Notices of the American Mathematical Society

Welcome to the Notices of the American Mathematical Society.
With support from AMS membership, we are pleased to share the journal with the global mathematical community.

Editorial

Mark C. Wilson

The year is rushing along and has been very busy (I hope we all made it to May!). The overall impact of new US government policies is still unclear as I write, though there are major concerns about potential large budget cuts. This link may help in keeping up with changes to NSF: https://www.nsf.gov/executive-orders, while this one is useful for seeing what the AMS is doing: https://www.ams.org/government.

I find the long-term and universalist outlook that mathematics fosters to be calming. Many famous mathematicians in history have suffered a lot, and yet mathematics keeps on growing. Political conflicts come and go, and may set the development of mathematics back temporarily, but the subject still flourishes internationally.

Of course, there are plenty of people working to help mathematics spread worldwide. This month, as promised in the last editorial, we present an interview with the secretary general of the International Mathematical Union. If you did not know much about the breadth of activities carried out by IMU, there is now no excuse!

This issue has a strong Michel Talagrand theme, with his Abel Prize interview and a feature article related to some of his work. There is also an awards theme, with a Fields Medalist as an author of the other feature article. I would like to include three feature articles per issue, at least for some issues per year. So far the pipeline of articles has not been sufficiently full to allow this. While appreciating the hard work of authors, I do want to stress that in order for such a publication to work well, everyone must stick to agreed deadlines. A feature article in Notices has a potentially very large audience, and should be considered as fairly prestigious, in my opinion.

The first ever “What is…” article with a mathematics education theme, a memorial tribute to Pierre Cartier, detailed advice on applying for tenure, a few vignettes about the use of AI tools in mathematical research, a farewell from long-serving associate secretary Steve Weintraub, and brief book reviews round out the content for which the Editorial Board is responsible. Notices also contains important information from the secretary and other parts of the organization. In particular, the Annual Survey has resumed after a long hiatus—for example, in the March issue you can check how your salary compares with others, and this issue has departmental profile reports.

With the demise of AMS blogs, the Notices Letters to the Editor section is even more important for those wishing to raise an issue. This month we have the first correction by a reader of an article published in 2025. We pride ourselves on keeping the error rate low, but you should keep us honest.

May is Asian American and Pacific Islander Heritage Month in the US, as well as Military Appreciation Month. As discussed in the February editorial, we aim to cover the full breadth and diversity of the mathematical community over time. If you have an idea for an article particularly relevant to mathematicians from either or both of the two classes above, please get in touch.

My best wishes to all members of the mathematical community as we navigate the higher levels of uncertainty that 2025 has brought.

Credits

Photo is courtesy of Mark C. Wilson.