The Annual General Meeting of the New Zealand Mathematical Society will be held on 1 July, beginning at 4.30p.m. in AH2 at the 1996 NZ Mathematics Colloquium at Massey University in Palmerston North.
Items for the Agenda should be forwarded to the NZMS Secretary, Dr Stephen Joe, Department of Mathematics, The University of Waikato, Private Bag 3105, Hamilton (fax number: (07) 838 4666, email address: stephenj@waikato.ac.nz).
The Forder Lectureship was established in 1985 following a bequest to the London Mathematical Society from the late Professor Henry George Forder (Professor of Mathematics at the University of Auckland 1934-55). Under the terms of this Lectureship, every two years an eminent mathematician in the United Kingdom is selected (by the London Mathematical Society Council in consultation with the NZ Mathematical Society Council) to tour New Zealand for a period of three to four weeks and to give lectures in the six main NZ university centres.
The first Forder Lecturer was Professor Christopher Zeeman in 1987, and was followed by Professor Sir Michael Atiyah in 1989, Professor Peter Whittle in 1991, Professor Roger Penrose in 1993, and Professor Elmer Rees in 1995.
The Forder Lecturer for 1997 will be Professor Ian Stewart of the University of Warwick. Further details of his visit are currently being arranged. The contact person for his visit is Dr Rick Beatson (University of Canterbury), email: rkb@math.canterbury.ac.nz. The NZMS is grateful to the London Mathematical Society for supporting this visit.
As the terms of office of the Outgoing Vice-President (Marston Conder) and three Council members (Rick Beatson, Ernie Kalnins, and Mark McGuinness) come to an end in 1996, nominations are called for the following vacancies on the NZMS Council:
Incoming Vice-President
Council members (three)
The term of office of the Incoming Vice-President is one year, after which that person is expected to become President for a two-year period, and then Outgoing Vice-President for a further year.
The term of office of a Council member is three years. Council members may hold office for two (but no more than two) consecutive terms.
Nominations should be signed by two proposers and the nominee, all of whom should be current Ordinary or Honorary members of the NZ Mathematical Society. Please forward nominations by Monday 20 May to the NZMS Secretary, Dr Stephen Joe, Department of Mathematics, The University of Waikato, Private Bag 3105, Hamilton (fax number: (07) 838 4666, email address: stephenj@waikato.ac.nz).
Each year the NZMS coordinates and provides some financial support for a tour of NZ universities by a visiting mathematician. Usually this person - known as the NZMS Visiting
Lecturer - will spend two to three days at each of
the six main university centres, and give at least two lectures at each place: one for a general audience, and one more closely tied to his or her own particular research interests. Recent NZMS Visiting Lecturers have included Professor John Loxton (Macquarie University), Professor Andreas Dress (University of Bielefeld), Dr Colin Maclachlan (University of Aberdeen), and Professor Roger Grimshaw (Monash University).
The NZMS Council has offered the 1996 NZMS Visiting Lectureship to Professor Valerie Isham from University College London. Professor Isham is likely to tour in October 1996.
Nominations for the 1997 NZMS Visiting Lectureship are now being requested by the NZMS Council. Names of suitable candidates should be sent, together with a brief description of their current position and field(s) of interest, to the NZMS Secretary, Dr Stephen Joe, Department of Mathematics, The University of Waikato, Private Bag 3105, Hamilton (fax number: (07) 838 4666, email address: stephenj@waikato.ac.nz).
The NZ Mathematical Society offers a prize for the best contributed talk by a student at the annual NZ Mathematics Colloquium.
Known as the Aitken Prize, in honour of the New Zealand born mathematician Alexander Craig Aitken, this prize will be offered for the second time at the 1996 Colloquium to be held at Massey University in Palmerston North during the week 3-7 July 1996.
The prize will consist of a cheque for NZ$250, accompanied by a certificate.
Entrants for the prize must be enrolled (or have been enrolled) for a degree in Mathematics at a university or other tertiary institution in New Zealand in the year of the award. During the Colloquium, they should give a talk on a topic in any branch of the mathematical sciences.
