*Concerns of Young Mathematicians* Volume 2 Issue 22 June 22, 1994 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 Franklin Mendivil mendivil@math.gatech.edu , editor for the month of June. Next issue: Wednesday, July 6 Editor for May: Curtis Bennett cbennet@andy.bgsu.edu Editor for June: Franklin Mendivil mendivil@math.gatech.edu Editor for July: To subscribe: Send mail to Charles Yeomans at cyeomans@s.ms.uky.edu Back issues and other information are available via anonymous FTP to ftp.ms.uky.edu, in pub3/mailing.lists/ymn-list. Table of Contents Item # Title ------ ----- 1 Editor's notes 2 Catherine Roberts Liberal Arts Undergraduate Colleges 3 Cary Timar Reply to Solon Blundell and Steve Kennedy 4 Ed Aboufadel A List of Junior Mathematicians in Lingua Franca 5 Catherine Roberts The Word is Out 6 Curtis Bennett Rewrite of Letter to *Notices* 7 Stan Benkoski Preparing for a Job in Nonacademics Submitted by Curtis Bennett 8 Curtis Bennett Repost of the Job Survey 9 Barbara Nostrand Comments on Job Situation 10 Closing Credits _______________________________________________________________ Item #1 Editor's notes: Let me remind you that due to the lack of activity during the summer, we will be sending the newsletter out twice a month. In the last issue of the newsletter, I mentioned an index to the issues of the *Concerns*. There is an index, but it hasn't made it to the YMN ftp archive yet, so if you look there and don't find it don't worry. This issue, we have some more discussion on Steve Kennedy's article about making yourself attractive to liberal arts colleges and on the idea of coupons or a CV book for job applicants. Ed Aboufadel also tells us about a periodical called Lingua Franca which has some information on first-time hirings. Catherine Roberts points out an article in the Boston Sunday Globe which advertises the job shortage in academia. Curtis Bennett received so many comments about his letter to the *Notices*, that he decided to revise it and repost it. Curtis also posted an article on jobs in nonacademics and a repost of his job survey. Finally, Barbara Nostrand sends us some comments on the job situation, comparing the situation in mathematics with the situation in the philosophy and physics. Franklin Mendivil Georgia Tech mendivil@math.gatech.edu _______________________________________________________________ Item #2 Catherine Roberts Liberal Arts Undergraduate Colleges This weekend at a symposium, The Future of Undergraduate Education, held at Bowdoin College, I heard some striking statistics. In her keynote address, Dr. Diane S. Ravich (Visiting Fellow at the Brookings Institution in Washington, D.C.) stated that out of over 3,000 institutions of higher learning in the United States, only around 90 are classified as liberal arts undergraduate colleges. Given this fact, it seems imperative that we prepare ourselves for academic careers suitable to many formats IN ADDITION to the liberal arts college. Steve Kennedy's article re: Liberal Arts Marketability (Vol. 2, Issue 21) is full of useful suggestions. Although a career at a liberal arts college may be an ideal for many of us, the reality is that those types of jobs are proportionally scarce. I recommend Steve's article for anyone seeking an academic position of any type! Catherine A. Roberts roberts@cs.uri.edu _______________________________________________________________ Item #3 Cary Timar Reply to Solon Blundell and Steve Kennedy I am replying to two different articles in last week's issue of CYM. First, Solon Blundell suggests a book of CV's for people on the job market each year. A book is an especially bad idea because it would have to be published each fall, making things more difficult for those who only discover after the deadline that they need to find a position for the following year. It also prevents applicants from updating their CV's to reflect new developments as the season progresses. A similar option, that has been suggested by others, is to have an on-line database available through e-math, as is done for the job postings. This allows more flexibility in the cases above, but is useless for students or departments without access to e-mail (there still are some). However, even this option has drawbacks. The principal one is that it requires applicants to come up with one CV for all positions (probably with a specified format, like the one for the Employment Register). I prefer to customize my CV for each position, so that I can emphasize the experiences that I think will most interest that committee. A side effect of this method would be that the applicants with the most impressive credentials would be inundated with unsolicited offers of interviews, possibly slowing down the whole process for the rest of us. Altogether, I think it's a bad idea. I also want to comment on Steve Kennedy's suggestions for marketability. He mentions that Statistics and Computer Science are good areas to learn something