AMS Updates Archive
AMS Nominating Committee Seeks Suggestions of Candidates
The 2001 AMS Nominating Committee has extended the deadline for receipt of suggestions of candidates to stand for election in fall 2001. Suggestions of candidates for the posts of AMS President Elect, Vice President, Members at Large of the Council, and Trustee should be sent electronically to the Office of the Secretary (secretary@ams.org) before 04 January 2001. (Item Posted 12/00)
Joint Mathematics Meetings
Register now for the Joint Mathematics Meetings in New Orleans! Special Airline Rates are also available. (Item Posted 9/00)
AMS Support for Young Scholars Programs
During the summer of 2000, the American Mathematical Society initiated a program of small grants to summer programs aimed at mathematically talented high school students. A total of US$75,000 was awarded in grants to 7 young scholars programs across the country. The newly established Epsilon Fund will endow this program, providing sustained support for these programs and the next generation of mathematicians. Applications from directors of young scholars programs are now being accepted for summer of 2001. (Item Posted 11/00)
Departments Coordinate Job Offer Deadlines
Departments of Mathematics in the U.S. have, again this year, formally adopted an agreement to coordinate deadlines for responding to postdoctoral job offers. Details, including a list of departments adhering to the agreement, are available. (Item Posted 12/2000)
AMS Launches Electronic Coversheet Service
The AMS Electronic Coversheet Service is new in 2000. It has a simple purpose - to help Math Departments in processing applications, by allowing them to download the coversheets in batches to their own computers, instead of re-keying each applicant's information. It will also serve as a browsing tool for employers who wish to search for potential applicants. Job candidates should enter an electronic coversheet soon. (Item Posted 10/2/00)
AMS Releases MathSciNet Enhancements
MathSciNet subscribers can now take advantage of significant new features that are useful to researchers, librarians, and publishers. See What's New for the complete list. Highlights of the new release include:
- New Clipboard feature that allows users to collect citations from multiple searches onto one file for download or display in ASCII or BibTeX format
- More publishers linking to MathSciNet
- An alphabetical listing of the more than 190 journals with links from MathSciNet
- Links from reviews to over 120,000 original articles
Memorial for Franklin P. Peterson
A memorial celebrating the life and work of Professor Franklin P. Peterson will be held at MIT on Monday, November 13, 2000, at 4:00 PM in the Mezzanine Lounge of the Stratton Student Center, third floor. A reception will follow in the Hulsizer Room of Ashdown House. For further details, please see the notice on the MIT web site.
Dirk J. Struik Dies at 106
MIT Professor Emeritus Dirk J. Struik, a highly respected analyst and geometer, and an internationally acclaimed historian of mathematics, died peacefully at his home on Saturday, October 21, at the age of 106. Professor Struik was also an emeritus member of the American Mathematical Society, having been a member for 73 years. For further details, please see the notice on the MIT web site.
Online Membership Renewals
You can renew your membership as well as subscriptions online. To save time and lock in this year's dues rate, you can pay for up to five years at once. Members in their first years of membership receive a special introductory rate. Payment is by credit card and reviewer coupons only.
MATH QUIZ 2000
Mathematicians everywhere are invited to take part in a unique mathematical contest in which competitors answer challenging mathematical questions. MATH QUIZ 2000 is a contribution to the celebration of World Mathematical Year by the Centre de Recerca Matem`tica (in Barcelona). The live, global, Internet contest starts at 12 noon Greenwich Mean Time on the 17th of October and lasts 24 hours, without interruption.
