*Concerns of Young Mathematicians* Volume 3, Issue 9 Mar. 8, 1995 An electronically distributed digest for discussions of the issues of concern to mathematicians at the beginning of their careers. Please, direct submissions and questions to Wendy Brunzie brunzie@math.montana.edu , editor for the month of March. Next issue: Wednesday, 22 March, 1995. February Editor: Nancy Wilson nwilson@stmarys-ca.edu March Editor: Wendy Brunzie brunzie@math.montana.edu April Editor: Kevin Madigan madigan@math.nwu.edu To subscribe: Contact Charles Yeomans at cyeomans@ms.uky.edu Back issues and other information are available via anonymous FTP to ftp.ms.uky.edu, in pub3/mailing.lists/ymn-list. Or connect to the YMN homepage on the WWW, the URL: http://math34.gatech.edu:8080/YMN/ymn.html The views expressed here do not necessarily represent those of the administrative board or membership of the Young Mathematicians' Network. The editorial policy of this newsletter is to encourage discussion of issues, and facilitate the dissemination of information, relevant to the concerns of young mathematicians. Table of Contents Item # Title ------ ----- 1 Editor's notes 2 LetterZ! to the Editor 3 Cheap Housing for the Chicago Meetings. 4 More Cheap Housing. 5 "The Good Old Days." 6 Project Next on "Keeping Your Research Alive." 7 Happy Trails! 8 Closing Credits _______________________________________________________________ Item #1 Editor's notes: "OOMPH!" That was the sound of this week's Concerns landing in your mail box. It's got a lot of Letters to the Editor and a really, really big entry from Project Next. Two weeks from now, you will see more articles on how to go about getting a job in industry, from some folks who are already there. And how is everyone doing in the job market this year? If any of you are compiling statistics on your schools, perhaps you'd like to share them with us (anonymously, if you like). Information can help people make it through some pretty hard times coming up. Cheers! - Wendy Brunzie Editor of the Month brunzie@math.montana.edu _______________________________________________________________ Item #2 Letters to the Editor Wendy, I'd like to comment on a statement that I found in the March 1st issue of the "Concerns". The passage was: "When I got the invitation to interview at a small(!!!) liberal arts college, I came to the realization that they just might offer me the job. Then I would be faced with the choice of effectively ending any research career I might have, or turning down the (possibly) only job offer I might get." While the article that this came from was about a different topic, I think this raises some issues that are important to young mathematicians as they embark on a career. To begin with, I do not believe that having a position at a "small liberal arts college" is incompatible with a research career. Clearly, an early decision to accept a position at such an institution will affect the amount of time available for research: teaching, advising, administrative, and other commitments will be heavier than at a "research" institution. On the other hand, there are many mathematicians doing very good work out of small liberal arts colleges. In some ways, there are more opportunities at a liberal arts college. In my own case for example, I have been able to be involved in a group doing on-going research on the auto-immune disease lupus. This group includes a chemist, physicist and computer scientist at my institution, and a member of the medical school at a nearby research institution. At the same time, I have continued to work (and even occasionally publish) in my main research interest (free boundary problems), along with being able to branch out into other fields that I found interesting. (Admittedly, my proximity to a research institution is very helpful.) One reason I have been able to do this is a decreased institutional pressure to have a "research career" as traditionally defined. The pressure that does exist here is more general: the expectation that each faculty member be a "scholar" in some sense. While research (and publishing) are important, the emphasis here is much broader. There has already been some discussion in this forum about how mathematicians have narrowly defined what their careers should be, particularly as researchers. A quick perusal of the current journals of the nearest mathematics library or, better yet, the current journals in some other field, might quickly put research in some perspective. It might help this discussion if each of us consider the role we all play as "scholars" in general, and not simply as "mathematical researchers". Art Guetter Chair, Dept of Mathematics Hamline University St Paul, MN 55104 aguetter@piper.hamline.edu http://www.hamline.edu/~aguetter/ ************************************************************** [ This letter to the editor included (complete!)articles from the SIAM gopher about mathematicians employed in industry. Rather than reproduce them here, I will list their title pages so that if you are interested in the paper, you can find it easily at the SIAM gopher. - Ed.] Wendy I assume you may already know of these sources, but I'll supply them anyway just in case you don't. I recall seeing one or two articles in the last 2-3 years of the Notices on the issue on of getting a job in industry. There are also a couple of reports on the SIAM gopher (under "reports") about mathematicians employed in industry that are useful. I have some copies which I'll send. -- Yours truly, Allen Broughton, Professor and Head Department of Mathematics Rose-Hulman Institute of Technology Terre Haute, IN 47803 email: Allen.Broughton@Rose-Hulman.EDU 1. "Some Views of Mathematics in Industry ---- MATHEMATICS IN INDUSTRY - A SIAM PROJECT REPORT 1: SOME VIEWS OF MATHEMATICS IN INDUSTRY Society for Industrial and Applied Mathematics 3600 University City Science Center Philadelphia, PA 19104-2688 Prepared by Paul Davis Mathematical Sciences Department Worcester Polytechnic Institute Worcester, MA 01609 " 2." 