about, as many small schools want Math faculty who can teach these courses, too. I have been advising prospective grad students to seriously consider getting a Master's degree in Statistics, Computer Science, or Math Education, before starting a PhD in Math. Any of these combinations will make a new PhD much more marketable at small colleges. A Master's in almost any science would also be an asset. -- Cary Timar, ABD, Vanderbilt University _______________________________________________________________ Item #4 Ed Aboufadel A List of Junior Mathematicians in Lingua Franca This weekend, at my local newsstand, I stumbled upon a periodical entitled Lingua Franca. It's motto is "The Review of Academic Life," and the May/June 1994 issue features stories about hypertext, George Soros, and economist Amartya Sen. Lingua Franca also features something called "Jobtracks", which "reflects first-time hirings to full-time junior positions effective as of the '93-'94 academic year in the liberal arts and sciences at more than 500 four-year colleges and universities in the US and Canada." The list of hirings is by discipline, and the May/June 1994 issue features, among other disciplines, mathematics. Glancing at the list, there seems to be about 300 mathematicians named. With each name is the name of the school where the person was "trained" at, and the name of the school where the person was hired. For example, 10 mathematicians trained at UC Berkeley are included, showing that they were hired at places such as Vassar, the University of Utah, and Virginia Commonwealth. Lingua Franca says, "Note that we are not listing temporary or visiting positions, nor first-time hirings to those senior positions that are probationary (e.g. associate professor without tenure). I'm not sure what to make of Jobtracks. I'm not sure if everyone who is on the list KNOWS that he or she is on the list. If you have been wondering where some of your colleagues got jobs last year, this would be a good place to check. Edward Aboufadel Southern Connecticut State University _______________________________________________________________ Item #5 Catherine Roberts The Word is Out It looks like the Word is Out. On the front page of the June 5, 1994 edition of the Boston Sunday Globe is an article headlined, "New PhDs Find Jobs are Scarce in Academia" This article by Alice Dembner is long and comprehensive. It includes a bullet that states, "Unemployment among new mathematics doctorates in the class of '93 reached a 15-year high of 8.9 per cent, according to the American mathematical Society. If UMass-Amherst is any indication -- and society officials say it is -- 1994 will be no better. One-quarter of its graduates failed to get jobs." The article ends, "While many graduates say they loved their studies and would do it again, Roglieri is among those who wish her university advisers had encouraged them to simultaneously pursue other training besides her Italian literature degree. 'I wish I'd cross-registered in the Education School, got a joint MBA or worked summers in industry to get some marketable skills,' she said. 'I feel we were misinformed' about future job prospects." Catherine A. Roberts roberts@cs.uri.edu _______________________________________________________________ Item #6 Curtis Bennett Rewrite of Letter to *Notices* Because of a large number of comments I received about my letter to the *Notices*, I have rewritten and expanded it. I feel that it now more precisely reflects both my opinions and what I hope the letter to accomplish. I would still like to collect as many signatures as possible before sending it to the Notices for publication (which I will do around the end of June). If you signed the earlier version please read the new version and let me know if you want your signature removed from the list. My apologies for changing the letter after beginning to collect signatures, but several of the comments convinced me I needed to do so. If you would like to add (or subtract) your name to the letter, please e-mail me at cbennet@andy.bgsu.edu Below is the LaTeX file of the letter. Curtis Bennett %%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%% \documentstyle[12pt]{letter} \begin{document} \begin{letter}{Editor\\ {\bf Notices} of the AMS } \opening{To the Editor,} We were pleased to see the National Policy Statement of the AMS (May/June~1994 {\it Notices\/}). For the most part, the statement does a good job addressing the issues that face the mathematics community today. In particular, we are glad that the AMS leadership is urging strong action to improve the job market. We were disappointed, however, that the AMS is maintaining the reasoning that only two conditions, the retrenchment in academia and the influx of foreign mathematicians, are responsible for the job crisis. However you look at the situation, the 50\% increase since 1987-1988 in the number of Ph.D.'s granted each year in this country ({\it Notices\/}, Nov. 1993, p.