MR Lookup -- A New Free Reference Tool for Linking
Authors can now access the MR Database to verify and create references that can link to reviews and original sources. When authors input basic reference data in MR Lookup, Mathematical Reviews ®(MR) delivers electronic publication-ready references with live links to reviews in MathSciNet and to original articles. (Item Posted 3/2000)
Princeton in the 30s: An Oral History Project
Interviews with distinguished mathematicians such as Alonzo Church, Nathan Jacobson and Eugene Wigner regarding the development of mathematical research at Princeton University in the 1930's are now available. (Item Posted 9/2000)
Franklin P. Peterson Dies at 70
Franklin P. Peterson, Professor of Mathematics at MIT, and Treasurer of the American Mathematical Society for 25 years (1974-1998), died suddenly on September 1, 2000. A graveside service was held on September 7 at the Naperville Cemetery in Naperville, Illinois. A memorial will be scheduled at MIT. (Item Posted 9/07/2000)
Web Form for MR Reviewers
A new web form is available for the electronic submission of reviews to Mathematical Reviews ® Those reviewers who have used email for submission should find the web form even simpler. Reviewers who have not previously used email will find the form easy to use, particularly for those reviews without mathematical symbols. (Item Posted 03/2000)
Mathematical Challenges of the 21st Century
From August 7 to 12, the panorama of contemporary mathematics was on display at the AMS meeting Mathematical Challenges of the 21st Century, held on the campus of UCLA. Thirty world renowned mathematicians presented lectures on a wide range of phenomena, such as predicting fluid flow, the mysteries of prime numbers, the mathematics of vision, connections between geometry and string theory, and deep questions concerning the very foundations of mathematics. As the Society's main event in celebration of World Mathematical Year 2000, the meeting provided a window on the future of mathematics, a future that is destined to include important developments internal to mathematics as well as deepening connections to other areas of science and technology. (Item Posted 8/2000)
Clay Institute Announces 7 Million Dollar Prize Fund
In order to celebrate mathematics in the new millennium, The Clay Mathematics Institute of Cambridge, Massachusetts (CMI) has named seven "Millennium Prize Problems" and has designated a US$7 million prize fund for the solution to these problems, with US$1 million allocated to each. Two new Clay Mathematics Awards were given as well at its recent meeting in Paris. (Item Posted 6/2000)
Mathematical Challenges Kicks Off
Sunday afternoon was the kickoff for the AMS meeting Mathematical Challenges of the 21st Century, being held in magnificent Royce Hall on the campus of UCLA. This meeting is the main contribution of the AMS to the World Mathematical Year 2000 celebration. Ronald L. Graham of the University of California, San Diego, presented the Presidents' Lecture, which served to launch the AMS meeting as well as to close the Mathfest of the Mathematical Association of America, which took place at UCLA last week. Graham's lecture was a gem of mathematical exposition that began at the simplest level, with the definition of a prime number, and worked up to some of the greatest challenges in mathematics today. During the Opening Ceremonies that followed the lecture, AMS President Felix Browder spoke of the Mathematical Challenges meeting as a venue for discussing not only internal developments in mathematics but also current applications of the field, which today reach into nearly every area of human knowledge and activity. All this week 30 internationally renowned mathematicians will present lectures that assess the state of the art in mathematical research and consider what the future might bring. (Item Posted 8/2000)
Mathematical Challenges of the 21st Century
Mathematical Challenges of the 21st Century, a landmark event featuring some of the world's top mathematicians, is coming soon: August 7-12, 2000. Don't miss this special event! Register at the meeting.
Mathematics Briefing Draws Congressional Staff
What does water know about mathematics? – The topic of this July 19 AMS Congressional lunch briefing in Washington DC drew a capacity crowd to hear Professor Mary F. Wheeler, of the University of Texas at Austin. (Item Posted 7/2000)
Please Tell Us What You Think of the New Notices!
As part of the normal review process, the Committee on Publications (CPub) has appointed a committee to undertake a review of the Notices. The committee has created a short survey to gather information from AMS members as part of their review process.
AMS President Testifies Before House Appropriations Committee
AMS President Felix Browder testified on behalf of NSF's FY 2001 budget request before the House Appropriations Subcommittee on VA, HUD and Independent Agencies. Representatives of the American Chemical Society, American Physical Society, and the Federation of American Societies for Experimental Biology, joined AMS in joint testimony. (Item Posted 4/2000)
Fulbright Scholar Program Offers Lecturing/Research Grants
The Fulbright Scholar Program's annual competition opens March 1 for lecturing and research grants in some 130 countries.
AAS-AMS-APS Public Service Awards Presented in Washington, DC
The American Astronomical Society, the American Mathematical Society, and the American Physical Society, presented the first joint AAS-AMS-APS Public Service Awards for committed and sustained efforts in support of science to Senator Bill Frist, Senator Joseph I. Lieberman, and Dr. Harold Varmus, former Director of the National Institutes of Health.
Mathematics Awareness Month, April 2000
"Math Spans All Dimensions" is the theme of Mathematics Awareness Month, April 2000, sponsored by the Joint Policy Board for Mathematics (JPBM), with support from Wolfram Research, Inc. For the first time, the MAM 2000 poster appears both on bulletin boards and on the computer screen as a fully interactive document.