1994 SIAM Forum Final Report ===================================================================== 1994 SIAM Forum Final Report Mathematics in Industry - the Job Market of the Future Paul Davis, December 10, 1994." [This last report has some good quotes, which I include here. - Ed.] " The list of fundamental steps to an industrial job is short: network, educate yourself about your potential employer, and display the right attitudes and skills. Acquire co-op or other industrial experiences if you can." " "Don't write, 'I work in right semi-quavers. What kind of jobs do you have?' And wear a tie if you visit. You will visit at least one upper level manager." "Several sets of statistics from the MII survey of recent graduates working in industry confirm the importance of computing. Nearly 80% of the doctoral graduates indicated that computing was "essential" or "very important" to the work of their group; more than 50% of the masters graduates responded similarly. The doctoral graduates spend on average almost 45% of their time computing; masters graduates spend about 30% of their time." "Deborah Lockhart of the National Science Foundation described three programs to enhance university-industry collaboration. These are Mathematical Sciences University- Industry Postdoctoral Research Fellowships, Mathematical Sciences University-Industry Senior Research Fellowships, and Industry-Based Graduate Research Assistantships and Cooperative Fellowships in the Mathematical Sciences. They are described in the program announcement "University-Industry Cooperative Research Programs in the Mathematical Sciences," NSF announcement number NSF94-100. Instructions for retrieving an electronic copy of this announcement can be obtained by sending the message get index to stisserv@nsf.gov." *************************************************** More letters to the editor... "Dr. Brunzie, What is your source of information for your statement: "... high-tech industries are having a hard time finding genuinely intelligent, hard-working people to hire?" It has a MYTH-like ring to it. I have worked in industry for five years and would have to disagree with it based upon my experience. Regarding your question about retooling, I have the following comments: 1) Learn as much about programming as possible. Most jobs require programming skills in some popular language; C/C++, Small Talk, or Fortran. A knowledge of data structures and data bases is a big help in the job market. 2) Industry often equates Statistics with Mathematics. A great deal of industrial jobs involve knowledge of statistical techniques. Unfortunately, Statistics is often a separate academic department and most mathematicians have only a limited exposure to it. 3) Being able to work within a team structure is a MUST. Most academic mathematicians do not work in a team setting. Being able to acquire this skill is more of a function of a person's personality than of anything else. One final comment. It deeply concerns me that mathematicians are viewing industry as the court of last resort. A mathematician should look for employment in industry only if *they are genuinly interested* in that type of work. A person who is not interested in their job and work rather be working on C* algebras, cohomology theory, etc. can only damage the perception of the usefulness of mathematicians in industry. Scott Zasadil zasadil@ismap2.nrl.navy.mil" ___________________________________________________________ [Editor's comment: See the February 28th edition of the San Jose Mercury for some of my information. It's at http://www.sjmercury.com/main.htm ] ************************************************************** [From Richard Kent, at GDE Systems, Inc., I received this e-mail message:] " From brunzie@math.montana.edu : The thought may soon cross your mind that perhaps you should be looking elsewhere for gainful employment. Statistically speaking, you would be wise to do so. There are at least a thousand un- (or under-) employed Ph.D.'s out there, all mathematicians or physicists, highly skilled, well-trained,... without any job security. Wendy: That reminds me of a [sad] joke I saw not too long ago. A geophysicist with a Master's degree goes into Burger King to apply for a job. The manager asks "What is your education?" "Well,... I have a Master's degree in geophysics." "Hmph. All of our geophysicists have Ph.D.s" - Rick. rkent@gdesystems.com ______________________________________________________________ Item #3 Cheap Housing for Chicago AMS Meeting I have been asked to help people find cheap accommodations for the AMS meetings in Chicago Mar 24 and 25. The meetings are in the heart of downtown Chicago (which makes driving to them a pain) and the AMS got some good hotels at good rates. Therefore, its been hard for me to come up with something cheaper which isn't too far from the meetings. Here is what I came up with. There are plenty of cheaper motels and motor inns along the rim of the city, just off the interstates. Lots of the highways in Chicago will take you right into downtown. However, being a major city, rush hour can be nasty. Also, the parking lots downtown tend to fill up fast and can be ridiculously expensive. The AMS says you can park at Grant Park south parking for $7 a day. You can bet that lot will fill up quick, so if you plan to use it, get there early. You also want to make sure you aren't staying too far away from the meetings, so if you call one of these places (and I am leaving it to you to figure out who to call) ask them how long it will take to get to "the loop" in rush hour traffic. Another possibility if you are driving is to stay at a cheap motel and drive to the nearest El stop. The "el" is the local train system (elevated train=el). There is an el stop at the corner of State and Jackson, which is where the meetings are being held, so this option may work out very nicely for many of you. Another train possibility is metra, which is more expensive and requires you to walk a few extra blocks to get to the meetings. However, the metra runs much further outside the city and makes fewer stops inside the city. Contact me if you have made or are thinking of making arrangements to stay somewhere far from the meetings and want to know if you could take the el or metra. I have been able to find