~1170) has helped to create the problems in the job market. This increase happened largely because of faulty predictions of an impending shortage of Ph.D's. As a result, there would be a crisis in the job market today (lesser but a crisis all the same) regardless of world events. Thus we believe the 50\% increase in the production of Ph.D's is a major cause of employment woes for mathematicians. In spite of the current employment crisis, we still see mathematicians arguing against reevaluating their university's Ph.D. program and its growth. Many of these mathematicians believe the job market will improve in the near future and thus argue that there is no need to reevaluate. Attributing the job crisis only to external factors as the National Policy Statement does encourages this view. Until we convince the entire mathematical community that the crisis cannot be solved without reevaluating our programs, many of the goals of the policy statement will remain unfulfilled. This is one major reason that the internal causes of the employment crisis should be mentioned. Additionally, if we hope for undergraduates to make informed decisions about whether or not to attend graduate school in mathematics, it is up to us to provide the information. This makes it important that the AMS publicize the oversupply of Ph.D.'s produced in this country. Providing this information will encourage mathematics students, both graduate and undergraduate, to prepare for jobs in industry and other areas besides academia. Indeed, this would help fulfill the goal of facilitating ``liaisons between academic and industrial mathematical scientists'' (from goal~2 in the National Policy Statement). Another reason for mentioning the increase in Ph.D. production, is that omitting it contributes to the frustration that junior mathematicians feel about the AMS and the job market. This omission also contributes to the appearance that the AMS is more concerned with protecting the interests of senior mathematicians than with helping junior mathematicians. We realize the AMS leadership does not wish to worsen their position in making arguments for more funding from Congress and the NSF, but in a statement directed, in part, to the entire mathematical community, this unwillingness to admit that the mathematical community is partially responsible for the job crisis is unfortunate. Finally, omitting the internal causes of the job crisis also takes away from the benefits of the National Policy Statement. The omission will cause some to pay less attention to the many important points in the statement. We do not mean to attack the leadership of the AMS, but rather to point out the need to publicize that we, the mathematical community at large, are responsible in part for the job crisis. Moreover, it is up to us to thoughtfully reevaluate our programs in light of the current situation. In conclusion, we hope that in future editions of the National Policy Statement the internal causes of the job market will be mentioned. \begin{tabbing} xxxxxxx\=xxxx\=\kill \ Curtis Bennett \\ \ \ Editor Young Mathematicians Network (YMN)\\ \ \ Bowling Green State University,\\ \end{tabbing} \end{letter} \end{document} ______________________________________________________________ Item #7 PREPARING FOR A JOB IN NONACADEMICS Submitted by Curtis Bennett The following is an article on finding a nonacademic job. It was initially written in MicroSoft Word, and the binary file and a uuencoded file are both available available in the YMN archive. PREPARING FOR A JOB IN NONACADEMICS By Stan Benkoski The current difficult job market for Ph.D. Mathematicians has been well documented by many sources. The AMS Task Force on Employment estimated (in July of 1992) that "the U.S. job market will demand around 800 new mathematical sciences doctorates per year over the next 10 to 15 years." The annual survey of new doctorates (published in the November 1993 issue of the Notices of the A.M.S.) shows that U.S. institutions awarded 1202 doctorates in the mathematical sciences between July 1, 1992 and June 30, 1993. This represents a tremendous imbalance in supply and demand. This imbalance is probably understated since those statistics do not take into account the cumulative effect of the over supply of doctorates in the years leading up to 1992-1993 and also do not account for the number of emigrant Mathematicians that have come to the U.S. in recent years. One of the AMS Task Force on Employment's recommendations was that "the AMS use the various means available to it to make clear to the mathematical community the value of, and opportunities for, nonacademic employment." The purpose of this discussion is to attempt to respond, in part, to this challenge from the Task Force. In particular, these remarks will be directed at a second year graduate student. (The information should also be helpful to any graduate or under-graduate student. Much of this is also