*Concerns of Young Mathematicians* Volume 2, Issue 32 October 12, 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 Frank Arlinghaus frank@math.ysu.edu , editor for the month of October. Next issue: Wednesday, October 19. Editor for September: Bob Dobrow dobrow@cam.nist.gov Editor for October: Frank Arlinghaus frank@math.ysu.edu Editor for November: Frank Sottile sottile@math.toronto.edu 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 News and Notes AMS Ballots 3 NSF: Criticisms of the Postdoctoral Application Process David Cruz-Uribe 4 Getting Involved- Part I: The AMS Mark Winstead 5 Where are the Internships? A Reader Asks for Help Daniel Kern 6 Closing Credits _______________________________________________________________ Item #1 Editor's notes: After last week's long issue, our readers have a light week. Next week, things look to be busy once again as I hope to present you with the results of our AMS candidates survey. Since candidates had until Monday to respond, it was impossible to prepare this for this week's issue. Our issue this week is limited to some news items, an exhortation to participate in the math societies, and a reader's question. With regard to the internship question, I would like to ask everyone to submit their responses to me for inclusion in a future (October 26, I hope) newsletter. For those of you waiting for the AMS Notices to register for the San Francisco meeting, reports are that it's been in the mail for several days. Look for the YMN Town Meeting if you're there. Good luck with your work, and especially with the job hunt. _______________________________________________________________ Item #2 News and Notes 1) AMS Replacement Ballots The following excerpt is reprinted from the September 1994 issue of the *Notices of the AMS*, page 750. There has been a small but recurring and distressing problem con- cerning members who state that they have not received ballots in the annual election. It occurs for several reasons, including failure of local delivery systems on university or coporate properties, fail- ure of members to give timely notice of changes of address to the Providence office, failures of postal services, and other human errors. To help alleviate this problem, the following replacement pro- cedure has been devised: A member who has not received a ballot by October 10, 1994, or who has received a ballot but has accidentally spoiled it, may write after that date to the Secretary of the AMS, Post Office Box 6248, Providence, RI 02940, asking for a second ballot. The request should include the individual's member cde and the address to which the replacement ballot should be sent. Immediately upon receipt oG?Gxx/f the request in the Providence office, a second ballot, which will be indistinguishable from the original, will be sent by first class or air Cmail. It must be returned in an inner envelope, which will be supplied, on the outside of which is the following statement to be signed by the member: The ballot in this envelope is the only ballot that I am submitting in this election. I understand that if this statement is not correct then no ballot of mine will be counted. -------------------------(signature)----------------------- Although a second ballot will be supplied upon request and will be sent by first class or air mail, the deadline for receipt of ballots will not be extended to accommodate these special cases. 2) Candidate Staements to appear next issue. _______________________________________________________________ Item #3 The NSF: A Reader Criticizes the Postdoctoral Process I recently had a short meeting with Dr. Fred Wan, from the NSF Division of Mathematical Sciences. I thought that our conversation would be of interest to readers of the YMN. I had gotten a note from my department head saying that Dr. Wan wanted to meet with junior faculty and discuss our concerns. Serendipitiously, I was knee-deep in NSF paperwork (NSF postdoctoral fellowship and a summer support application). I chose to spend our time talking about some drawbacks in the postdoctoral application process. First, I complained about the deadline, which this year is October 17. I pointed out that for people in their last year of graduate school, this means that a research proposal must be written by early to mid-September (since a copy has to go to all the people writing letters of recommendation). This is very difficult, since (in my experience and the experience of my friends) your thesis is usually only roughed out at this point, and what lies beyond your thesis is often completely unknown. I recently reread the research proposal I wrote two years ago, and it bears no resemblance to the research projects I embarked on once I had written the final draft of my thesis. While I had the basic results in my thesis done when I wrote it, I had not digested them or seriously considered their implications. Second, I complained that the notification process is inadequate. I did not get one when I applied two years ago, but even in *late* March, the NSF refused to tell me this fact. A firm "no", or even, "you are X on the waiting list", would be much better than nothing at all. Third, I complained that the application process contained no feedback on the research proposal. Unlike last year's summer support application, which came with four pages of referee's comments, many of them constructive, I got no comments on my postdoc proposal. This seems counter-productive, since junior mathematicians would especially benefit from constructive criticism of their proposals. Dr. Wan was quite surprised by this. Each proposal which is reviewed is returned to the NSF with a detailed review, usually about a page long. He sees them, and he was surprised that they were not sent out. Overall, Dr. Wan seemed receptive to my complaints and promised to look into them. David Cruz-Uribe, SFO Purdue University cruz@math.purdue.edu _____________________________________________________________ Item #4 GETTING INVOLVED-Part I of a hopefully recurring series *********************************************************** Introduction and Getting Involved with the American Mathematical Society -INTRODUCTION TO THE SERIES Since a few of my accomplices and myself started YMN in the summer of 1993, I have heard numerous comments about how the AMS (or MAA or SIAM) doesn't seem to care, or only seems to listen to senior mathematicians, or otherwise is unresponsive to the wishes or needs of junior mathematicians. Those who comment are thankful for YMN. Interestingly, I have heard just about as many comments from "insiders" grateful to see junior mathematicians getting involved and making their viewpoints known. This latter group usually consists of more seasoned mathematicians who realize that threats