Mathematics Awareness Month provides the mathematical sciences community with opportunities for promoting the importance and versatility of mathematics, and its relationship to our daily lives. JPBM invites you to use the electronic poster for MAM 2000 and the related materials available on the MAM website to inform your colleagues, students, and the general public about the value of mathematics.(Item Posted 3/2000)
Mathematical Reviews® Celebrates its Diamond Anniversary
Mathematical Reviews® is 60 years old in 2000. From its beginnings as a paper indexing and reviewing journal in 1940, Mathematical Reviews® has been an essential tool for mathematicians. The work of the Mathematical Reviews® staff now culminates in the MR Database, which has a variety of presentations, from the traditional paper to the Web-based MathSciNet.
These pages will tell a little of the story of this great institution, the realized vision of Otto Neugebauer and the American Mathematical Society.(Item Posted 3/2000)
AMS President Felix Browder to Receive National Medal of Science
The White House has announced that AMS President Felix E. Browder, University Professor at Rutgers University, will receive the National Medal of Science, the nation's highest honor for scientific achievement. Also named to receive the distinction is Ronald R. Coifman, Phillips Professor of Mathematics at Yale University.(Item Posted 2/2000)
The AMS Enhances Utility and Functionality of AMS Ejournals
The AMS has released enhanced versions of its electronic journal publications. These AMS ejournal upgrades improve usefulness and relevance for both journal authors and journal subscribers. Improvements include: articles posted online before the print version is available; secure manuscript tracking for authors; enhanced abstracts with links to lists of similar articles; and more PDF linking options. (Item Posted 1/2000)
Joint Meetings Kick Off the New Millennium
The Joint Mathematics Meetings, held January 19-22 in Washington, DC, were a rousing success. The AMS and the MAA welcomed their sister society, SIAM, which participated in the Joint Meetings for the first time in over 20 years. Among the highlights were the millennium banquet, which featured a speech by Rita Colwell, Director of the National Science Foundation, and a hilarious skit by Colin Adams, in which mathematical "doctors" attempted to revive a dying theorem. Many enjoyed the Colloquium Lectures by Fields Medalist Curtis McMullen, who described fascinating work connecting Riemann surfaces with dynamics, topology, and number theory. Mathematical Reviews® celebrated its 60th birthday with a session featuring talks on the history and future of MR. The AMS awarded the Steele, Cole, and Wiener Prizes and the Award for Distinguished Public Service.
Don't miss the next big millennium event: Mathematical Challenges of the 21st Century.(Item Posted 1/2000)
AMS Website Survey
The American Mathematical Society is interested in your opinion of the AMS website . We hope you will fill in this short survey and let us know what you think. (Item Posted 1/2000)
New US$1000 Calculus Competition for High School Students
Any high school or (pre-high school) student in the United States is eligible to be nominated by a teacher for the National Calculus Student Award. Applications may be submitted between December 1, 1999 and February 29, 2000 via email. eCalculus.org is the sponsor of the award. (Item Posted 12/1999)
Departments Coordinate Job Offer Deadlines
Departments of Mathematics in the U.S. have, again this year, formally adopted an agreement to coordinate deadlines for responding to postdoctoral job offers. Details, including a list of departments adhering to the agreement, are available. (Item Posted 11/1999)
Travel Grants for Mathematical Challenges of the 21st Century, August 7-12, 2000
The AMS has applied to the National Science Foundation for funds to permit travel support for U.S. mathematicians attending the special meeting Mathematical Challenges of the 21st Century to be held on the UCLA campus, August 7-12, 2000. In anticipation of the availability of funds, the Society is accepting applications through January 31. This program is open to U.S. mathematicians who received their doctorates on or after January 1, 1994, and to graduate students enrolled in Ph.D. Mathematics programs at U.S. institutions. (Item Posted 1/2000)
Joint Mathematics Meetings in Washington, DC - January 19-22, 2000
Kick off World Mathematical Year 2000 at the Joint Mathematics Meetings(JMM) in Washington, D.C. (Item Posted 10/1999)
Deadline for AMS-AAAS Mass Media Fellowship
AMS-AAAS Mass Media Fellowship, Summer 2000: The deadline for applications for this 10-week summer fellowship for graduate students in mathematics is January 15, 2000.
