*Concerns of Young Mathematicians* Volume 3, Issue 18 May 24, 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, 7 June. April Editor: Kevin Madigan madigan@math.nwu.edu May Editor: Franklin Mendivil mendivil@math.gatech.edu June Editor: Emil Volcheck 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 Letters to the Editor 3 Centennial Fellowship Clarification 4 My apologies.....! 5 Canadian Young Mathematicians 6 Alternative Accommodations in Santa Cruz 7 YMN 1995 Job Survey (revisited) 8 News from the (Job) Front 9 Closing Credits _______________________________________________________________ Item #1 Editor's notes: Thanks for all the great stuff you have sent to me this month. Without all your interest and help, the YMN wouldn't have gotten very far. Please continue. This is my last issue as editor (the reduced summer schedule means that I only edit two issues). Next month the newsletter will be in the capable hands of Emil Volcheck. Bob Dobrow pointed out an error in Item #4 in the last issue. He was listed as the (only) author of the Childcare survey. Bob pointed out to me that the survey was written by both he and Leigh Lunsford so we should have included her name. Sorry Leigh. I didn't mean to neglect you. One last thing. For those of you who use the web and have visited our homepage, if you have any suggestions please send them to me. While I don't have much spare time, I would like to get the YMN homepage cleaned up. Franklin Mendivil ________________________________________________________________ Item #2 Letters to the Editor Charles Yeomans writes: 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 .... etc.... The use of professional mathematicians and statisticians to advise attorneys and testify in court is a big industry. There are large consulting firms, comprised of PhD mathematicians, involved in this. A local silicon valley firm, for example, is Cornerstone Research. Unfortunately, it is impossible for a novice to break into this field. Law firms only hire experienced, credential-packed "professor" types to testify-- credentials are important to impress a jury. Law schools also hire lecturers from these consulting firms to teach law students statistics, finance, etc... ---Ken (PhD and Stanford Law School, 1L) ****************************************************** Many of you know that I have been out of touch for close to six weeks. I do not know if I will ever recover e-mail that seems to be lost during that time. I wish to thank the editor for her/his indulgence in printing this submission. Mark Winstead mwwinst@pic.net Dallas, Texas _______________________________________________________________ Item #3 Centennial Fellowships Clarification Robert Fossum wrote to clarify last issue's note about the Centennial Fellowships. The Council passed only the first part of the resolution, they rejected the second. That is, the Council resolved to redirect the Centennial Fellowships toward "young mathematicians," but refused to restrict the awards to non-new Ph.D.s. Exact eligibility criteria are still being decided upon. The June issue of NOTICES contains some more information (p. 680). _______________________________________________________________ Item #4 My apologies......! Hello, again! I wanted to write a short note to all of our readers who participated in the ill-fated survey I attempted to run last December. First, my apologies to those of you who invested your time in completing it; I erred in overestimating how much time I would have to compile the results and make enough sense of them to include as a piece in the Concerns. It was a learning experience, indeed! There were about 25 responses to that survey; I realize one difficulty was its length. I had (overzealously) hoped that we would be able to obtain a more accurate picture in terms of those hitting the market for their second or third (or more!) time in close succession. The responses I did get were primarily from top twenty institutions, and mostly from eastern schools. Although the responses were few in number, the comments that I read suggested two primary concerns: First, that many YM's are employed in temporary positions, and had to look again, and second, that one or both members of academic couples were looking so they could both end up as close to each other geographically as possible. Although this is hardly news, I thought I'd point these facts out anyway. At any rate, if you have not already completed Frank Sottile's survey for this spring, please take the time to do so. Also, forward it on to friends of yours at