useful to a faculty member who wants to learn more about mathematics in industry.) The goal will be to provide information about the nonacademic job market and steps to prepare to obtain a job in that market. A couple of caveats are appropriate. First, a second year graduate student has spent most of the last nineteen years in school. The academic environment is well known and understood. It is comfortable. Little is known about nonacademics. This means that the effort to learn about nonacademic mathematics usually starts from a position of very little knowledge. Second, the student will be required to do a lot of the work himself. In particular, there is currently no single source which will provide comprehensive information about nonacademic mathematics. The remarks that follow fall into three sections. First, I briefly describe my background in order to establish my credentials and biases. Second, (and perhaps most important) is a somewhat philosophical discussion about the differences between employment in academics and nonacademics. I believe that a different mind-set is required to seek a position (and to be successful) in nonacademics than is required in academics. If this different mind-set is not achieved, then the specific suggestions in the third section will not be successfully employed. Background I have worked for Wagner Associates for twenty-one years. We are a consulting firm in Mathematics, Operations Research, and Software Development. In the thirty-one year history of the firm, we have worked on a wide variety of problems. The vast majority of our work had been funded by government agencies. In particular, the Department of Defense (in various guises) has been our biggest sponsor. A lot of our work has been in the search for lost objects. I received my Ph.D. in Number Theory from The Pennsylvania State University in 1973. Two points should be noted. First, my academic training was in pure mathematics. I did old-fashioned elementary number theory. (My Erdos number is 1.) Second, 1973 was part of the last big slump in employment opportunities for mathematicians, and the experience of looking for a job in that environment gives me some empathy with current job seekers. While my academic training was in pure mathematics, I had three summer jobs which used applied mathematics. Two of these were government jobs. The technical work in these jobs involved operations research and software. Wagner Associates was, and still is, unusual in that we seek (when hiring) research quality in mathematics and not necessarily an education in applied mathematics. However, I am sure that my work experiences allowed me to stand out from the crowd. I first made contact with Wagner Associates at the Employment Register at the Annual Meeting in 1973. I personally found the transition to industry to be a relatively easy one. (Some of that ease of transition must be attributed to my previous experience with summer jobs.) I have thoroughly enjoyed the breadth and depth of work that I have done but it is quite different from an academic experience and each individual has different priorities and goals. Philosophy The change in philosophy that is required for a good nonacademic job search can be summed up in two sentences. In academics, you get a job if they believe that you are smart. In nonacademics, you get hired if they believe that you can help them. The graduate student has 100% of the responsibility to find out what opportunities are available and to convince an industrial employer that he could make a contribution. People in nonacademics tend to have a much different view of the world. The philosophy of most Mathematics Departments is that all mathematics is intrinsically valuable and that our society should (and must) support that endeavor. Academic Mathematics is not exactly a public works project, but rather based on the belief that mathematics enriches our lives and also has demonstrated the potential to profoundly change our lives. In particular, mathematics is different from fine arts or philosophy. Endeavors such as these (fine arts and philosophy), are supported with dollars from our society because we believe that they are important to our culture. They enrich our lives and are part of the "examined" life. But clearly mathematics is different from this. Without digressing into philosophical considerations, the fact is that mathematics is funded at a much higher level. (After all, how many jobs are there for Ph.D. philosophers?) We like to think mathematics is somehow a high-level endeavor that is intrinsically superior to other studies. The crass truth is that the financial support for mathematics arises primarily as an "enabling technology." Its application and practical use are what gives it a privileged position. The perspective of business is quite different. Few businesses believe that they can afford basic mathematical research, and probably cannot justify it to their