reasonable accommodations in Evanston, across the street from Northwestern University. The rate is $40 a night. The place is an episcopal seminary called Seabury Western, and what you get for your $40 is a dormitory suite style room. You would have a private room, sharing a bathroom with your neighbor. No phone in the room, but pay-phones in the halls. The catch is that you have to get there between 9am and 5pm (central time) to check in. If you want to stay at Seabury Western, call Stephanie Denson at (708) 328-9300 between 9am and 5pm central time. Tell her you're going to the math meetings in Chicago and mention my name. (They don't rent rooms out to just anyone, so she may a bit hesitant if you don't tell her this.) The train in from Evanston to the meeting site will be 30-45 minutes depending on the time of day. E-mail me for detailed instructions. Do not hesitate to e-mail me if you have any questions or want more information. I would be happy to help. Kevin Madigan madigan@math.nwu.edu ______________________________________________________________ Item #4 More Cheap Housing I found cheap housing for the Chicago AMS meeting (March 23-25) at a youth hostel in Hyde Park on the University of Chicago campus. It is the "International House of Chicago," located at 1418 East 59th Street, which is not within walking distance of DePaul University unless you're up to about an 18 kilometer walk each way. But if you are a youth hostel member, a bed costs $18/night and if you're not, it costs $31/night. The phone number is 312-753-2270. I do not know about public transportation to the meeting from here but I am probably going to have a car myself and could provide some transportation. You can get to the hostel via public transportation from the Chicago O'Hare airport. Elizabeth Housworth eah@math.uoregon.edu _______________________________________________________________ Item #5 "The Good Old Days" Charles Mannix' musings about the past a few weeks ago in CoYM came to mind when I recently came across a book in a used book barn here in Connecticut. The book has the simple title, "Mathematics", and it is part of the Life (as in Life Magazine) Science Library from 1963. Yes, 1963. The author is David Bergamini. I bought the book for $1. Pages 56-57 of the book have the headline, "Mathematicians as Public Servants and Missionaries", and these pages have some text, along with pictures of David Blackwell, John Tukey, and John Kemeny. In this article, I have included three excerpts. The first describes that stereotype of scientists (or is it reality?) that we continue to live with today. "The men shown on these pages are exceptions to the general rule that creative mathematicians are rarely public-spirited. Most scientists in their field feel that anything that takes them away from their desks and quiet offices interrupts their principal task, which is the creation of mathematics. Group research bores them, forums repel them, politics horrifies them and even teaching often annoys them." There was a letter to the editor in the recent Notices that seemed to echo this sentiment. The other excerpts concern the job market of the 1960's. This one concerns the late John Kemeny of Dartmouth. YMNers, can you imagine a world like this? "He [Kemeny] is greatly concerned because industry is draining away many of the bright new Ph.D.'s in mathematics and the shortage of good teachers is likely to persist. So he travels restlessly up and down the land, scouting the high schools like a football coach, looking for good mathematics recruits." Finally, we have a description of the restructuring of teaching and research loads that occured during the 1950's and 1960's. Also notice the use of the word "men" here rather than "people". "Ironically, just as the demand for more teachers is mounting, the colleges and universities have been trying to free men for research by reducing teaching loads. Old schedules of 12 or 14 hours of teaching weekly have been cut to nine and even six hours. Thus one of the most critical problems in mathematics today is how to train more students in the fewer hours of teaching time now available." My goodness! Industry competing with academia for bright young Ph.D's -- daring to have professors teach only six hours per week -- demand for teachers was mounting -- what a brave new world it was! This is obviously a different era. Although they argue about this in Washington, it is clear that in the community of mathematics, the 1960's are over. Edward Aboufadel Southern Connecticut State University _______________________________________________________________ Item #6 "Keeping Your Research Alive": a Clip-and-Tex Item. This is an article on professional development from the folks at Project Next, summarizing their panel discussion at the San Francisco meetings on issues of professional development. It's all Tex-ed up and ready to go! ******************************************************************* \begin{document} \title{Keeping Your Research Alive} \author {Julian Fleron \and Paul~D.~Humke \and Lew Lefton \and Terri Lindquester \and Margaret Murray } \date{January 9, 1995} \maketitle \begin{abstract} The {\it Project NExT} program garnered a good deal of attention and generated several lively discussions at the Summer Meeting in Minneapolis. It was in one of those discussions that Paul, Julian and Mark\footnote{ Julian Fleron, Mark Johnson (NExT Fellows) and Paul Humke (Bystander)} noted how important each felt it was to keep ones research work active and how difficult that appeared to be. Humke volunteered to lead a panel discussion at the winter meetings on the present topic. The group of panelists he assembled framed a lively, exciting and entertaining discussion at San Francisco. The present paper is an edited record of the panel presentations followed by a summary of the discussion that followed. \end{abstract} \stepcounter{footnote} \section{Introduction$^2$} \footnotetext{By Humke} It feels good to discuss a topic which I have thought a great deal about and for which I have a great affection for. As if it were yesterday (now almost twenty--five years ago!) I remember the transition from graduate