*Concerns of Young Mathematicians* Volume 3, Issue 17 May 10, 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 Franklin Mendivil mendivil@math.gatech.edu , editor for the month of May. Next issue: Wednesday, 24 May. April Editor: Kevin Madigan madigan@math.nwu.edu May Editor: Franklin Mendivil mendivil@math.gatech.edu June Editor: Emil Volchek Emil.Volcheck@risc.uni-linz.ac.at 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 Opportunities for Mathematicians in Court 3 Employment Survey 4 Child Care Survey 5 Child care at Canadian Math Society Meeting in Toronto 6 Cheap Accommodations at the CMS Summer Meeting in Toronto 7 Centennial Fellowship Program Resolution 8 Closing Credits _______________________________________________________________ Item #1 Editor's notes: First, I would like to apologize for the miscommunication about the newsletter last week. We received very few submissions so we decided (at the last minute) to switch over to the biweekly summer schedule. Charles Yeomans starts out the lineup with an article on some (previously unknown to me) possibilities for mathematicians in the courts. Notice item #3 is an employment survey. It is important to get as much solid evidence about the job situation as we can, so please fill out and return this survey. This will help give those of us in the job market a clearer picture Item #4 is a rerun of the child care survey. This is an issue that can be especially important to young mathematicians, so please take the time to fill this one out as well. (Two surveys in one issue!!) So far we have had about 20 responses. There must be many more of us who are interested in this issue. Then we have an article (item #5) about what child care is available at the Canadian Math Society Meeting in Toronto. Those of you who fill out the survey might be interested in reading this one as well. For those of us who are planning to go to the Canadian Math Society Meeting in Toronto, Frank Sottile was kind enough to send us some information about alternative (and cheaper) accommodations in Toronto. Thanks Frank! Finally, Steve Kennedy calls our attention to a recent recommendation of the AMS Committee on the Profession. Read it, it is important. Please send us any ideas or suggestions that you might have. The YMN is not the board, it is the readers. We (the board) just manage the editing of the newsletter and try to rustle up articles that would be useful and interesting for junior mathematicians. We are always happy to have any help (since we have no more spare time than any of our readers!). Franklin Mendivil _______________________________________________________________ Item #2 Opportunities for Mathematicians in Court Charles Yeomans A component of almost every civil tort lawsuit is determination of damages. A typical damage award consists of a collection of various income streams (replacement of lost wages, for instance). For various reasons, awards are rarely structured in this way; one usually replaces the original award by some present value equivalent. Attorneys for all sides of a lawsuit have to explain the structure of damage awards to juries, and this provides opportunities for mathematicians. While present-value computations aren't exactly the most difficult of mathematics, explaining the idea of present value to a jury and explaining how various inputs into a structured damage settlement, such as any assumptions about interest rates, affect the final award does require no small degree of expository skill. Of course, some knowledge of finance is required as well. Why would law firms or insurance companies be interested in hiring mathematicians to do this sort of thing, rather than, say, accountants or economists? One reason is that mathematicians are more likely to be seen by everyone, and especially the jury, as neutral and less likely to shade the truth on behalf of his employers. Image surely matters in a jury trial. There seem to be a couple of niches to be filled here. One could contract directly with a law firm to evaluate various settlement options -- lawyers, as a group, aren't much smarter than juries about mathematics, so there may well be some opportunities to conduct seminars for them on these matters. Another niche is that of an expert witness; that is, one is retained by a law firm on behalf of a client to offer expert opinions as testimony. The testimony of expert witnesses is excepted from the rules excluding heresay testimony. The idea is that, although an expert is retained by one side of a suit, he is supposed to offer independent opinions; this may even occur in practice, on occasion. There are also companies which provide secondary markets in structured settlements, annuities, periodic payment judgments, etc. Obviously one needs to price such contracts; this is more purely finance, but one can certainly bring mathematics to bear on such work in ways that most companies won't tell you. How can you go about locating more information? The best way is to root through trade journals in law, finance and insurance, paying particular attention to the advertisements. Charles Yeomans cyeomans@ms.uky.edu _______________________________________________________________ Item #3 Employment Survey Frank Sottile Dear readers, It has been a year since we ran our first survey on employment, and we would like to repeat last year's survey, to try to ascertain how subscribers to the YMN have done on the job market this year. This may give us an early idea about the state of the market this year, although it will in no way be a scientific survey. If you could send me email answering the following questions, I would appreciate it. I will try to tabulate and publish results as soon as possible, (hopefully by early June). To make this easier to tabulate, please structure your answers to reflect the order of the questions. Thank you, Frank Sottile sottile@math.toronto.edu Please respond if you applied for jobs this year. 1. What is your primary research area? (2-digit MR number, if possible) (MR classification numbers may be found in the Year-end index issues of mathematical reviews) 2. How many schools did you apply to? 3. How many industry/government/other positions did you apply to? 4. How many on-site interviews did you have? 5. How many offers did you receive? (if you received no offers, please skip to question 8). 6. If you received an offer, when was it made? 7. What kind of position is it? (1-year, 2-year, part-time, post-doc, tenure track, industry, government, etc.) (try to keep to these categories) 8. What was your position for 1994-1995? (same categories as above, plus graduate student) 9. Please include anything else you feel might be interesting. In particular, I would appreciate anecdotal information such as "of 6 graduating PhD's from XXXXX, 2 have tenure track positions, 3 have post-docs, and one is leaving mathematics for divinity school" I will compile these anecdotes separately, with the sources and schools remaining anonymous _______________________________________________________________ Item #4 Child Care Survey Bob Dobrow Childcare at the Joint Meetings Daycare is an important issue for many young mathematicians. In San Francisco several people raised their concerns about the lack of adequate childcare arrangements. For those of you who are parents, potential parents, or just interested in this issue, we would like to solicit your views on the following: 1. Would you be more likely to attend the joint meeting---next year it's in Orlando, Florida---if childcare were available at the meeting? 