stockholders. As an institution, a business' interest in a mathematician is based on solving problems that require mathematics. The company's desire is to do something better, faster, smaller, cheaper, etc. Mathematics is a means not an end. Industrial mathematics problems rarely appear as math problems. The value of a mathematician to industry is the ability to take a problem which is posed as a real, practical problem (or perhaps something that is not even perceived as a problem); state that problem in mathematical terms; and proceed to develop insight into the problem which results in quantifiable improvements. As a mathematician who has worked in industry for twenty-two years, it is amusing and somewhat annoying to observe the negative correlation between the job prospects for mathematicians and the (academic) mathematical community's interest in greater involvement in industry. If the (academic) mathematics community really believed doing mathematics in industry is a noble profession, then the community would be interacting with industry and sending a share of the best students into nonacademics in good times as well as bad. But the interest ebbs and flows with the job market and, when hard times hit, nonacademic opportunities get more attention. Specific Suggestions I would give some specific suggestions for resources to learn more about nonacademic employment and to be better prepared to investigate nonacademic opportunities. These are: o College career centers o Reading/seminars/short courses, etc. o Academic classes in a broad range of subjects o Experience The most valuable thing that can be done is to gain experience. This takes some real effort but is worth it. I will discuss some approaches that can be used to obtain this experience but first will discuss the other topics. Many college career centers are excellent places to learn about nonacademic employment. Most of the information provided there will be about nonacademic employers. Lots of literature will be available that describes what these employers do and what sorts of skills and talents they are looking for. In addition, some of these employers may be looking for part-time, internship, or summer help. Visit this center and find out what they have to offer. One of the goals of this process is to learn about applications of mathematics. Activities such as reading, attending seminars, attending short courses, etc. are effective tools for this process. SIAM puts out a number of publications that would be useful. (The March 1994 issue of SIAM News contains an article on the use of Linear Programming to maximize delinquent account strategies in the consumer credit business.) In addition, the SIAM Mathematics and Industry Project is directed at improving the match between graduate education and industry. The Journal of Operation Research would be a good place to start to learn about Operations Research. Other good topics are biotechnology and digital signal processing. Taking academic classes in fields other than Mathematics, in order to expand the knowledge of application of Mathematics, is another useful idea. The most directly applicable courses will be in Computer Science. Computer Science comes first, and foremost, because almost any summer or part-time job will involve writing software. Most full-time jobs will require (as a minimum) a working knowledge of software and may well require the ability to write good code. Other suggestions would be Numerical Analysis, Biology, Economics, Engineering, Physics, Statistics, and Operations Research. The most important suggestion is to get some experience in a nonacademic environment. First of all, it would provide experience in what goes on in a nonacademic job. The best way to learn anything is to do it. This experience also provides an opportunity to determine one's aptitude and interest in nonacademic employment. It is different than academic employment. (Of course, any one particular experience is a very small and biased sample of nonacademics. Another job at the same company or a different company could be a totally different experience.) Second, the best reference when applying for a job is solid evidence that one has already accomplished something similar. How does one get such experience? One of the best bets is summer employment. (Most of what follows also applies to part time work which would also be useful.) There are two basic sources of summer jobs - government and industry. Government is probably the best source since there are fewer institutions to contact and they often have specific programs to support summer employment. They will also have employment offices which will have lists of available positions and directions on how to apply. Large companies will have personnel offices which can provide the same information. These methods can be successful but they require work. There are also on-line services such as Help Wanted - USA and E-span employment database. An even