student to faculty member, the stunning new demands on my time, the responsibility for curricular matters I'd never thought about, the energy level necessary to do my job. The foremost question I had about my {\it professional career} was whether I would even have one! And I wanted one!! Before introducing the panelists I'll give a definition (for local use only) and make three observations. \begin{itemize} \item By {\it professional career} I mean my niche within the community of professional mathematicians. Specifically I'd like to put a bit of distance between what we're discussing today and my role as classroom teacher. For the record, I believe that classroom teaching is very professional and very important, I love it. But today's discussion is focused on the role of a mathematician outside the classroom. During my first few years this meant my niche within the community of research real analysts and it still has that meaning for me. But my niche has grown to mean much more, and I'll discuss that growth in my remarks below, \ref{pp}. \item For me, teaching and research are very different worlds. Different types of demands, different needs, different environments, and indeed different colleagues. And I live in both worlds, I have great enthusiasm for both worlds and I think that this situation is ``OK''. So in my St.~Olaf way, that is my first point. \begin{center} Live in two worlds, but be of one spirit. \end{center} \item At one of the recent NSF presentations, the moderator issued the ``fact'' that to be effective, a department of mathematics needn't have {\it teacher--scholars}, but merely have some teachers and some scholars. Don't believe it! My own opinion is that \begin{center} the {\it teacher--scholar} model is far more dynamic and effective. \end{center} And this is because by living in two worlds you become the link between the excitement of cutting edge mathematics and your students. It is through you that mathematics comes alive, not just the mathematics of one-hundred years ago but the mathematics of today and the mathematics of the future. And it is precisely because you embody that link between past and future mathematics that your students can see themselves becoming part of the mathematical enterprise. This is one reason why a lively professional career is important. (It can also help with getting tenure!) \item My last point is that \begin{center} the program I've outlined above is manifestly impossible to attain! \end{center} But you can make a good approximation and have a great deal of fun doing it. Set yourself some high goals, but be tolerant of yourself and most important, have a good time with what you do. \end{itemize} Today's panel consists of a variety of mathematicians from a variety of schools. The common denominator is that everyone of these folks takes their teaching and their professional work very seriously. (They also take themselves not seriously at all!) They are \begin{itemize} \item[] Margaret Murray, Virginia Tech \item[] Lew Lefton, University of New Orleans \item[] Terri Lindquester, Rhodes College \item[] Paul Humke, St. Olaf College \end{itemize} Lew and Terri are both Associate Professors, just beyond the tenure/promotion juncture in their careers while Marge and Paul are, well, more experienced? Julian Fleron, Westfield State College, will attempt to record the question-- answer--comment period to follow the presentations. \section{Lew's Liftoff} There are several good reasons for keeping your research program alive. An obvious one, for those who are fortunate enough to be on the tenure track, is to assure a sufficient publication record to be granted tenure at your institution. Of course, if you are not in a tenure track position, you should have just as much if not more incentive for working on your research. After all, you want to remain a strong candidate for when you are back in the job market. Even if your duties and interests are primarily in the teaching of mathematics, there are still compelling reasons for continuing to remain active in research. It's important for our students to realize that mathematics research is a current and ongoing activity! As working mathematicians, we have a responsibility to communicate the vibrancy of our subject. You may know that new results and ideas are being discovered every day, but do your students? Finally, there is also the general benefit that research, like any other mental exercise, helps keep your mind sharp. Of course, since it's safe to assume that you are reading this article, you probably don't need convincing that research is important. The question is not ``why'' but ``how''. I can't offer a definitive answer here, only some suggestions. \begin{itemize} \item Keep in touch with the experts in your area of interest. This may mean simply writing a letter or email to ask for relevant preprints. You have to get your name out there. Go to conferences and present your work. I recommend the smaller regional research conferences as opposed to the large annual meetings. Not that the annual meetings are bad, in fact, if there's a special session in your area it can be quite productive. But smaller conferences often have fewer distractions and more opportunities to interact with people who have similar interests. Even if you don't know anyone, go to listen and ask questions and learn. Once you attend a few such conferences, you will start to see several familiar faces and you will have begun the important task of establishing professional contacts in your area. (Remember, you will need references for upcoming tenure and promotion reviews and any future job hunts, and you can only rely on your graduate school faculty for so long!) Don't be intimidated, most active research groups are happy to welcome new people and they may well suggest some interesting open questions for you to work on. \item Work within your own institution. Ask your colloquium committee chair to invite someone in your area. Start a seminar, you only need two or three people with common interests. Don't let that feeling of isolation defeat you. Even if you're at the University of the Moon and you need to get together with