*Concerns of Young Mathematicians* Volume 1 Issue 6 August 11, 1993 An electronically distributed digest for discussions of the issues of concern to mathematicians at the beginning of their careers. PLEASE FORWARD TO ANY POTENTIALLY INTERESTED INDIVIDUALS Please, direct submissions and questions to kalin@math.psu.edu (editor for the month of August) To subscribe: Send mail to Charles Yeomans at cyeomans@s.ms.uky.edu Next issue: Wednesday, August 18 Back issues are available via anonymous ftp to speedway.net in /pub/ymn Editor for the month of July was Mark Winstead, (mww8f@virginia.edu). Publication will be weekly for now, and increase when appropriate. A good guess would be biweekly by mid-September and three or more times a week by mid-October or so. Table of Contents Item # Title ------ ----- ##1 Editorial ##2 Criticism, comments and suggestions ##3 Research and Teaching in the "M" schools ##4 Seeking Employment in the Mathematical Sciences _______________________________________________________________ ##1 Editorial It seems that the initial excitement has worn out. Little was done after the announcement of the creation of YMN and the goals that were set forth. One reason for that is that YMN has no designated people in charge of carrying out the specific tasks, other than cutting, pasting and shipping out the CoYM. To make YMN a tight group of individuals, united by their common concerns about the problems that face young mathematicians, we need to create groups of volunteers that will coordinate the efforts of the rest of us in tackling the set goals. So, anyone? --------------------- I am having some problems with the ftp access to speedway.net and the last two issues will be archived later this month. kalin _______________________________________________________________ ##2 From: km9985@mars.albany.edu (MADIGAN KEVIN M) After receiving 5 issues of "Concerns of Young Mathematicians" (CoYM), I am disturbed. With over 300 subscriptions and attention from the AMS, one would think that the editor(s) would take this newsletter seriously, and try to produce something worthwhile. Unfortunately, this is not the case. Upon receiving my issues of CoYM, I eagerly read them, only to be left with the impression that they are hastily prepared and poorly proofread. Volume 1, Number 5 contains little more than "Hey, read the Notices" (I have been doing so since entering the PhD program at SUNY-Albany in January of 1988), "We're trying to organize something for the January meetings in Cincinatti" (to which I reply, for what purpose? What do we realistically expect to accomplish? A meeting sounds great, but there has to be a reason to meet), and a sentence fragment containing a subject, but no verb or predicate! (from Item #1 : "The NSF budget breakdown and the new statistics about the unemployment rate among new Ph.D's.") To make matters worse, we have to deal with the sarcastic and obnoxious submissions of Ed Aboufadel, who, in the latest issue, belittles Saunders MacLane, a rather accomplished Mathematician and scholar whose views are deserving of some respect, whether or not you agree with those views. He writes: "But first, let's start with the Garfunkel vs. MacLane debate in Forum and on the letters page. After a close reading, I've boiled down their arguments to something more elegant: On p. 611: Garfunkel: The current hierarchical reward system in the profession is unwise and unfair. Teaching should be more highly valued. MacLane: I like the way the system is. (Now let's see if I can use some Latin words someplace.) On p.571: Garfunkel: Maybe you didn't hear me the first time. MacLane: I heard you. (Now let's see if I can do something clever with the letters SMSG.)" This is NOT elegant, it is caustic and obnoxious, and betrays a very bad attitude (it also makes me wonder how "closely" he read the articles in question). I see little useful in Mr. Aboufadel's latest submission, or in any of them, for that matter. Now, I have never met, nor corresponded with, Mr. Aboufadel, but I get a very negative impression from just about all of his submissions to CoYM. I am sure that he does not want to come off this way, but he does. If the YMN is to be successful, it must propose action, or at least appear to be doing something positive. I suggest the following: (1) Make a concerted effort to get more grant monies allocated for "fresh" PhDs. As it stands now, I am only aware of a few highly competitive post-doc grant programs designed to fund the "young stars", but nothing to create jobs. There is no need to give grant money to a well paid, tenured, well known mathematician at a Group I or II school (under the pretext of a summer salary) when there are good mathematicians scrounging for adjunct work. (2) Make a concerted effort to get the AMS and the profession in general to recognize the realities of not just the current job market but the fact that a PhD in Pure Mathematics offers little in the way of job opportunities. Nothing turns me on intellectually like Mathematics does, but it is damn hard to find a job doing Mathematics. This needs to be made clear to incoming graduate students. We should all protect ourselves by taking a few courses that give us more employment options (something I, unfortunately, did not do). If the YMN is doing these things, then I say "Great!", but CoYM gives me no indication that we are. Kevin Madigan PhD, 1993, SUNY at Albany Asst. Prof. of Mathematics, Lamar University, Beaumont, TX _______________________________________________________________ ##3 From: borchers@prism.nmt.edu (Brian Borchers) In volume 1, Issue 5 of the YMN newsletter, Ed Aboufadel writes: Now look on p. 604, Table 3B. (And speaking of hierarchy, check out that I-II-III-IV-V-M-B set up.) Last year there were 1193 open positions available in the U.S. Of those, 792 were at the M or B schools (schools which don't have a doctoral program). I think it is fair to say that these are positions where the primary responsibility is teaching. So, 2/3 of the positions open last year were teaching positions. When it comes to applying for jobs, keep that in mind. I think Ed might have overgeneralized a bit here, but I do agree with his comment that teaching experience is important in getting a job. New Mexico Tech fits into the "M" category, but I don't think that it is fair to say that faculty positions have teaching as the primary responsibility. We have a teaching load of five courses per year and are encouraged to buy out of courses with grant money. This makes NMT more like the traditional research university, even though we only have an MS program. The impression that I get from my tenure committee is that I'm expected to do a good job of teaching and publish good papers and get grants. In the current job market, they can reasonably expect to find candidates that can do all of these things. I was asked to sit on a search committee last year. We had over 70 applicants, of which 50 had PhD's in statistics (the required field.) Since we only had the opportunity to interview four of the candidates, anyone who was lacking in any area was unlikely to be chosen for an interview- i.e. If you hadn't taught courses at the junior/senior level and done significant research, you really didn't stand a chance. Looking back, I believe that I got this job because of my experience in teaching junior/senior level courses as a TA, and because of my research. Neither one alone would have been enough to get the attention of the people who ultimately hired me. Brian Borchers Department of Mathematics New Mexico Tech Socorro, NM 87801 _______________________________________________________________ ##4 From: "Elizabeth A. Housworth" eah@neumann.math.purdue.edu In the last posting (CoYM4 ed.) , Mark said that this brochure was one he'd never heard of. Seeking Employment in the Mathematical Sciences is a brochure I got at the Employment register at the AMS 2 Winters ago. It describes the various employment opportunities available to mathematicians with various degrees. It gives advice on resume writing for academic and non-academic positions. My copy was written in 1985 and I quote from p.10 Advice for Ph.D.'s : "Academic Positions. At the present time, it seems that colleges cannot find enough mathematicians with doctorates to fill faculty positions. Job prospects for new PH.D.'s are especially good in masters and bachelors degree granting departments, as well as in the applied and more applicable fields of mathematics. (see, for example, _Notices_, March 1984, pp.178-183)" Well, it was written in 1985 after all. And the advice may still be good. Elizabeth Housworth _______________________________________________________________ End of Journal Next time: Your comments and submissions.