*Concerns of Young Mathematicians* Volume 2, Issue 38 23 November, 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 Sottile sottile@math.toronto.edu , editor for the month of November. Next issue: Wednesday, 30 November. Editor for October: Frank Arlinghaus frank@math.ysu.edu Editor for November: Frank Sottile sottile@math.toronto.edu Editor for December: Steve Kennedy skennedy@mathcs.carleton.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. The views represented here do not necessarily represent those of the administrative board or membership of the Young Mathematicians Network. In fact it is their policy to have no policy, save perhaps the dissemination of information relevant to the concerns of young mathematicians. Table of Contents Item # Title ------ ----- 1 Editor's notes 2 Letters to the Editor 3 Results of the AMS election 4 Roommate Matching for San Francisco Franklin Mendivil 5 Some thoughts on the future of the Young Mathematicians Network Stathis Tompaidis 6 Revised JCEO cover sheet Diane Mack 7 Closing Credits _______________________________________________________________ Item #1 Editor's notes: This week we have a rather light fare, as I want to give the US members of the Network an easily digestible newsletter. Also, next week there will be a bit more dealing with jobs and job statistics, as I have been told that the first report of the AMS-IMS-MAA employment survey of new doctorates for last year's job hunt are out. This not only should yield some good copy, but perhaps my NOTICES will hit my mailbox here in the great white north (we are having our first snow flurries as I write) by next week. We begin with a couple of letters to the editors that should provide us with some much needed cheer. The AMS election results are in, and I've written a new item that summarizes the results. It was not the best result for young mathematicians. One of the administrators of the Network, Franklin Mendivil has volunteered to run a roommate matching service for the San Francisco meetings. The idea is that if you are going alone and would rather share the cost of accommodations with another young mathematician, then return the electronic form to Franklin as soon as possible. This could save you up to half your hotel bill, which, as young mathematicians, is probably priced a bit out of our range. (At least that was the case for me last year) We next have an article discussing some future directions for the young mathematicians network. I really hope this opens up the debate about where we are going and how we will get there. We need your ideas in San Francisco, and in the newsletter. I hope that all of you south of the border (and those celebrating US Thanksgiving) have a nice holiday, and I'll look for you next week, in these pages. LATE BREAKING NEWS: (Really!) Diane Mack has just sent in an announcement about a revised version of the JCEO cover sheet that all job applicants are requested to include with their applications. I have included the text of her e-mail message in item #6. Those of you who have yet to send in their applications, will want to heed this message -FS _______________________________________________________________ Item #2 Letters I congratulate Kevin Charlwood for his excellent article on Academic Downsizing which appeared in last week's Concerns of Young Mathematicians. I believe CoYM should contain more articles about coming changes in the academic profession. In particular, I think young mathematicians (especially beginning graduate students) should keep in mind that major changes may come in each of the two main areas of academic mathematics. First, there probably will be a major change in emphasis from pure mathematics research to applied mathematics research. (My thoughts in this area coincide much with those which Douglas Muder expressed in his letter to the editor of Notices AMS, May/June 1994 issue.) Second, there are major changes coming in the way we teach mathematics courses. (Please see the current issue of College Mathematics Journal, which is devoted to changes in the way we teach differential equations.) Dave Trautman The Citadel trautmand@citadel.edu ********************************************************************* I found the two pieces on the unemployment rates in this Week's CoYM very nicely done. Furthermore, you pointed out an anomaly in the way the Annual Survey has traditionally reported the unemployment rate, namely, we leave the "unemployed but not seeking" group in the denominator. I have confirmed that this is contrary to the standard way of reporting unemployment figures; by this I mean that it differs from the way NSF reports unemployment rates which follows Bureau of Labor Statistics guidelines. I will propose to the AMS-IMS-MAA Data Committee that we adopt the "correct" way of reporting the figures for all future reports. Fortunately, we can put in a table which reports prior year rates using the new formula probably back quite some time, so we won't lose any trend data. Jim Maxwell jmaxwell@nsf.gov _______________________________________________________________ Item #3 Unofficial Results of the AMS elections The AMS elections results are in, and I have decided to put in a short piece announcing the winners. All of the candidates have been notified, and there soon will be a report in the NOTICES. To begin, Gian-Carlo Rota was elected Vice President. Donald McClure was elected Trustee. Rhonda Hughes and Harold Stark were elected to the editorial board. For the Nominating Committee, Jerry Bona, Ingrid Daubechies, and Susan Williams were elected. For the council, David Epstein, James Hyman, Jerrold Mardsen, Cora Sadosky, and Alice Silverberg were elected. The editorial board of the Concerns of Young Mathematicians would like to congratulate all those who were just elected; we look forward to working with you in the future as we work to represent the viewpoints of young mathematicians. As you may be aware, two young mathematicians ran for positions on the AMS council. From the above results, you may infer that neither was elected. I feel this is unfortunate, as perhaps the best way to ensure that the concerns of young mathematicians continue to be understood and addressed by the wider mathematical community is for some young mathematicians to sit on the policy making boards of the AMS. Frank Sottile sottile@math.toronto.edu _______________________________________________________________ Item #4 Roommate Matching for San Francisco Since none of us has extra money lying around, we are going to run a roommate matching service for the San Francisco conference. If you want a roommate, fill out the form (below) and return it to me ASAP. I will compile the results and send the full list to everyone who responds. If all goes well, you should get the results in a couple of weeks (or so). There is no