other institutions if they do not already get the Concerns. Our hope is that we can collect enough data to get a good read on how this current job market compares with those in recent years. Thanks!! Kevin Charlwood, Bradley University e-mail: kec1@bradley.bradley.edu _______________________________________________________________ Item #5 Canadian Young Mathematicians: There will be a get-together for any young mathematicians (or anyone else who is interested) who are in Toronto on Tuesday, June 6. This is during the CMS Summer Meeting, so I hope that there will be quite a few of us able to make it. I hope we can use this time to meet each other, and also to discuss what, if anything, we should do about the concerns of young mathematicians in Canada. The official time will be from 6 pm to 8 pm (on Tuesday, June 6), at which time the only other scheduled event is a cash bar. However, there is no reason not to arrive early, or leave late, if you aren't attending a talk at those times. The location will be at the Oasis Restaurant, which is located at 294 College St., half a block past (i.e. west of) Spadina. This is ten minutes' walk from the conference. The restaurant deals well with people ordering at different times, and has a good selection of dishes for vegetarians or carnivores. I have made a reservation in the name of "Young Math." -- Cary Timar, Toronto 416-226-2872 cctimar@empress.com _______________________________________________________________ Item #6 Alternative Accommodations in Santa Cruz From 9 July to 29 July, the AMS is organizing a Summer Research Institute in Algebraic Geometry. The organizers unfortunately had very little money to fund people who wished to go who did not have grants. Official housing on Campus is about $60 room and board a night, and area hotels are not an improvement on that price. One reader was successful in finding a cheaper alternative, and is kindly allowing us to publish the information he found while searching. How to find cheaper accommodations in Santa Cruz. I've compiled a list of resources that might be helpful to anyone whose looking for alternative accommodations for the conference in Santa Cruz this summer. The route I chose for myself was to rent a house for three weeks along with enough of my friends to make the arrangement both affordable and comfortable. Here is what I found out: The University has a list of Real Estate agents and maybe some actual listings available here: Community Rentals at (408) 459-4435 comrent@housing.ucsc.edu You can also search the classified adds online at the San Francisco Examiner and the San Jose Mercury-Gazette. Here's their URL addresses and a copy of the most recent(relevant) listings: http://sfgate.com/ SANTA CRUZ nr bch 3BR 2BA, all amens $550/wk. 510-283-4916 SANTA Cruz on beach, 3BR 3BA, slp 6, wkly $2100, 408-866-2626 Under vacation rentals At http://www.sjmercury.com/ SANTA Cruz beach brdwlk area 3br 2+ ba. 510 471-5154 Classification: Vacation Rental , Score: 100 SANTA CRUZ 1-4 Br. beach/boardwalk homes, $508 wkly. & up. Agt. 408 425-7525 Classification: Vacation Rental , Score: 100 SANTA Cruz Yacht Harbor 4/2+ Wlk to beach. 477-0591 Classification: Vacation Rental , Score: 100 SECLUDED sunny 1br 2-ac Avl. 7/1 $900 408 338-2817 Classification: Homes For Rent Santa Cruz County , Score: 100 SCOTTS VLY. Lg. 5 br. 3 ba. on wooded lot. $2200. 408 438-7700, 408 438-6444 Classification: Homes For Rent Santa Cruz County , Score: 100 SANTA C. mts. lux. 1500 sf. 1 br. 20 min. LG. Dome, view, pet OK. $1200 + ut. 354-4403 Classification: Homes For Rent Santa Cruz County , Score: 100 LEASE opt, ocean view, great loc, 3 br. $1965. 354-9121 Classification: Homes For Rent Santa Cruz County , Score: 100 BROOKDALE 3 BR. 2 BA.-FP, liv/din rm. Den, dshwshr. w/w crpts, redwood decks, mtn. top, secluded, serene, $1250. 408 374-5006 Classification: Homes For Rent Santa Cruz County , Score: 100 2BR 1BA, lg yd/deck, $900 +dep, avl now. 338-2538 Classification: Homes For Rent Santa Cruz County , Score: 100 BOULDER Crk lrg charm 1 br, no smkg. $850 415 851-1795 Classification: Homes For Rent Santa Cruz County , Score: 100 BOULDER CREEK Beautiful 3Br/2+Ba lrg lot, $1250 + dep. Attached ofc/apart. 1Br/1Ba, $750. 688-3814 Classification: Homes For Rent Santa Cruz County , Score: 100 AROMAS $1400. Panoramic view river, sunsets, Watsonville hills, + ac. trees, FP, LR, DR, 4 br. 2 offices, 2+ Ba. Pvt. dr. gar+4 408 429-7612 Classification: Homes For Rent Santa Cruz County , Score: 100 APTOS ARCHITECTURAL JEWEL! 