AMS Election Results
In the AMS elections concluded 10 November 1999, AMS members named Hyman Bass, University of Michigan, as President Elect. In addition they named a Vice President, a Trustee, five Members at Large of the Council, three members of the AMS Nominating Committe and two members of the Editorial Boards Committee. (Item Posted 12/1999)
Online Membership Renewals: Multi-year too
When your dues renewal form arrives, you can renew your membership as well as subscriptions online at /dues-renewal. To save time and lock in this year's dues rate, you can pay for up to five years at once. Members in their first years of membership receive a special introductory rate. Payment is by credit card and reviewer coupons only. (Item Posted 10/1999)
Task Force on Excellence
At a recent conference held at Indiana University, the American Mathematical Society (AMS) and its Task Force on Excellence announced the publication of Towards Excellence: Leading a Mathematics Department in the 21st Century. The book is aimed at mathematics departments in research universities and calls on departments to understand what their university values. Because undergraduate education is a major focus for many universities, education is important for departments, not to replace research but in order to support it. The book contains advice and analysis of a number of focus groups involving department chairs as well as several meetings with groups of deans. It also contains examples of interesting programs studied during site visits to specific departments and a number of other resources. Copies of the book may be downloaded or ordered at: http:///towardsexcellence/. (Item Posted 06/1999, reposted 11/1999)
Call for Proposals for the AMS-IMS-SIAM Summer Research Conferences in the Mathematical Sciences 2001
The AMS-IMS-SIAM Summer Research Conferences Selection Committee invites mathematicians to serve as organizers. Pre-proposals should be submitted by December 10, 1999. The deadline for receipt of all proposals is February 1, 2000.(Item Posted 10/1999)
Newest Release of MathSciNet
MathSciNet subscribers can now take advantage of several new features and enhancements. See What's New, for the complete list. Highlights of the new release include:
The Life of Julia Robinson
Filmmaker George Csicery ("N is a Number: A Portrait of Paul Erdos") has started work on a one-hour documentary about the solution of Hilbert's tenth problem by Yuri Matiyasevich in 1970. The film will focus on the role of Julia Robinson, a past-president of the American Mathematical Society. Julia Robinson's story is intended to inspire high school students, particularly girls, to continue their mathematical education.The film is sponsored by the Film Arts Foundation.
NSF Graduate Fellowships Applications Due 11/4/1999
The NSF awards Graduate Research Fellowships to graduating seniors and first-year graduate students. These are three-year fellowships awarded to U.S. students for full-time graduate study at the institution of their choice. Read further for more on the importance of encouraging qualified individuals to apply. Further details about the program and how to apply are available from Oak Ridge Associated Universities, the program administrator. (Item Posted 9/1999)
Free Service for AMS Individual Members
e-CMP is the electronic notification service of Current Mathematical Publications (CMP). This service provides email to individual members noting relevant bibliographic entries from each CMP issue. Members may choose up to three Mathematics Subject Classifications. Notices will arrive approximately every three weeks. (Item Posted 7/1999)
Task Force on Excellence
At a recent conference held at Indiana University, the American Mathematical Society (AMS) and its Task Force on Excellence announced the publication of Towards Excellence: Leading a Mathematics Department in the 21st Century. The book is aimed at mathematics departments in research universities and calls on departments to understand what their university values. Because undergraduate education is a major focus for many universities, education is important for departments, not to replace research but in order to support it. The book contains advice and analysis of a number of focus groups involving department chairs as well as several meetings with groups of deans. It also contains examples of interesting programs studied during site visits to specific departments and a number of other resources. Copies of the book may be downloaded or ordered at: http:///towardsexcellence/. (Item Posted 06/1999)
AMS and CMS Approve a New Reciprocal Agreement
The American Mathematical Society (AMS) is delighted to announce that a new reciprocal agreement has been approved with the Canadian Mathematical Society (CMS) that will take effect for the year 2000 membership year.
