Editorial

In this February 2025 issue, we conclude the two-part interview with Maria Klawe about her career, present feature articles on very different areas of mathematics and an education article, and continue the conversation on publishing. The Conversations section will involve both multi-article series of a common theme, and also interviews related to topics of professional interest. We present an interview with Susan Landau, the 2024 Russell Prize winner (for work on encryption policy and digital privacy), and an article about the use of the Lean theorem prover. An obituary of Judith Sally, the first book review of 2025, and the first What Is … article round out the content under the editorial board’s purview (I am ultimately responsible for about 800 pages per year, with the AMS secretary providing the rest).

One change from the previous editorial regime is that we will have a more relaxed attitude to the Heritage Month issues, for several reasons. Not all such official months have been marked in the Notices. For example, Arab American, Jewish American, Native American, and Asian American, Native Hawaiian, and Pacific Islander Heritage Month have not been officially covered, to my knowledge. When we look at protected classes, those with disabilities and military veterans have not been focused upon. It is not feasible to have a monthly issue every year devoted to each group. Also, sometimes the submission and editorial process means that in order to get a high-quality article on a given topic, we need to wait until the next issue. I don’t want to impose yet another “minority tax” by pushing members of underrepresented groups to fit into an inflexible schedule. Finally, at the beginning of each editor’s tenure, there are inevitable pipeline problems. I expect that within a few months, we will be at the steady state, which will allow for easier issue planning.

For example, February is Black History Month in the United States (since 1976—for the previous 50 years it was only a week). Despite unfair disadvantages, Black mathematicians have contributed to the US and world mathematical community for well over a century. In the pipeline are an article about the history of Morehouse College and a centennial celebration of the first African American mathematics PhD Elbert Frank Cox, but despite our best efforts they were not ready in time for this issue, and we intend that they appear later in 2025. I hope that we can publish an article on more recent trends, developments, and challenges soon, and welcome input from potential authors.

The current issue has many articles by and about women, yet comes a month too early for the official heritage month in March. I hope that readers will keep us honest, so that over time we do appropriately reflect well the diversity of the entire AMS membership in our choice of topics and authors. At the end of each year, the board will review the year’s content against this and other criteria. We welcome discussion about potential submissions—the editorial board spends a lot of time thinking about whom to solicit articles from, but we don’t know everyone! I welcome your input on this and any other topic at notices-ed@amsjournals.org.

I write this a few days before the 2024 elections in the US, with quiet hope that whatever the result, continuing penetration into public life of mathematical knowledge and methodology will help to improve the quality of arguments and decision-making in future. The AMS has an important part to play in this endeavor, as do we all.