Concerns of Young Mathematicians, Summer Digest for 2004.

From: Lloyd Kilford (l.kilford_at_gmail.com)
Date: 09/27/04 

Date: 27 Sep 2004 06:49:51 -0700

*Concerns of Young Mathematicians*
Volume 12, Issue 6
Articles from Summer (June-Aug) 2004

An electronically distributed digest for discussions
of the issues of concern to mathematicians at the
beginning of their careers.

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.

Please visit the Young Mathematicians' Network Scoop site at

http://concerns.youngmath.net

to join the discussion or submit stories. You may also
direct submissions and questions to the current
editor by writing to <moderator@youngmath.net>.

Table of Contents
Item # Title
---------- ----------------
1 Editorial
2 New Poll on the YMN website
3 Poincare Conjecture - Now a Theorem?
4 Want a Job at Google?
5 Rumo[u]r Mills
6 YMN/Project NExT Poster Session at JMM in Atlanta
7 Words of Wisdom for homework problems
8 One, Some, Many
9 You know that you're doing badly ...
10 Graduate Students ruled not to be employees
11 Upcoming AWM Program deadlines
12 Feast or famine?
13 More Poster Sessions Please
14 Want to get paid for writing about your job search?
15 Grading AP Calculus
16 Louis De Branges proves the Riemann Hypothesis ...
again
17 Subscription & Web Site Info
18 Closing Credits

____________________________________________________________
Item #1 Editorial
By David Kung

Welcome back to a new year! We at YMN hope everyone enjoyed a relaxing
and productive summer - and that the new school year is treating you
well.

In this Summer Recap issue we cover the mathematical happenings over
the
last few months - and an exciting few months it's been. Several news
items
lead the way. There may be only 5 remaining million dollar Clay
Institute
Millennium Problems after Louis de Branges and Grigori Perelman
announced
solutions of the Riemann Hypothesis and the Poincare Conjecture
respectively.
Google is using the digits of e to troll for new employees, graduate
students
were denied the right to unionize in a landmark case at Brown, and
deadlines
for a couple of programs are approaching (the YMN-cosponsored poster
session
and several AWM-sponsored programs.) On the job front, there are yet
again
rumors of an upcoming shortage of scientists from the Chronicle, an
opportunity
to earn some money writing about the job market, and a discussion of
setting
up a site where applicants could exchange info about the status of
their searches.

Enjoy this issue of Concerns, and best of luck with the new year.

Dave

____________________________________________________________
Item #2 New Poll on the YMN website

With the election in the news and poll after poll looking at the
presidential
race, this month's poll on the YMN website asks "How will young
mathematicians
vote in November?"

Cast your vote at

http://www.youngmath.net/concerns/

____________________________________________________________
Item #3 Poincare Conjecture - Now a Theorem?
By Anonymous Hero, 2004-09-22
Section: News

Dr Grigori Perelman, of the Steklov Institute of Mathematic, claimed
two
years ago to have proven the Poincare Conjecture, one of the million
dollar
Clay Institute Millenium Problems. So far, indications are that the
proof
is holding up.

See the BBC Report http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/sci/tech/3632908.stm
for more info.

Share your thoughts and comments at

http://www.youngmath.net/concerns/story/2004/9/22/63054/5986

____________________________________________________________
Item #4 Want a Job at Google?
By Anonymous Hero, 2004-09-16
Section: News

Interested in a job at Google? The link below leads to a story
that explains how your knowledge of mathematics might help you
land one.

NPR Story http://www.npr.org/features/feature.php?wfId=3916173

For more details and to share your thoughts and comments visit

http://www.youngmath.net/concerns/story/2004/9/16/18443/9426

____________________________________________________________
Item #5 Rumo[u]r Mills
By overconvergent, 2004-09-13
Section: Job Search

The internet provides a certain amount of anonymity; one group
of beneficiaries of this are "rumour mill" websites, such as the
following site

http://www.physics.wm.edu/~calvin/index.html

for theoretical particle physics.

For more details and to share your thoughts and comments visit

http://www.youngmath.net/concerns/story/2004/9/13/94845/8077

____________________________________________________________
Item #6 YMN/Project NExT Poster Session at JMM in Atlanta
By kevin charlwood, 2004-09-01
Section: Research

If you will be attending the Joint Winter Mathematics
Meetings in Atlanta next January, and are either a graduate student, or
no
more than 5 years beyond the completion of your Ph.D., you are urged to
consider presenting a poster of your research work at the YMN/Project
NExT
Poster Session on Thursday, January 6, 2005. For additonal details,
please
visit

http://www.youngmath.net/concerns/story/2004/9/1/73541/91997

____________________________________________________________
Item #7 Words of Wisdom for homework problems
By Emil Volcheck, 2004-08-30
Section: Misc

One book's exercise is another book's example.