2. Will lack of childcare prevent you from attending the meeting? 3. If daycare were provided at the conference center, perhaps at a moderate fee, would you be certain, likely, or unlikely to use it? 4. How much would you be willing to pay for daycare at the joint meeting? (in dollars per child per hour) 5. For what age children would you be requiring daycare? 6. If you do not have children now, but may in the future, do you think you would use childcare services if they were available at the joint meetings? 7. Do you have any suggestions for how this situation can be improved? Please send your responses to dobrow@cam.nist.gov. This survey can also be found in the YMN archives, via anonymous FTP to ftp.ms.uky.edu in the directory pub3/mailing.lists/ymn-list under the file name childcare.survey. _______________________________________________________________ Item #5 Child care at Canadian Math Society Meeting in Toronto Frank Sottile Recently, there has been some interest in providing adequate child care at AMS meetings, particularly at the Winter meeting. For the Canadian Mathematical Society, this dream is a reality. At the 50th Anniversary Summer Meeting of the CMS in Toronto this June, the organizers have ensured that there will be some child care offered at the main hotel which is housing participants (Delta Chelsea Inn). Below is a summary of the services offered; One may also find this in the March 1995 issue of CMS Notes/Notes de la SMC, page 4: The Children's creative centre: The Children's creative centre is a unique playroom with scheduled activities for children ages 3-12 years. They offer Nintendo, painting, t-shirt decoration, environmental activities, and co-operative groups games. Supervised Child care: The experienced staff offers Supervised child care for children aged 3 years and toilet trained to 12 years old. Parents are required to fill out a request form to sign their children in. The can stay for up to two and a half hours, maximum twice a day, for a fee of $5.00. Babysitting service: Christopher Robbin is a bonded, outside babysitting agency. The cost is $30.00 for the first three hours (minimum), and $7.00 for each additional hour. They take care of Children of all ages. Arrangements cam be made through the Children's Centre. Stroller Rentals: Strollers are also available at the Children's creative centre at a rate of $1.25/hr, $15 for a maximum of 24 hours. Note: These prices are in Canadian dollars (3/4 of their US cousin), and are in Toronto, one of the more expensive cities in North America. There are additionally other family-oriented services offered at the Delta Chelsea: Children's check-in: Children can experience their own check-in by filling out a registration card, and receive a children's package full of goodies. Children's meals: Children under 6 eat free and ages 6 - 12 eat for half price from the `children's menu' at the Market Garden and Wittles restaurant. Laundry facilities: Laundry facilities can be used for a fee of $3.00 a load. -Frank Sottile _______________________________________________________________ Item #6 Cheap Accommodations at the CMS Summer Meeting in Toronto Frank Sottile The Canadian Mathematical Society (CMS) is holding its 50th annual summer meeting in Toronto at the University of Toronto from 4-8 of June. While the official hotel (Delta Chelsea Inn) does provide valued services (eg. it offers child care), it is also somewhat expensive ($110./night, plus tax). I have found some cheaper alternatives for accommodations. The first is The University of Toronto, which rents rooms by the night in in Innis college (416) 978 - 2553. These private rooms have a shared bath with a single bed. The price of $43.12 includes linen, towel, breakfast and tax, which is around 8%. It is located near the St. George subway stop, and within 10 minutes walk of the Medical Sciences Building, where the meeting will be held. The second is Neil Wycik College Hotel at 96 Gerrard Street East (416) 977 - 2320. This is located about two blocks east of the Delta Chelsea, and offers double rooms with either a double bed or two single beds for $38 + tax, or single rooms for $31.50 + tax. There are shared baths, and kitchen facilities. This is about 10/15 minutes walk from the Medical Sciences building, which is to the North and West. Lastly, there is the Youth Hostel, which is yet another block East of Neil Wycik (416) 368 - 0207. The cost is around $20 per bed for Hostel-style (Multi-bed) rooms. This is the absolute rock bottom price in Toronto. I would recommend making reservations, and contacting the front desk at these establishments for local directions and other particulars (such as where to park you car, if you are driving). If you come from the airport save about $30 by forgoing a taxi and taking the Airport Express bus to/from the downtown. It is comfortable, and buses leave every 20 minutes. I hope this helps, Frank Sottile sottile@math.toronto.edu _______________________________________________________________ Item #7 Centennial Fellowship Program Resolution Steve Kennedy The AMS Committee on the Profession made the following recommendation to the AMS Council. It was to be discussed at the March meeting of the Council. The most recent AWM newsletter reports that the resolution was adopted by the Council. To see the full report of CoProf check out the AMS Council WWW page maintained by Robert Fossum at http://odin.math.uiuc.edu/. RESOLUTION: CENTENNIAL FELLOWSHIP PROGRAM CoProf recommends that the AMS Council take the following actions at its March meeting regarding the AMS Centennial Fellowship Program. 1) Authorize the redirection of the AMS Centennial Fellowship to young mathematicians beginning with the fall 1995 application process (i.e., for fellowships beginning in fall 1996). 2) Resolve that this redirection take the form of a program of research fellowships targeted to recent (but not new) PhD's who have not benefited from existing research opportunities usually targeted at new Ph D's. ______________________________________________________________ Item #8 Closing Credits 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@mathfs.math.montana.edu Curtis Bennett cbennet@bgnet.bgsu.edu Frank Arlinghaus frank@math.ysu.edu Edward Aboufadel aboufade@sun.scsu.ctstateu.edu _______________________________________________________________ End of Journal -- Next week: The Discussion Continues