colleagues at the Asteroid Belt Community College, make time to do it. It's worth it in the long run. \item Make your research a priority. Set aside particular times of the week and find a quiet place to go where you'll be free from interruptions. This is really important, but it can be very hard to do. I don't want to turn this into a piece on routine time management techniques so I'll cop out by saying consult your local library for general help with the basics. % Humke added Also, Terri will give several specific suggestions about time management for academic mathematicians in her presentation. % end Humke added One thing to do if you're having trouble managing your time is to say ``no'' when you are asked to do additional time consuming projects. There are many worthwhile projects but you can only do one thing at a time. In the early years of your career, you need to establish a research record. If saying ``no'' isn't an option, try to negotiate some release time from your teaching so that your research doesn't suffer by default. \end{itemize} The main thing to remember is to maintain a high level of professionalism in all of your projects, whether research, teaching or other professional activities. This translates roughly to ``Do a good job, and make your mama and papa proud.'' If you consistently do good work, then you will gain respect among your peers no matter what direction you pursue in this rapidly changing profession of ours. \section{Marge's Musings} I received my Ph.D. from Yale in 1983, and came out onto one of the best job markets in mathematics in the past twenty-five years, so it is with some trepidation that I offer advice on how get your own careers going and keep them afloat. Let me offer a few caveats: first, the job market was good when I finished my degree, but it hadn't been so good just a few years before, so mentally I had prepared myself for the worst. Second, although I had a number of job offers to choose from, I somewhat deliberately chose a job situation for myself that offered some of the same challenges that you are facing in your careers right now. I chose to go to Virginia Tech, a university somewhat off the beaten track, where I would be the only person working in my area of research. As I have always taken a somewhat iconoclastic approach to my life and work, the projects I decided to pursue were somewhat at odds with what was expected of me. For example, as an untenured faculty member I decided to begin work on a book project. In hindsight I am very glad that I did this, but the rewards of this sort of project were not immediately evident. In a profession that puts a premium on timeliness, choosing to do this was definitely a risk that put my career on the line. I recognized that my mathematical survival depended on making others aware of my work. I attended as many conferences, and volunteered to give as many talks, as I could possibly manage. I applied early and often for NSF grant support, and it was my great good fortune to be successful in landing grants. The result of these efforts is that I was able to communicate on a regular basis with other mathematicians about the long-term project I had undertaken, and I was able to convince a good many people of its significance. The moral of the story: choose your projects with courage, and make every effort to advertise and promote your work. All that is in my past. As for the present --- yours and mine --- let me say that these are very confusing and tumultuous times for the entire mathematical community. The working environment for *all* mathematicians, young and old, is up for grabs, as the community is in the process of redefining itself. This is a time of trouble, but also of opportunity. Though the mathematical community has historically been rather rigid, this is a time of unprecedented freedom to undertake whatever sort of meaningful scholarly work in mathematics that captures your interest. Your greatest assets are creativity, flexibility, adaptability, and the willingness to take an off-center approach. Whatever you decide to undertake, the most important thing is to avoid professional isolation. Promote your work, seek allies, enlist colleagues, speak in seminars and at conferences, seek out new connections to mathematicians and to professionals in other disciplines. It is quite unlikely that you will lead the same kind of professional lives that your professors did, but this should not be reason for despair. You need always to remember that you have unusual training and skills. The world --- both inside and outside of mathematics --- is waiting for you, full of problems to be solved. \section{Terri's Tenacious Techniques} Rhodes College is a highly selective, private liberal arts college with a student population of about 1400. The teaching load is three courses per semester which is equivalent to nine hours per week in the classroom. Normally, because the students are good, I can expect a lot from them. But in turn, they expect a lot from me. I am expected to be available to students outside of the classroom to answer their questions, help solidify concepts, or just talk about mathematics. I spend about eight hours per week meeting with students outside of class. The service component of my job consists of plenty of college-wide committee work, special college projects (such as devising a new registration system), departmental curricular projects, and advising. (And actually advising is one of my most time-consuming endeavors.) And of course there is a research expectation. As a graduate student my prevailing thought was ``if I can just find a good problem,'' or ``if I can just find a way to prove this conjecture.'' As an assistant professor, my prevailing thought was ``if I can just find the time!'' Since professional activity is a continuous process of growth and change, we have to find a way to make time for it all along the way so that this professional development is rich and meaningful, rather than disjointed and incomplete. The first suggestion may sound simple or even trivial, but being successful at it has probably helped me more than anything to create time for professional activities: Reevaluate how you organize and structure your classes to see if there are any ways to achieve what you want to achieve more efficiently. For example, clarify your expectations to your students in your classes verbally and in your syllabus so that students know exactly what their responsibilities are, and so that you know exactly what your schedule will be for the semester. For instance, set your office hours in your syllabus on the first day of class, and try to encourage students to stick to these times rather than allowing them to wander into your office at any time during the week. This will help you organize your grading and testing and enable you to set aside big blocks of time for your research. Think carefully about your testing schedule for the semester early on, so you don't spend time creating and administering make-up exams and quizzes during the term. Assign projects and writing assignments to groups of students -- not only is this a wonderful way for students to engage in problem solving with their peers, but it cuts down on grading. Encourage your department to organize and support student-run help sessions to be held at night to supplement the help you provide during office hours. Moreover, when it is appropriate, request multiple, back-to-back sections of courses so that you have fewer preparations and you can give the same exams for both classes. In your upper level courses, try using more original sources instead of textbooks. Get students involved in critically reading papers and giving presentations. These things, though seemingly small, will keep you in a more active mode of inquiry and possibly lead students in that same direction. This way, even if the papers are not specifically in your area of research, you are learning and investigating in the manner in which you investigated as a graduate student. In service, since I am presently the only tenured woman in the Natural Sciences Division in my institution, I have been asked to serve on college committees where gender and divisional diversity are desired. Sometimes I just have to say no. Certainly, as an untenured faculty member this is harder to do -- but it's a necessary response sometimes in order to maintain a legitimate professional activities calendar. If you can't say no, or have a project offered to you that you would like to tackle, turn it in to a professional activity! (For example, maybe the curricular reform project you've been assigned lends itself to writing a grant proposal to carry out such a reform.) There may be ways to alter your service duties a bit so that you can gain in other ways by disseminating the ideas you have used. In research, at least in the beginning, it is important to maintain your collaborations. Keep in touch with individuals with whom you have worked so that talking and thinking about problems doesn't become an unnatural thing to do. They can also help you to stay current with the literature in your field. Attend seminars and meetings as often as possible -- that interaction is as valuable as any. And finally, as a new Ph.D., try to focus in one direction professionally. Once you have established yourself solidly in one area, then you will be in a better position to dabble in other areas of interest later on. Think about what you want to be doing in the next five years and set your sights there!. \section{Paul's Prattle}\label{pp} In 1978, Fred Gehring of the University of Michigan surveyed {\bf all} of the Michigan mathematics Ph.D.s.\footnote{I'm quoting this survey from memory; warning enough for those who know me.} Among the things that this survey showed was that less than half of the survey group ever published anything (even their own dissertation work); of those that published something, less than half published more than one paper beyond their dissertation work; but all of those who published at least five papers continued to have a lengthy and rich publishing record (twenty or more publications). This says to me that \begin{quote} the first few years after graduate school are a critical period in the professional life of a mathematician and that creating a {\it beachhead} in the publishing world is both necessary and sufficient for a generous professional career. \end{quote} Below I'll make a few brief comments about my own experience and then end with three specific suggestions. \begin{center} {\bf Early Career} \end{center} This period was characterized by traditional publication work: learning, reading papers, thinking, writing up results, submitting papers, revising papers, learning to use {\it Typits}. My own career began at Western Illinois University with the usual stuff. I published {\it most} of my dissertation results and began attending research conferences in real analysis. At these conferences I met many of the researchers who would become my fast friends and frequent collaborators. %I'm indebted to the support of a few senior mathematicians who encouraged %me at early stages of my career, Fred Bagemihl, Roy Davis, Andy Bruckner, %Casper Goffman. In addition I met and have subsequently collaborated with a %great number of real analysts who were at similar stages in their careers (ie %beginners), Mike Evans, Richard O'Malley, Mik Laczkovich, Jim Foran, Dick %Fleissner, George Petruska. I believe this is called {\it networking} now %and it has played an important role throughout my career. These people are now %among my closest friends as well as my research colleagues. \begin{center} {\bf Five Years Out} \end{center} 'More of the above, but with some important additions: refereeing, editing, symposia organizing, grant writing. I also learned to use the IBM {\it Symbol Ball}. In addition I worked on my first two ``applied'' problems; one a design of plowshares for John Deere and the second some Operations Research. \begin{center} {\bf Ten Years Out} \end{center} My research in real analysis continued and ``applied'' problems became a periodic part of my life. I began attending the weekly {\it Real Analysis Seminar} at the University of Minnesota, something I've continued ever since. But there was something quite new, curriculum reform. After my move to St.