that face junior mathematicians put the whole of mathematics at risk, thus it is in the best interest of a subject they love to help junior mathematicians. This group also wishes to see junior mathematicians more involved. Both of these sets of comments help me realize that there is a bit of a communications gap. Junior mathematicians don't realize how easy it can be to get involved (boy, I found out!) and seasoned mathematical "insiders" don't realize that junior mathematicians don't know how to get involved, other than to "whine" in the pages of *Concerns*. I would like to outline for you a handful of ways that you can get involved. I refer to this article as Part One, simply because it is incomplete. In particular, I am focusing this article on the AMS. I may write followups to it to specify other ways to get involved, both with the AMS and with MAA, SIAM, AWM, YMN, and any I may be missing, and I certainly welcome/beg others to contribute to this series. -GETTING INVOLVED WITH THE AMERICAN MATHEMATICAL SOCIETY * SUGGEST CANDIDATES The election materials in the September *Notices of the AMS* is a call for suggestions for 1995 nominations for office. One way to influence AMS policy and actions is to participate in this opportunity. Send in your suggestions of good candidates for the offices of Vice- President, Members-at-Large of the Council (up to five) and Member of the Board of Trustees to AMS Nominating Committee P.O. Box 6248 Providence, RI 02940 There is a form for this on page 750 of the Sept issue of the Notices. Please note that suggestions are requested to be sent by November 10th. ** FAMILIARIZE YOURSELF WITH THE NOMINATING COMMITTEE Also in the September Notices on pages 856-868 is a list of AMS officers and committee members. In particular, on page 857 is a list of members of the Nominating Committee. If you happen to know one of these people, take the time to tell them about the kinds of candidates you would like to see nominated. If you don't know anyone on the Nominating Committee, you still influence them by getting their e-mail addresses from the Combined Memberships Listings (CML) by telnetting to e-math.ams.org 2050 . *** FAMILIARIZE YOURSELF WITH THE MEMBERS OF THE COUNCIL AND AMS COMMITTEES The Council is required by the AMS bylaws to approve the Nominating Committee's choices, so you may want to have similarly discussions as mentioned in (**) with anyone you know personally from that list, as well as the winners of this fall's elections. Similarly, if you don't know anyone from the list from the Sept issue of the Notices, you can get e-mail addresses from the CML. You may also wish to discuss issues with Council members, and certain issues you may wish to discuss with members of appropriate committees. Again see the Sept issue of the Notices the list of Council members names and lists of committees and their memberships. Learn who in your department is on the Council or any committees, occcasionally ask them about issues facing their committee(s), and offer an opinion. **** USE THE PETITION OPTION FOR PLACEMENT ON THE BALLOT Another way to get people on the ballot for next fall is by petition. If memory serves (I don't seem to have either the bylaws or the correct old issue of the Notices at my finger tips), for offices other than positions on the Nominating Committee, it takes is 50 verifable signatures to get on the ballot. For the Nominating Committee, it takes 100 verifable signatures. In an upcoming issue of the Notices, there will be a form for use in obtaining signatures. If you wish to get someone on the ballot by petition, I would suggest you or an accomplice go to the winter meetings and place your petition in the place(s) made available for such things. Before that, you may wish to post an announcement about the existence of your petition here in CYM and/or on sci.math. (Ben Lotto used the petition method to get himself on the ballot for this fall. Perhaps he would be willing to write about his experiences and correct any errors I have made.) ***** VOTE Enough said. Addendum: I realized another thing that one could do that I should have included in the section on familiarizing oneself with committee memberships. If you know someone on a commmittee, you may wish to occasionally point out relevant articles in periodicals. In the case of electronic periodicals, such as *Concerns*, you can clip the articles and send your clippings by e-mail to the committee member(s) you know. Even if they subscribe, they may not have the time to do more than skim the periodical and could have missed an important article. Mark W. Winstead mwwinst@gcr.com _______________________________________________________________ Item #5 Where are the Internships? I am currently in the year of my Ph.D. program in applied mathematics, having gotten my master's elsewhere. Like many of my fellow classmates, I am split between staying in academia and going into either the private sector or the federal government. The problem is this: I have a varied experience teaching, including being an instructor for several different classes, but I have had no experience doing mathematics outside of a university setting. So far, faculty members that I h ave talked to have given me a limited number of contacts and places to apply for summer jobs/internships. I have done research on my own, but very few places seem interested in hiring a graduate student for the summer. Does anyone have any ideas about where to look or who to talk to? Thanks. Daniel Kern Unviersity of Illinois at Chicago U60054@uicvm.cc.uic.edu Note: The editor did an internship in the Math Dept. of General Motors Research several years ago. I would like to compile information on this topic, and ask the readers to send in information on internships and their experiences. Hopefully, this can be included in the last issue in October. Send your responses to: frank@math.ysu.edu ________________________________________________________________ Item #6 Closing Credits The Young Mathematicians' Network is administered by: Charles Yeomans cyeomans@s.ms.uky.edu Mark Winstead mwwinst@gcr.com Frank Sottile sottile@math.toronto.edu Vic Perera vperera@silver.ucs.indiana.edu Franklin Mendivil mendivil@math.gatech.edu Kevin Madigan madigan@math.nwu.edu Steve Kennedy skennedy@mathcs.carleton.edu Matt Hudelson hudelson@math.washington.edu Bob Dobrow dobrow@cam.nist.gov Lyle Cochran 74443.3055@compuserve.com Neil Calkin calkin@math.gatech.edu Wendy Brunzie brunzie@mathfs.math.montana.edu Curtis Bennett cbennet@andy.bgsu.edu Frank Arlinghaus frank@math.ysu.edu Jeff Adams adams@bright.uoregon.edu Edward Aboufadel aboufade@scus1.ctstateu.edu _______________________________________________________________ End of Journal -- Next week: The Discussion Continues