Establishment of this agreement between the AMS and the CMS will result in significant savings and benefits for members of both societies and it will not affect, in any way, the present arrangement that exists whereby Canadian institutions can become Institutional Members of the AMS. (Item Posted 3/1999)
Over 500,000 Reviews Added to the Mathematical Reviews® Electronic Database
The American Mathematical Society has completed its two-year project of adding full-text reviews from the early archives of Mathematical Reviews® (MR) to the MathSci database. During that project, all reviews from 1940-1979 were keyboarded - over 80,000 pages of MR. The number of searchable reviews from 1940 to the present now on MathSciNet totals nearly 1,400,000. The entire collection contains, for the first time online, searchable reviews of a major part of mathematics from the past 60 years. (Item Posted 4/1999)
New AMS Directory of Preprint and e-Print Servers
The AMS has just created the AMS Directory of Mathematics Preprint and e-Print Servers The goal of the Directory is to maintain an updated directory of all mathematical preprint and e-print servers worldwide so that mathematicians can browse through their rich content or post their own research on the server of their choice. (Item Posted 3/1999)
Free Demonstration of JSTOR
JSTOR is a subscription service for institutions that provides electronic access to back issues (excluding the most recent five years) of selected scholarly journals. The mathematics and statistics section currently contains 14 journals, including the Transactions of the AMS, the Proceedings of AMS , the Journal of the AMS, and Mathematics of Computation. A free demonstration using the Transactions from 1900-1920 is now available from the JSTOR Demonstration Database. Complete information about the service is available at that address. More journals, including the American Mathematical Monthly and the American Journal of Mathematics, will be added in the future. (Item Posted 3/1999)
Erdös Lecture Launched in Denton
The American Mathematical Society is introducing the Erdös Memorial Lecture at its upcoming Joint International Meeting with the Sociedad Matematica Mexicana in Denton, Texas on May 19, 1999. The lecture funded by a gift from D. Andrew Beal is to be given annually. This year Ron Graham will talk on a variety of Erdös' unsolved problems in number theory. (Item Posted 4/1999)
Gian-Carlo Rota Dies at 66
Gian-Carlo Rota, Professor of Mathematics at MIT, and former Vice President of the American Mathematical Society, died suddenly during the weekend of April 17. The MIT Mathematics Department will host a public memorial in Professor Rota's honor on Friday, April 30, at 5:00 PM in Building 34, Room 101. All are invited to attend. (Item Posted 4/1999)
April is Mathematics Awareness Month
This year, Texas Instruments, Inc. joins three mathematical societies in sponsoring and organizing Mathematics Awareness Month (MAM). The theme is Mathematics and Biology, and this year's poster is Vital Rhythms: Mathematics in the Heart. The content highlights the contribution mathematical modeling makes in understanding heart function and malfunction through the work of Professor Jim Keener of the University of Utah, and A. V. Panfilov of the University of Utrecht. Professor Keener contributed the theme essay "Mathematics in the Heart."
Complete information on Mathematics Awareness Month 1999 activities can be found on the MAM website. (Item Posted 3/1999)
AMS-MAA Project Preparing Future Faculty in Mathematics
The American Mathematical Society and The Mathematical Association of America, working with the Council of Graduate Schools and the American Association of Colleges and Universities, invite proposals for subawards under a National Science Foundation grant to improve the preparation of graduate students for future teaching positions. Click here for the Request for Proposals from doctorate-granting mathematics departments for projects to prepare future faculty in mathematics (PFF).(Item Posted 2/1999)
San Antonio Spectacular
The Joint Mathematics Meetings held in San Antonio January 12-16, 1999 attracted 3600 registered participants. Among the superb mathematics lectures at the Meetings was the Gibbs Lecture by Nancy Kopell, who described new approaches to mathematical modeling of rhythmic systems in biology. AMS Invited Lecturer Aise Johan de Jong described his recent generalization of Hironaka's famous proof about resolution of singularities (see " Alterations can remove singularities," by Frans Oort in the AMS Bulletin). Sparking animated discussion was a session on the new draft of the school mathematics standards of the National Council of Teachers of Mathematics. Erich Neuwirth hosted a delightful musical event called ``Eine Kleine (Mathematische) Nachtmusik,'' in which he described the mathematics behind different piano tunings. The Meetings ended with the AMS Banquet, which featured two special honorees, Robert M. Fossum, who is retiring as AMS Secretary after 10 years of service, and Franklin P. Peterson, who is retiring as AMS Treasurer after 25 years of service.
Employment Register
The Society's efforts to help young mathematicians obtain employment have a long history. The Employment Register, a cornerstone of the AMS efforts, has been held for each of the last 47 years at the Joint Mathematics Meetings, with the sponsorship of the wider mathematical community, including MAA and SIAM. In its January 29 issue, the Chronicle of Higher Education highlighted this service in the cover story: "For Job Hunters in Academe, 1999 Offers Signs of an Upturn". (Item Posted 1/1999)
Cathleen Morawetz Awarded National Medal of Science
Former American Mathematical Society President Cathleen Synge Morawetz has been awarded the 1998 National Medal of Science to be presented by President Clinton. She is the first woman to receive the medal for work in mathematics specifically her pioneering developments in partial differential equations and wave propagation applications for aerodynamics, acoustics and optics. Professor emerita at New York University's Courant Institute, she has served the Society in many different elected and volunteer positions. She was elected the AMS' second women President and served from 1995-1996. She currently serves as Chair of the AMS Committee on Science Policy. (Item Posted 1/1999)
NCTM Releases Draft Standards Revision 2000
The National Council of Teachers of Mathematics (NCTM) has released a draft version of updated Standards entitled Principles and Standards for School Mathematics. An electronic version of the document (which features a wider range of examples) has been simultaneously released.
