied Mathematics at UCLA in June 2005, CAARMS12 at UNC-Chapel Hill and SAMSI in June 2006; CAARMS13 at Northeastern University and University of Massachusetts, Boston in June 2007; and CAARMS14 at Georgia Tech and Spelman College in conjunction with the African-Americans Researchers in Computing Sciences (AARCS) Conference in July 2008.