better method is to get a contact inside the company. One approach to this is called networking. Talk to your friends, acquaintances, professors, etc. Let it be known that you are looking for summer employment. (Note, as mentioned before, the Career Center on campus may also be a rich source of information in this regard.) One very effective process is known as consult visits or informational interviewing. A consult visit consists of a 20 minute interview with someone in industry who is involved in applying mathematics. The steps in the process are: o Develop names and addresses of individuals involved in mathematics in industry. o Research the company and the person you will visit. o Write letters to some of those individuals. o Make follow-up phone calls. o Interview. o Follow-up. The first step in this process is to find individuals who may be appropriate for consult interviews. The Combined Membership List is a good source of names and addresses of mathematicians who live in your vicinity and don't work in academics. Recently, I was asked to speak at the University of North Texas on the job opportunities in nonacademic mathematics. The Combined Membership List contains eleven companies in the greater Dallas area that have employees who belong to AMS, MAA, and/or SIAM. There are a total of 107 listed members who are not associated with a college or university. This would appear to be a rich source of possible contacts for consult interviews. Figure 1 gives an example of a consult letter. This should be tailored as much as possible by mentioning the company name, etc. In the follow up phone call, simply mention that you are following up on your letter and would like to know if it would be possible to schedule a 20 minute appointment to discuss the application of mathematics in that particular company. Prior to the consult interview, a substantial amount of preparation is required. In particular, one must know what sort of business the company is in and as much as possible about the individual who will be interviewed. Sometimes this can be accomplished by simply calling the company and asking for appropriate information. Other sources include the library, on-line newspapers, Hoover Handbook Company Profiles, trade magazines, etc. As a minimum, you should know what the company's main lines of business are. The interview itself should be conducted as an interview of an expert. The objective is to determine how mathematics is being used (or could be used) at that company. If, during the interview, opportunities arise to discuss possible part-time, internship, or summer work, then this is a golden opportunity. At the end of the interview, ask the individual if they can recommend anyone else who could provide information on mathematics in industry. Follow-up on those leads. Send a thank you letter within three days of the consult interview. Some diligent work with consult interviews should produce a much better idea of what is done in nonacademic mathematics plus some possible leads for summer or part-time jobs. FIGURE I SAMPLE CONSULT LETTER YOUR NAME (Typed on Letterhead) YOUR ADDRESS YOUR PHONE NUMBER ________________________________________________________________________ Name Title Company Address City, State, Zip Dear ___________, I am a (graduate student, undergraduate, ...) at (name of school) in mathematics and I am interested in learning more about the opportunities for mathematicians outside of academics. I obtained your name from the Combined Membership List which indicates that you are a member of (SIAM, AMS, MAA, as appropriate). I would like to ask for 20 minutes of your time to hear your views on the opportunities for mathematicians at an organization like (company name). In particular, I would like to discuss the kind of mathematical problems that your company faces. I would be glad to meet at your office at a mutually agreeable time. I will call in the next week to determine if we can arrange a time to meet. Sincerely, (Original Signature) Your Name Summary It is not an easy task to effectively investigate nonacademic mathematics. The skills required for this effort are not advanced skills, they are skills that are just not taught in academics. It also requires a serious commitment of time. At worse, the result of such an effort will be the realization that only academic mathematics are of interest. At best, the result would be a set of rich and challenging opportunities in mathematics in a nonacademic setting. ______________________________________________________________ Item #8 Curtis Bennett Repost of the Job Survey This is the fourth posting of the Job Survey. I am reposting it one more time because there are still people hearing about job placements. I hope to actually start compiling results sometime next month. I would like to do a survey on how subscribers to the YMN have done on the job market this year. This may give us an early idea as to how bad the market has been this year, although it will in no way be a scientific survey. If you could send me e-mail answering the following questions, I would appreciate it. I will try and tabulate results as soon as possible, but I don't expect to find the time very soon. Thanks, Curtis Bennett cbennet@andy.bgsu.edu 1. Did you apply for jobs this year? (If yes, please answer the rest of the questions.) 