The AMS Association Review Group (ARG), previously chaired by Roger Howe (Yale University) and presently chaired by John Polking (Rice University) has provided background reactions in the year leading up to the draft; they will orchestrate an organizational response to the draft this academic year. In addition, we are encouraging individual members interested in commenting on the draft to do so. See the NCTM website for both the text and the interactive electronic drafts of the document and instructions on ordering a hard copy. You may also order a draft by calling (888) 220-7952. (There is a nominal fee for shipping and handling.)
Comments on the draft can be submitted via the webpage, by sending an e-mail message to future@nctm.org or by sending a written response to NCTM, 1906 Association Dr., Reston, VA 20191, Attention: Standards 2000. The deadline for comments is May 1, 1999. (Item Posted 12/98)
Newest Release of MathSciNet
MathSciNet subscribers can now take advantage of several new features and enhancements. See What's New, for the complete list. Highlights include:
- 1970-1974 review text added
- PDF as a display option with hyperlinks
- MathSciNet Quick Starts online
- Searches limited to Current Mathematical Publications entries
- Links to all AMS bookstore items, including the AMS Chelsea Publishing series (Item Posted 10/98)
Symbols Challenge from the AMS
The AMS, as part of a group of scientific publishers, is offering a Symbols Challenge. The goal of this effort is to increase the number of math symbols recognized by Unicode and we need your documentation to help defend the need for these symbols. (Item Posted 11/98)
Prize Winners at the International Congress of Mathematicians (ICM)
At the 1998 International Congress of Mathematicians, Fields Medals were awarded to Richard E. Borcherds, William T. Gowers, Maxim Kontsevich, and Curtis T. McMullen. The IMU Silver Plaque was awarded to Andrew J. Wiles, and the Nevanlinna Prize was awarded to Peter Shor.
The next ICM will be held August 20-28, 2002, in Beijing. (Item Posted 08/98, revised 9/98)
Morita Family Attends Dedication of Gardens
The Morita family from Japan recently visited the AMS to attend a dedication ceremony. The entranceway gardens of the Providence Headquarters were named in memory of Kiiti Morita. His widow Tomiko was accompanied by her son Yasuhiro, his wife Hiroko, and son Shigeo. Kiiti Morita was an eminent mathematician who combined profound work in topology with brilliant insights into algebra.
During the dedication ceremony attended by many AMS staff members, John Ewing presented a Board of Trustees resolution, thanking the Morita family for establishing the Kiiti Morita Fund. Tomiko Morita addressed those attending in Japanese, translated by her son Yasuhiro. She recalled her husband as, "a...delicate, cheerful, honest, and righteous person with fairness and vitality.(Item Posted 09/98)
Eligibility for NSF Mathematical Sciences Postdoctoral Research Fellowships Has Changed
Applicants must have received the PhD no earlier than January 1, 1997. For application information and requirements, see the NSF Fastlane site or the NSF program announcement. The application deadline is October 16, 1998. (Item Posted 09/98)
AMS Records First Institutional Member Under its New International Program
At the initiative of its Section de Mathématique, the University of Liège in Belgium, is the first institution to become a member of the AMS under the recently established International Program of Institutional Membership. Under this new program, educational institutions outside North America are eligible for institutional membership in the AMS. The program provides benefits comparable to those long available to institutional members in the U.S., Canada, Mexico, and the Caribbean. These benefits include a 20% discount on subscriptions to AMS journals and on the Data Access Fee for Mathematical Reviews®.
Visit the Institutional Membership (International Program) for further details on how to become a member.(Item Posted 09/98)
Meeting Abstracts Now Available Online
Abstracts that are electronically submitted for AMS meetings will now be displayed on the AMS website! Meeting abstracts will be available once they have been approved by the program committee and scheduled in the program so abstracts will not instantaneously appear upon submission. About 90-95% of all abstracts presented at meetings are submitted electronically, so you will be able to view almost all of them online. The first meeting where this new abstract viewing service is available is the Sectional Meeting at DePaul University in Chicago, September 12-13, 1998. Check out the program and its abstracts to see if there is something happening at the meeting for you!(Item Posted 08/98)
Individual Membership Renewal Now Available Online
AMS Individual members may now renew their membership in the American Mathematical Society online. Visit /dues-renewal to pay your dues, update your name or address, and make contributions to development programs. You can also order your free copy of Assistantships & Graduate Fellowships in the Mathematical Sciences, 1998-1999 and change or renew your journal subscriptions. Payment is by credit card and reviewer coupons only.(Item Posted 07/98)
Advance 1999 Membership
Apply now for 1999 AMS membership and we'll extend member benefits you can enjoy NOW through the end of the year until your full membership privileges start in January 1999. While you won't receive your subscriptions to Notices and/or Bulletin until January 1999, you can start enjoying the following benefits: member discounts on AMS publications, inclusion in the Combined Membership List, reduced registration fees at AMS meetings, e-mail forwarding service, and more.