For more details and to share your thoughts and comments visit

http://www.youngmath.net/concerns/story/2004/8/28/194651/300

____________________________________________________________
Item #8 One, Some, Many
By overconvergent, 2004-08-25
Section: News

A tribe from a remote part of Brazilian Amazonia
[http://www.cnn.com/2004/TECH/science/08/19/science.counting.reut/]
has a language without the words for numbers: instead, it has only
words meaning "one or a few", "a small number" and "a large number".

For more details and to share your thoughts and comments visit

http://www.youngmath.net/concerns/story/2004/8/23/73354/3195

____________________________________________________________
Item #9 You know that you're doing badly ...
By overconvergent, 2004-08-12
Section: Research

... when even the arXiv [http://front.math.ucdavis.edu/] rejects
your work.

For more details and to share your thoughts and comments visit

http://www.youngmath.net/concerns/story/2004/8/11/13344/0122

____________________________________________________________
Item #10 Graduate Students ruled not to be employees
By overconvergent, 2004-08-01
Section: Grad Life

The National Labor Relations Board http://www.nlrb.gov/nlrb/home/
has reversed its previous ruling, and stated that graduate
students (as teaching assistants) are not employees

http://www.nlrb.gov/nlrb/press/releases/r2533.htm

in a case involving Brown University.

For more details and to share your thoughts and comments visit

http://www.youngmath.net/concerns/story/2004/7/27/14165/3556

____________________________________________________________
Item #11 Upcoming AWM Program deadlines
By chawne, 2004-07-09
Section: News

The Association for Women in Mathematics has several upcoming
program deadlines starting in early August.

For more details and to share your thoughts and comments visit

http://www.youngmath.net/concerns/story/2004/7/9/192246/0806

____________________________________________________________
Item #12 Feast or famine?
By chawne, 2004-07-07
Section: News

Once again, a few entities in the federal government are cautioning of
a shortage of scientists in our future. The Chronicle provides a
pretty
comprehensive examination of the state of things

http://chronicle.com/free/v50/i44/44a01001.htm

For more details and to share your thoughts and comments visit

http://www.youngmath.net/concerns/story/2004/7/7/11838/80019

____________________________________________________________
Item #13 More Poster Sessions Please
By overconvergent, 2004-07-05
Section: Research

I attended the ANTS VI [http://web.ew.usna.edu/~ants/] conference
recently; I didn't give a talk there, but I did present a poster on
my research. I want to talk a little bit about poster sessions here,
to recommend them as a useful addition to the talks at a conference.

For more details and to share your thoughts and comments visit

http://www.youngmath.net/concerns/story/2004/7/5/183956/8578

____________________________________________________________
Item #14 Want to get paid for writing about your job search?
By kroth, 2004-07-02
Section: Job Search

As it has in past years the Chronicle of Higher Education is looking
for people to write about their experiences on the job market and get
paid for their troubles.

A lot of the faculty who write are from the humanities. It would be
nice to see a mathematician. You can read their request for
submissions here

http://chronicle.com/jobs/2004/07/2004070202c.htm

To share your thoughts and comments visit

http://www.youngmath.net/concerns/story/2004/7/2/71525/55139

____________________________________________________________
Item #15 Grading AP Calculus
By Steve Weintraub, 2004-06-14
Section: Career

Kim Roth recently submitted a positive report on grading AP calculus.
My experience with grading AP Calculus was extremely negative. See
The AP Calculus Grading System is Badly Broken at

http://www.lehigh.edu/~shw2/ap2001.html

for my report on my experience, and why I would never do it again.

To share your thoughts and comments on grading the AP exam, visit

http://www.youngmath.net/concerns/story/2004/6/14/95015/6848

____________________________________________________________
Item #16 Louis De Branges proves the Riemann Hypothesis ... again
By overconvergent, 2004-06-10
Section: Research

This seems to be the time of year for attempted solutions to very
hard problems. Unfortunately, Arenstorf has withdrawn his paper
which claimed to prove the Twin Prime conjecture, but the BBC is
reporting that Louis De Branges has claimed to have proved the
Riemann hypothesis.

For more details and to share your thoughts and comments visit

http://www.youngmath.net/concerns/story/2004/6/10/17438/3407

____________________________________________________________
Item #17 Subscription & Web Site Info

To subscribe or change your subscription to the *Concerns*
mailing list, visit URL

http://youngmath.net/mailman/listinfo/concerns .

The YMN homepage is at URL

http://www.youngmath.net

and the Scoop Engine edition of the *Concerns* is at

http://concerns.youngmath.net

where you can read stories and become a member of our
Scoop Engine community.