2. What is your field? 3. How many schools did you apply to? 4. How many industry/government positions did you apply to? 5. How many on-site interviews did you have? 6. How many offers did you receive? (if you received no offers, please skip to question 8). 7. If you received an offer, when was it made? 8. What kind of position is it? (grad student, 1-year, 2-year, part-time, tenure track, etc.) 9. What was your position for 1993-1994? (grad student, 1-year, 2-year, etc.) 10. Please include anything else you feel might be interesting. _______________________________________________________________ Item #9 Barbara Nostrand Comments on Job Situation I just read the most recent YMN newsletter and it reminded me of something which I have been thinking about for some time now. 1) I think that the AMS should try to be a bit more ethical about the job market than it currently is. About 20 years ago, there was a crises in the job market for Ph.D's in philosophy. At that time, the American Philosophical Association (if I recall the name correctly) wrote a letter going into at some length about how studying philosophy was intellectually rewarding, but that there were no jobs in the field and that even traditional secondary careers such as law were experiencing a tight market. (In colloquial terms, the letter said, "yes we encourage you to study philosophy, but if you can drive a cab don't let your license expire.") About a year ago, an article appeared in the American Scholar which addressed the systemic overproduction of Ph.D. physicists, I believe that a similar problem exists in mathematics and yes not only is this department talking about enlarging its Ph.D. program, but there was an advertisement in the most recent issue of Notices by a school which had just done so. Basically, I think that the American Mathematic Society should publically admit that THERE ARE NO JOBS AND THERE WILL BE NO JOBS in mathematics for a sizeable fraction of the people graduating with Ph.D.'s in mathematics. Such a letter should be written and distributed in a manner similar to that done by the American Philosophical Association some 20 odd years ago. (Not only was the letter posted in every department of philosophy in North America, but a copy was included with every application form for admission to graduate study.) 2) I rather like the coupon idea, but I think that a National Registry similar to that already employed by the medical profession should be instituted by the mathematical community. Basically, it combines the coupon idea and the vitae book idea. 3) One final note about Math-Macho. Mathematicians have certain ideas about macho all of which we have heard about. One is that everyone should be Galois. (Everyone should do brilliant work by the time that they are 19.) This youth cult especially effects women mathematicians. This is because a disproportionate number of women mathematicians have non-traditional academic histories. A few years ago I applied for an NSF Summer program. Later, the NSF sent me copies of the review forms. One form was very interesting. The reviewer actually wrote my birth date on the form and circled it. He later went on to consistently give me the lowest score (of all of the reviewers) in each of the categories. (OK. I am doing this from memory and I have not done a detailed analysis. But, his scores were conspicuously lower than were the ones produced by the other reviewers. However, I ran across the review forms a few weeks ago and the pattern jumped out at me then.) Barbara Nostrand York University (till August) Ex-Mathematician Oh yes, Oberwolfach was pretty much as posh as people say that it is. The chocolate closet is also very tempting. One thing which I was not warned about is that they sell books at Oberwolfach. If I had known that, then I would have brought my cheque book. (If I recall correctly, they do take cheques.) _______________________________________________________________ Item #10 Closing Credits The Young Mathematicians' Network is administered by: Charles Yeomans cyeomans@s.ms.uky.edu Mark Winstead winstead@euclid.ucsd.edu Vic Perera vperera@silver.ucs.indiana.edu Franklin Mendivil mendivil@math.gatech.edu Stephen Kennedy kennedy@stolaf.edu Neil Calkin calkin@math.gatech.edu Curtis Bennett cbennet@andy.bgsu.edu Jeff Adams adams@bright.uoregon.edu Edward Aboufadel aboufade@scus1.ctstateu.edu Frank Arlinghaus frank@math.ysu.edu Matt Hudelson hudelson@math.washington.edu _______________________________________________________________ End of Journal -- Next week: The Discussion Continues