3 br. 2.5 ba. + ofc. & family room. New home in Aptos in cul-de-sac. $2200 mo. Day 423-2883, nite 425-5914 Classification: Homes For Rent Santa Cruz County , Score: 100 SANTA Cruz Mtns. Skyline Bl. 3 br. 2 ba. on 5 ac., views, 3 stall barn, C'tino schools. $2200. 301 330-5575 lv msg Classification: Homes For Rent Palo Alto , Score: 100 SANTA Cruz area, rural, 2 br hse, pets, up to $800 mo. for Jul 1, 1995. 707 468-8939 Classification: Rentals Wanted , Score: 100 Happy Hunting. Norm Levin _______________________________________________________________ Item #7 YMN 1995 Job Survey (revisited) There have been 59 responses to the survey which ran in the last issue. While that number is too small for any really meaningful conclusions to be drawn, it has yielded some interesting anecdotes (see other article in this issue), as well as the following hastily compiled raw data: 59 Respondents; Their job status (for next year, as of survey): 23 have tenure track positions 3 have jobs in industry/business 9 have postdoctoral positions 7 have temporary positions 1 has a part time job (offered and accepted in late Feb!) 16 have yet to hear anything Of those without permanent positions 1 has a three year position 9 have a two year position 6 have one year positions 1 was indeterminant Hopefully, I will get a flood of additional responses (I think that I will need around 100 total to say anything meaningful) soon, so that we can run an article in Concerns with a more detailed report. I want to thank all who responded, and ask anyone who has yet to do so to please send in a survey. Anyone should feel free to forward copies to their friends. Below is a copy of the survey. -Frank Sottile sottile@math.toronto.edu ------------------ Job Survey ------------------------- Dear readers, If you could send me email answering the following questions, I would appreciate it. I will try and tabulate results as soon as possible, (hopefully by mid 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 did you accept? (1-year, 2-year, part-time, post-doc, tenure track, industry/business, 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 any comments or feeling you have about the job market. I will compile these anecdotes separately, with the sources and schools remaining anonymous _______________________________________________________________ Item #8 News from the (Job) Front In the last issue, I invited readers to fill out a survey asking for reader input about their job searches this year. While I am still compiling the statistics (A daunting task!), I have included some anecdotes that were sent to me about how people were fairing at various institutions. I have roughly grouped the responses by Group (a technical classification that the AMS use in its job statistics), and by US geographic region. The remarks may have been slightly edited, in part to keep the institutions anonymous. Within each quotation ("...") only one institution is discussed. -Frank Sottile sottile@math.toronto.edu Group I West "Out of 42 students looking for jobs, including 3 who did not get jobs last year, I believe that at least 15 have jobs now, perhaps as many as 20-25. (I can think of 11). Not everyone is seeking a job just yet, nor is everyone looking in academics. It is perhaps accurate to say `Of the academic job seekers in our graduating class, a significant fraction, perhaps as high as one-half, does not yet have a position'" "As far as I know, at least seven students who are graduating this year have jobs. A professor has said that this is the worst year in his memory." "I think we have 11 graduating PhD's: 1 has a tenure track position 7 have postdocs/ instructorships 2 have nothing so far 1 I have no idea what's up. We also have a person who got his PhD last year and stayed on as a visiting instructor. He is leaving academia. Finally, one student decided to defer graduation one year. Midwest "Most graduating students (7) had jobs, as of 6 March" "As of yesterday, none of this year's crop of math PhDs has a job for next year." "I know of 8 people graduating with Ph.D.s from my department this year. Of those 8, one is retaining his permanent job at a local community college. Only 2 have had even an interview, and no one has an offer yet" "Three students in Algebra and Number theory have all had more than one offer each." "Of the graduate students here, two have gotten jobs." "We have 7 new PhD's. One has tenure track position, and two have one year positions. Two are returning to Italy. The other two international students (Chinese) are seeking employment, but have not found jobs. We also have 8 people leaving with Master's this year, 3 are going to new schools, 4 of the others have jobs in business, and one is looking for work teaching High school" East "6 students leaving or graduating; 3 have jobs in business, one is leaving w/o a PhD, 2 not looking for jobs, and one is looking without success. 