~Olaf I became involved with the calculus reform ideas, ran conferences, discussed the issues with Evans and Jerry Uhl (another ancient real analysis colleague), learned SMP (a precursor to Mathematica) and Maple, worked on several calculus reform committees, wrote grants by the score and became acquainted with a new and enthusiastic crowd. I also ``learned'' {\it TROFF-NROFF-EQN} and $\TeX$. \begin{center} {\bf And Beyond} \end{center} And so it goes; I continue to be active in real analysis research. Editing takes much more time now that I serve as a Managing Editor of the {\it Real Analysis Exchange} and as a consequence, I have about shut out refereeing and reviewing. I'm not as involved in calculus reform as I once was, but I still maintain an active interest. I have now ``learned'' $\LaTeX$ and use it almost exclusively for technical work. \bigskip If I had some hints for others, what would they be? I think these. \begin{center} {\large Humke's Hints} \end{center} \begin{itemize} \item Set aside time weekly for professional work. There are those who have claimed this won't work, but it works for me. I treat my research time the same way I treat my class time. It's high priority and I don't cancel my research time unless I would cancel a class for the same reason. \item Keep something on the burner. If you have a problem, you can work on it whenever you have a spare minute. In my experience, research takes some long periods of concentrated work, but it helps a great deal to have some aspect of your problem to think about when you have a free minute or two, when the party becomes dull, or your lunch date fails to show up or $\dots$. My friend Gyuri Petruska once said that \begin{quote} when I was young I'd spend five minutes ``warming up'' and then I was ready to work. When I was a bit older I had to spend twenty minutes warming up before I was back into my work. Now it seems I spend all my time with warm ups! \end{quote} For Gyuri this is {\bf not} true at all, but there is truth in his very Hungarian view of himself. If you {\it keep something on the burner} you'll minimize your warm up time. \item Attend the small research oriented conferences in your area. Small conferences are attended by those who are active in your area. You'll get to know them and become acquainted with the lore of your discipline. You'll also discover the topics of current interest and some open problems; that's always helpful. Trivial problems and impossible problems are both a dime a dozen; good problems are more difficult to find. I find I'm always ``fired up'' by a real analysis conference and that motivation often translates into a result or two. \end{itemize} \section{Questions, Comments, Remarks} The following is a loose transcript of the question and answer period from the panel discussion ``Keeping Your Research Alive'' from the Project NExT sessions at the 1995 Joint Mathematics Meetings. What appear below are not direct quotes, but they are closer to quotes than they are summaries. They appear in the order in which they were asked. What follows below is not entirely complete, but does contain what the editor thinks were the most important points. % The letters P,T,M,L stand for Paul (Humke), Terri (Lindquester), Marge (Murray), % and Lew (Lefton), the four panelists. \begin{itemize} \item[Question] How does one deal with the spouse/kid issue? \begin{itemize} \item[Lew] Anybody with a small child doesn't sleep. My daughter has taught me how to say ``no.'' I have shut a lot of things off. \item[Terri] I don't do anything at night; don't have any outside commitments. \item[Marge] I have found there is a perception that men shouldn't claim time for their kids. It's kind of reverse sexism. \item[Paul] For me, family is the top priority. \end{itemize} \item[Question] I have a question about grant writing. Some of us would like time to work on common research problems together. Is it reasonable to write a grant to bring people together to do this? Is money available for this sort of thing? \begin{itemize} \item[Marge] You should start at your home institutions. They often have travel grants for young faculty. \item[Paul] A group of real analysts had the same question $20$ years ago. Their efforts have blossomed into an annual summer symposium held at various universities. They arrange to stay at dorms which only costs \$10 a night or so. Also, the NSF funds young people; it has ``affirmative action by location.'' \item[Terri] The AWM often has travel money available. You could get together at either end of a conference related to your research interests. You should also consider more obscure places. School faculty development grants (\$3,000) might support such requests. Rotational grants for smaller amounts of money get rotated around. You should check with the state for educational sources. I organized a regional graph theory conference that was funded by the Office of Naval Research. There are also PEW grants; grants for scholars to come and visit your institutions. Additionally, conferences for undergraduates usually have lots of information about grant writing. (As a specific example of ``keeping your research alive,'' and the priority this must take, Lew Lefton leaves at this point in the discussion to give a research talk at an AMS session.) \end{itemize} \item[Question] What about grant possibilities for a reduction in load so you can have time to do research? \begin{itemize} \item[Paul] There are some outside funds for this, but you can't expect your school to pay for all professional needs. Perhaps there will be a local program to fund reduction in load, but, for the most part, the responsibility for finding research time will fall to you. \item[Marge] You should check your school's development offices. And their sponsored funds offices. \end{itemize} \item[Question] I just feel overwhelmed. Talking about pedagogical issues, how do you do this together with research? It's not a matter of just being able to say ``no.'' I feel uncomfortable trying to redefine the job in a visiting or non-tenure position. \item[Question] (Continued by a different questioner.) None of us have come up for tenure. We are in weird