Call our Membership Services department for more information at 800-321-4AMS. Or go to our Individual Membership area and browse our member benefits list. (Item Posted 07/98, rev. 09/98)
Summer Membership Offer
Half-rate 1998 - Become a 1998 AMS member today for half the usual rate and enjoy full membership privileges through the end of the year, including free subscriptions to Notices of the AMS and/or Bulletin of the AMS. (Item Posted 07/98)
Jane Kister Appointed Executive Editor of Mathematical Reviews®
On July 1, Jane Kister became Executive Editor of Mathematical Reviews®, one of the most important and complex publications of the AMS. Based in Ann Arbor, Michigan, MR publishes reviews of books and articles in all areas of mathematical sciences research. The material covered in MR represents virtually all of the worldwide mathematical sciences literature. The reviews are written by a corps of about 13,000 reviewers scattered all over the globe. MR is available through several different media, including through the web product, MathSciNet.
As Executive Editor, Kister will oversee a 70-person staff which will process as many as 67,000 books and articles this year. She succeeds R. Keith Dennis, who has finished his term as Executive Editor and in the fall will return to his position as professor of mathematics at Cornell University. (Item Posted 07/98)
International Congress of Mathematicians,
August 18 - 27 in Berlin
The quadrennial International Congress of Mathematicians will take place in Berlin during August. Information about the program and surrounding events can be found at ICM98. The Fields Medals and the Rolf Nevanlinna Prize are awarded at each Congress. The International Mathematical Union (IMU) supports and assists the ICM. The IMU provides a brief history of the awards and a list of past recipients. (Item Posted 04/98)
Contemporary Mathematics - Electronic Edition
Selected volumes of the Contemporary Mathematics series are now available both electronically and in the traditional print format. The first volume to have an electronic edition is Domain Decomposition Methods 10, Contemporary Mathematics 218.
The electronic version is available at no additional charge to purchasers of the print volume. Access instructions are provided in the book. There is also the option to purchase only the electronic version. You may order it through our usual outlets, including the AMS Bookstore.
Editors of future conference proceedings who are interested in having an electronic edition of their book should contact Sergei Gelfand (Director) or Edward Dunne (Editor) at the Acquistions Department of the American Mathematical Society. (Item Posted 06/98)
Celebrating the M. C. Escher Centennial
In honor of the 100th aniversary of the birth of the Dutch printmaker Maurits Cornelius Escher (born June 17, 1898, died March 27, 1972) the AMS is pleased to reprint the article The Trigonometry of Escher's Woodcut "Circle Limit III" by H. S. M. Coxeter, which originally appeared in the Mathematical Intelligencer. (This article is reprinted with the permission of the author, of the publisher, Springer Verlag, and of Cordon Art. All M. C. Escher works © 1998 Cordon Art - Baarn - Holland. All rights reserved. Used by permission.) (Item Posted 06/98)
MSC2000, An Update of the Mathematics Subject Classification
The editors of Mathematical Reviews® and Zentralblatt für Mathematik are pleased to announce that MSC2000, the proposed revision of the 1991 Mathematics Subject Classification, which both journals plan to use as their classification system beginning in 2000, is now available. The final version of the revised classification, MSC2000, will be presented to the community at the International Congress of Mathematicians in Berlin on August 24, 1998. (Item Posted 05/98)
Late Season Hiring Help Available on the AMS website
The 1998 Job Seekers List is now available. A JOB SEEKER announces his or her current availability by entering a name and very brief contact information into this list. EMPLOYERS who need, late in the hiring season, to go back to applications which may have been received months ago, can check for the names in this list to find out who may still be in the job market. The list is active from April through September. (Item Posted 05/98)
Announcing the Student Mathematical Library
An Undergraduate Book Series
The AMS is pleased to announce the Student Mathematical Library, a new series of undergraduate studies in mathematics. By emphasizing original topics and approaches, the series aims to broaden students' mathematical experiences. We hope the books will spark undergraduates' appreciation for research mathematics by introducing them to interesting topics of modern mathematics that are accessible to undergraduates. The books to appear in the series are suitable for honors courses, upper-division seminars, reading courses or self-study. Contact the Acquisitions Department for more information. (Item Posted 03/98, revised 05/98)
Newly Digitized Reviews Now Available on MathSciNet
The American Mathematical Society is pleased to announce that over 175,000 newly digitized, full text reviews from the Mathematical Reviews® (MR) volume years 1975-1979 have been added to the MR database. This represents more than 35% of the total reviews to be digitized then added to the MR database over the next 12-18 months, going all the way back to the first MR issues published in 1940. These additional reviews are now accessible to subscribers of MathSciNet. (Item Posted 04/98)
Mathematics Awareness Week 1998
April 26 - May 2
Mathematics and Imaging
Mathematics and Imaging is the theme for Mathematics Awareness Week 1998, which will be observed nationwide from April 26 - May 2. The three mathematical societies organizing Mathematics Awareness Week selected Mathematics and Imaging to highlight the many significant contributions mathematics makes to areas important to our lives. Mathematics is an essential element of imaging in fields as diverse as medicine, computer sciences, and space exploration, and many other settings as well.