2 students have been looking since last year, both without success." "There are several post docs at the lab where I work in stochastic processes and signal processing. Only 2 out of 6 have obtained permanent jobs after several years of searching." "There are about 19 people from here on the market this year, either new graduates or people who graduated last year and stayed around for a year. Of those, 13 have jobs. Two that I know of have non-academic positions. 3 have temporary positions and the others I don't know about." "I think most people here got jobs (not including instructorships in our department) the first year they applied; all but one of the rest got jobs the second year. `My impression is that this year is better (by epsilon) than last.'" "In the past year, 3 students have completed their Ph.D. One is returning to their home country, one has an oil industry post-doc, and one has had no responses. This year, 5 grad students are leaving the program without completing their degrees. No one in the class that "should" be graduating this spring will finish - one is leaving for computer science, 3 will extend into a 6th year." Group II West "As of now, 1 grad has a tenure-track job, out of 6 who were applying." "There are 7 graduate students coming out, 5 of which have jobs in academia or business. Of the 2 academics, both have tenure-track jobs." "Of 3 graduates this year, none has a job yet. Of 2 graduates of last year that were on contract here the past year, each has interviews coming up." "There are 4 of us completing our PhD's in the dept. of pure math. One student returned to Australia. 2 have tenure track offers, and the last is currently unemployed, but will be interviewing next month for a temporary position. Another student who finished LAST year (1993-1994) was also on the job market since she was in a temporary position this year. She has accepted another temporary position for next fall." "Of 7 graduating PhD's in my department 5 got a position, 2 are still looking. Moreover, 2 people who graduated last year managed to get a position this time. Of those 7 who found a position, 2 got a permanent job in industry 3 got a tenure-track positions in a College or a small University 2 got a post-doc." Midwest "I hear that 3 grads have tenure-track jobs so far." "One guy who looked last year and got nothing landed a job at a small Jesuit college. From all I've heard, no one else is even looking this year, in light of the difficult year four of us had last year." East "Out of 7 PhD's who graduated last year (1994), 2 are in tenure track positions, one is going to a second one year position, 3 are currently unemployed for next year and one is in industry. Of the 3 graduating PhD's this year, one will be in industry, one has a tenure track job and the other is still looking." "Of 4 who graduated with me in 1993, 2 have jobs and 2 are unemployed" "Both graduating students here have tenure-track positions for the fall." "Two years ago all but one graduate from our school got tenure track offers. Last year 1 got a tenure track position, 2 got temporary positions at other schools, 1 person was given a one year position at our school, and one person did temp work for 9 months before being hired statistical programming. This year we have 3 people with one interview each, no offers as yet, and several people without even an interview. At this time last year two people had found jobs, one temporary the other tenure track. Two years ago all but two people had tenure track jobs at this point." Other "Of the 4 post-docs here from the US who wished to return to there this year, NONE received offers in the US." "Of the two grad students that I know about at the institution that I am now at, one got two tenure track offers at small high-teaching load schools; one got nothing. There is another visiting professor here who has about 15 years experience and about 40 papers; he applied to about 120 places and got no offers." _______________________________________________________________ Item #9 Closing Credits Charles Yeomans cyeomans@ms.uky.edu Mark Winstead mwwinst@pic.net 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 Greg Dresden dresden@fireant.ma.utexas.edu 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