A judging panel will be appointed by the NZMS Council, and make recommendations to the NZMS President and Vice-President for the award. Normally the prize will be awarded to one person, but in exceptional circumstances the prize may be shared, or no prize may be awarded.
Entrants should clearly indicate their willingness to be considered for the award when they register their intention to contribute a talk at the Colloquium. For the 1996 Colloquium, this information is required by the organising committee by May 31, to Secretary, 1996 NZ Mathematics Colloquium Committee, Mathematics Department, Massey University, Private Bag 11-222, Palmerston North, New Zealand.
Over the last eighteen months, the National Committee for Mathematics of the Australian Academy of Sciences, has initiated and overseen a Review of the Mathematical Sciences. The final report was published in January 1996 and was publicised widely at a symposium held in Sydney on 23 February of this year. I was privileged to attend the symposium with the support of the Royal Society of New Zealand, the New Zealand Mathematical Society and the New Zealand Statistical Association. The motivation for attending was that a similar kind of exercise should be undertaken in New Zealand. Indeed the sub-committee for the Mathematical and Information Sciences of the Royal Society of New Zealand has recommended to the Ministry of Research, Science and Technology through the Chief Scientist therein that a similar exercise be held in New Zealand. His response is awaited.
The report that was produced across the Tasman is wide ranging and relevant. It contains specific recommendations for the enhancement and continued development of the Mathematical Sciences (including pure and applied mathematics, operations research, statistics, actuarial science, etc). It is clear that there are specific concerns to do with the research funding base in Australia, albeit that being probably better than it is in New Zealand, the ageing of the profession of mathematicians in Australia, and under-representation of groups (gender, ethnicity, etc). There are specific recommendations about forming cooperative research centres in locations across Australia of finite life, building up centres of excellence and moving these around the country as opportunities permit. The forerunner of this kind of exercise was the Centre of Mathematical Analysis at ANU in Canberra. At present there are no such CRCs in the mathematical sciences in Australia, although a number of bids are currently being considered. The relative immobility of staff between institutions is addressed and recommendations for enhancement of this movement, and perhaps joint appointments even, are canvassed.
The structure of the report is impressive. There are recommendations directed to professional societies, academic departments, scientific organisations and federations of industrial private stakeholders in the areas considered. Specific follow-up action has been signposted. The report is backed by good research and technical information.
To publicise the report, a forum was held with noted speakers from across the nation in the University of New South Wales in February of this year. Politicians attended as well as representatives of industry, though the publicity generated was perhaps overshadowed by the soon to follow federal elections in Australia. However, the National Committee for Mathematics in Australia (chaired by Professor Ian Sloan of the University of New South Wales) had geared itself up to produce a number of newsworthy items concerning the use, structure and power of mathematics across and within other disciplines at that time. A stream of news items and articles subsequently appeared. The impact will be hard to measure, although my feeling was that it was a success quite well managed. Congratulations to our Australian counterparts.
I am definitely of the opinion that we should follow up the exercise that our sub-committee has initiated and we strongly urge that the management of this process be retained by the profession in this country, albeit augmented by possible outside experts. There needs to be a thorough survey of groups within the country and regional meetings held to evaluate the health of our profession and the needs in the current funding programme. Previous admissions on Key Science Areas have signified that mathematics is everywhere but nowhere and is often falling through the cracks in the current science fabric, which stresses output areas rather than fundamental disciplines. It would be an interesting exercise to follow through the Australian one here to see how we measure up to our Australian cousins. One thing is certain - it is a big undertaking to do a Review of this size and complexity. Some risks are present but are worth taking for the good of our discipline(s), I believe.
I would like to thank the two professional societies and the Royal Society of New Zealand who supported my attendance at the symposium in Sydney in February.
Professor Graeme Wake
The University of Auckland
Convenor of the Sub-Committee for the
Mathematical and Information Sciences, RSNZ