positions. Even if the department supports pedagogy, final tenure decisions are not made just in the department. They might be able to tell us what they want in terms of what they've had in the past, but that is a very different situation than now. It's almost as if we are the guinea pigs, coming of age during this time of great change in the mathematics community. We are scared how our tenure decisions and careers might be affected by this. \item[Paul] Some things never change. The kinds of professional development we are talking about are important to you for your careers independent of the current state of the mathematics community. It would be bad for you and for the profession to ignore this type professional development. It should be a priority. I don't mean traditional research necessarily, but I also don't mean just education reform. You can spend all your time doing curriculum development. I will say that you do need to be well aware of all the policy documents that apply to you in your department. (Editors note: the responses continue below.) \item[Question] What about if you have fallen into the 1 year, 1 year, 1 year cycle? \begin{itemize} \item[Paul] Get out of it. You might need to lower your expectations. \end{itemize} \item[Question] If your schools expectations for research are not as high as yours, how do you make time? \begin{itemize} \item[Paul] That is the situation I am in, so it comes out of my own hide. \end{itemize} \item[Question] What if your efforts are threatening to others? \begin{itemize} \item[Marge] This is a real problem. Tenure decisions are complicated things. They often depend on how you get along with people. Be as gracious as you possibly can. (Continued responses to ``overwhelmed guinea pig questions'' above.) \item[Terri] It comes down to analyzing what you are doing. Are you doing it efficiently? Think things through on the front end, even regarding pedagogical issues. For example, how you set up exam procedures, office hours, and so forth. Organizing them effectively can save you a great deal of time. \item[Paul] You should also be sure to communicate your thoughts on these things to the people around you. In particular, by communicating alternative, more efficient means of getting some of the shared tasks accomplished. \item[Terri] Professional development is institution specific, but much of what we are talking about is universal. \item[Marge] I tended to work on big long term projects. I was taking a very big risk in doing things this way. Because of this, it was important for me to talk to people about what I was doing. You need to make sure to portray your activities in a positive way. I could have written a book with a closed office door, but I wouldn't have gotten tenure that way. \item[Paul] There are people with national stature who know how much time all these forms of professional development take. It would be appropriate for them to address these issues. So you must be careful to keep track of what you do and who might be able to comment on your efforts. \end{itemize} \item[Question] Are we hyper anxious? \begin{itemize} \item[Paul] We have brought together 60 people in a very bad job market. And I think your fears have been multiplied by one another. On the other hand, your fears are not completely unfounded. We have seen some very good people thrown out of the profession for very bad reasons. Some of the same reasons you have brought up today. ...You cannot spend all of your time in curriculum development. It will not necessarily be recognized. \item[Terri] Tenure has changed and evolved a great deal. You need to map out how you plan to proceed. Check and see if there is a statement in your department which addresses what constitutes professional development. \item[Paul] There are plenty of these around if your department doesn't yet have their own and would like to see examples of such statements by other departments. \item[Terri] Our department and St. Olaf's are good examples. \end{itemize} \item[Question] Is there life after tenure? \begin{itemize} \item[Terri] Yes. And there are new committees for you to be asked to serve on. A particular danger for women and minorities. \item[Paul] It's going to be all right. \item[Marge] It's hard to maintain a sense of perspective. It is important to remember that you have unusual training and skills. This training and these skills are portable. One person I knew who was denied tenure said it was the best thing that ever happened to him. It made him decide what it really was that he wanted to do. \item[Paul] We're in a profession where there's work to be done, and if you're found standing in line, you can be sure someone will put something more on your plate. \end{itemize} \end{itemize} \end{document} _____________________________________________________________ Item #7 Happy Trails! Well, Th-th-th-that's All Folks! Just a reminder that you needn't panic when you don't get a "Concerns" in your mailbox next week. It's Spring Break and I'm a headin' south. The next issue will be on March 22nd. Everybody, please send me your comments, criticisms, and GOOD MATH JOKES!! (theoretically speaking, that is). Okay, how about engineer jokes? - Wendy Brunzie Editor of the Month _______________________________________________________________ Item #8 Charles Yeomans cyeomans@ms.uky.edu Mark Winstead mwwinst@gcr.com Nancy Wilson nwilson@stmarys-ca.edu Emil Volcheck Emil.Volcheck@risc.uni-linz.ac.at Frank Sottile sottile@math.toronto.edu Vic Perera vicum@math.ohio-state.edu Franklin Mendivil mendivil@math.gatech.edu Kevin Madigan madigan@math.nwu.edu Leigh Lunsford lunsford@math.uah.edu Steve Kennedy skennedy@mathcs.carleton.edu Matt Hudelson hudelson@math.washington.edu Silvia Heubach silvi@cinenet.net Bob Dobrow dobrow@cam.nist.gov Lyle Cochran lcochran@fresno.edu Kevin Charlwood kec1@bradley.bradley.edu Neil Calkin calkin@math.gatech.edu Wendy Brunzie brunzie@math.montana.edu Curtis Bennett cbennet@bgnet.bgsu.edu Frank Arlinghaus frank@math.ysu.edu Edward Aboufadel aboufade@scus1.ctstateu.edu _______________________________________________________________ End of Journal -- Next week: The Discussion Continues