deadline. However, for best results you need to send it to me soon. I will not check my e-mail much during the winter break, so please try to respond by Dec 7. (sooner, if possible) Sorry this is so late. I was hoping that someone else would volunteer, but since no one did, here I am. Franklin Mendivil mendivil@math.gatech.edu ------------------- cut here and return ------------- Name: Sex: Arrival: Departure: Smoker: E-mail: Seeking Sex: Non-smoker only? Do you already have a room? If so, Rate: Other comments/requirements: _______________________________________________________________ Item #5 Some thoughts on the future of the Young Mathematicians Network I have been a subscriber of the Young Mathematicians Network (YMN) for over a year, and have recently been thinking about the situation of the network right now and what possible directions it could take in the future. My background is different from most of the subscribers (I assume),, in certain aspects. I finished my Ph.D. in physics in the University of Texas at Austin last August and currently work as a postdoc in a one year position in the University of Toronto (in the mathematics department). Since I work in a mathematics department I consider myself a "young mathematician". In this note I will try to put down my answers for two questions concerning the future of YMN. I hope that my opinions will provide ground for further discussion. (i) is there a need for YMN and if so what should be the long term vision that will guide it? (ii) what means of communication/activism should YMN use to achieve the goals of (i)? My answer to the first part of the first question is definitely yes!! (witnessed by all of us, the subscribers -- almost 1300). Recognizing the actual needs of the "young mathematicians" will provide the vision necessary to go forward. First of all a definition of the term "young mathematician" should be agreed upon (although not necessary). I think of "young mathematicians" as people working in mathematics, that are either graduate students or within 5 years of their Ph.D. -- an arbitrary distinction, yet the same one the National Science Foundation uses. I like the organization and the administration of the YMN so far. I think it should be kept in a volunteer basis, without a formal board. Yet there should be certain guidelines, maybe a statement of purpose, agreed upon by extended majority (maybe 75% ?) in order to avoid possible abuse in the future. My personal vision for YMN is an organized anarchy, "governed" by majority and respecting opposing views. A suggestion for the future: diversification. I would like for YMN to be more global, that is include and solicit articles from people in countries (and continents) other than the USA (and North America). The job market is global anyway. To answer the second question, I propose we move in new directions. The information highway is opening up possibilities. Alternative media are becoming more and more available. Magazines (called e-zines) are already in the web (check out http://www.interlog.com:80/eye/ for a weekly, free newspaper in Toronto). I think the YMN should explore the possibility of appearing in alternative formats as well as e-mail. The opportunities include the use of pictures, speech and even interactive symbolic algebra worksheets in the newsletter. A hypertext home page for the YMN could serve as a pointer to databases of interest, such as the database of the American Mathematical Society (http://e-math.ams.org/web/index.html) and home pages of several mathematics departments in many countries. Also it could serve as an archive and an index for previous articles, newsletters and items of interest (e.g. statistics on Ph.D. production). An effort should be made not to cut off people in places with minimal access, so a parallel version of the newsletter would still be a good idea. Ideas similar to the above are already being discussed in the general mathematical community (check out the information on the upcoming conference on "The Future of Mathematical Communication" to be held in MSRI November 30 to December 3, http://msri.org/fmc/fmc.html). Another idea for the near future is to move the discussion into a different forum. In recent newsletters it was pointed out that it takes 2 weeks between responses in an issue raised, something that has made the discussion somewhat superficial. I believe that there is an easy solution to this. I think that the creation of a newsgroup and/or a mailing list (for people that do not have access to newsgroups) would solve the problem. I would propose the creation of a newsgroup called soc.culture.ymn without a moderator. The absence of a moderator has the occasional disadvantage of a completely inappropriate posting but allows the model that I myself favor, the electronic democracy (those of you in the US might remember Perot in the last presidential elections). Decisions for action could be reached by consensus and I think even voting on a particular issue would not be that hard to arrange. The organization or structure of such a newsgroup can be decided by discussion. Just my two cents. Stathis Tompaidis stathis@math.toronto.edu _______________________________________________________________ Item #6 Improved Cover Sheet [This is a summary of a message that Diane Mack cc'ed to Charles Yeomans concerning the JCEO application cover sheet] I wanted to alert all of you to the recent changes in the form; I'm sure they will make all parties more comfortable with it: 1. OMIT: Country of Citizenship: OMIT: If not U.S. citizen, type of visa: -- Permanent Resident -- Temporary Resident 2. REPLACE: Ph.D.received/expected: month year WITH: If the Ph.D. is not presently held, date on which you expect to receive the Ph.D. ______________ I should alert you to the fact that not only will these changes be made in the form when it appears in the January Notices, but the form will have a slightly different look, because all material which appears in Notices has been redesigned for the "new", more informative, readable Notices, which begins in January. Of course, the form will also be changed soon on e-math. For those who are wondering, our advice is to use the revised form. Thanks Diane Mack ______________________________________________________________ Item #7 Closing Credits The Young Mathematicians' Network is administered by: Charles Yeomans cyeomans@s.ms.uky.edu Mark Winstead mwwinst@gcr.com Emil Volcheck Emil.Volcheck@risc.uni-linz.ac.at 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 address change pending Neil Calkin calkin@math.gatech.edu Wendy Brunzie brunzie@turing.ucdavis.edu Curtis Bennett cbennet@andy.bgsu.edu Frank Arlinghaus frank@math.ysu.edu Edward Aboufadel aboufade@scus1.ctstateu.edu _______________________________________________________________ End of Journal -- Next week: The Discussion Continues