Mathematics Awareness Week is coordinated by the Joint Policy Board for Mathematics on behalf of three national mathematical organizations--the American Mathematical Society, the Mathematical Association of America, and the Society for Industrial and Applied Mathematics.(Item Posted 03/98)
New NSF Initiative
Mathematicians Encouraged to Apply
Deadlines Quickly Approaching
The National Science Foundation has announced a new initiative entitled Knowledge and Distributed Intelligence (KDI). KDI aims to bring together expertise from all areas of science, including mathematics, to focus on a variety of questions in communications and networking, understanding learning and intelligence, and computation. The NSF's Division of Mathematical Sciences sees many opportunities for mathematicians to participate in KDI. Letters of intent are due April 1 and full proposals are due May 8. Click here for further information. (Item Posted 03/98)
Joint Mathematics Meetings, Baltimore, Maryland, January 7-10, 1998.
U.S. Secretary of Education Richard W. Riley tells mathematicians to "...teach better mathematics and teach mathematics better." He challenged the mathematics community to find a common ground. "It is perfectly appropriate to disagree on teaching methodologies and curriculum content. But what we need is a civil and constructive discourse."
Lt. Gen. Kenneth Minihan, Director, National Security Agency, says it is vital that government, industry, and academe act as partners in defense of the nation's most valuable assets--our strategic information infrastructure and educational foundation--to meet the challenges of the 21st Century. (Item Posted 01/98)
AMS President Supports Call for Doubling of Federal Investment in Scientific Research Over the Next Decade
AMS President Arthur Jaffe has supported a call for doubling the federal investment in scientific research over the next decade. Both Arthur Jaffe's statement and the unified statement by over 100 scientific society presidents presented on October 22, 1997 are available for review. (Item posted 01/98)
The Increasing Use of Part-Time and Adjunct Faculty is a Major Concern in Academia Today
In late November, ten professional societies, including the AMS, formulated a statement on the use of part-time and adjunct faculty. In addition to presenting facts and figures, the statement points out some of the detrimental effects of over-reliance on non-permanent faculty and strongly urges colleges and universities to avoid excessive or inappropriate use of such positions. The statement includes a set of policy guidelines and suggestions for their implementation. The AMS Committee on the Profession will be studying the statement and possibly make recommendations for AMS action. (Item Posted 01/98)
AMSFonts in PostScript Released
Thanks to financial contributions from a consortium of scientific societies, software developers, and publishers, the AMSFonts in PostScript format are now freely available for public use. They can be retrieved from the AMS website's TeX Resources page. (Item Posted 01/98)
Attention North American MathSciNet Users
The AMS has established a new MathSciNet mirror site in Houston, Texas: http://ams.rice.edu/mathscinet
Learn more about the many new features added to MathSciNet for 1998.(Item Posted 01/98)
A Wealth of Mathematical Resources on a Single CD-ROM
The Mathematician's CD: A Collection of Resources from the AMS brings together a variety of items that have proven useful to the mathematical community. Educators, researchers, students, and librarians now have immediate access to a compilation of valuable information in a convenient CD-ROM format, compatible with Macintosh, Windows, and UNIX. In addition, The Mathematician's CD provides access to up-to-date information with live links to the AMS Web site, and other Web sites. (Item Posted 01/98)