National Academies Press: OpenBook

The Mathematical Sciences in 2025 (2013)

Chapter: Front Matter

Suggested Citation:"Front Matter." National Research Council. 2013. The Mathematical Sciences in 2025. Washington, DC: The National Academies Press. doi: 10.17226/15269.
×

The Mathematical Sciences
in 2025

Committee on the Mathematical Sciences in 2025

Board on Mathematical Sciences and Their Applications

Division on Engineering and Physical Sciences

NATIONAL RESEARCH COUNCIL
OF THE NATIONAL ACADEMIES

THE NATIONAL ACADEMIES PRESS

Washington, D.C.

www.nap.edu

Suggested Citation:"Front Matter." National Research Council. 2013. The Mathematical Sciences in 2025. Washington, DC: The National Academies Press. doi: 10.17226/15269.
×

THE NATIONAL ACADEMIES PRESS    500 Fifth Street, NW    Washington, DC 20001

NOTICE: The project that is the subject of this report was approved by the Governing Board of the National Research Council, whose members are drawn from the councils of the National Academy of Sciences, the National Academy of Engineering, and the Institute of Medicine. The members of the committee responsible for the report were chosen for their special competences and with regard for appropriate balance.

This project was supported by the National Science Foundation under grant number DMS-0911899. Any opinions, findings, conclusions, or recommendations expressed in this publication are those of the author(s) and do not necessarily reflect the views of the organizations or agencies that provided support for the project.

International Standard Book Number-13: 978-0-309-28457-8
International Standard Book Number-10: 0-309-28457-0
Library of Congress Control Number: 2013933839

Additional copies of this report are available from the National Academies Press, 500 Fifth Street, NW, Keck 360, Washington, DC 20001; (800) 624-6242 or (202) 334-3313; http://www.nap.edu.

Suggested citation: National Research Council. 2013. The Mathematical Sciences in 2025. Washington, D.C.: The National Academies Press.

Copyright 2013 by the National Academy of Sciences. All rights reserved.

Printed in the United States of America

Suggested Citation:"Front Matter." National Research Council. 2013. The Mathematical Sciences in 2025. Washington, DC: The National Academies Press. doi: 10.17226/15269.
×

THE NATIONAL ACADEMIES
Advisers to the Nation on Science, Engineering, and Medicine

The National Academy of Sciences is a private, nonprofit, self-perpetuating society of distinguished scholars engaged in scientific and engineering research, dedicated to the furtherance of science and technology and to their use for the general welfare. Upon the authority of the charter granted to it by the Congress in 1863, the Academy has a mandate that requires it to advise the federal government on scientific and technical matters. Dr. Ralph J. Cicerone is president of the National Academy of Sciences.

The National Academy of Engineering was established in 1964, under the charter of the National Academy of Sciences, as a parallel organization of outstanding engineers. It is autonomous in its administration and in the selection of its members, sharing with the National Academy of Sciences the responsibility for advising the federal government. The National Academy of Engineering also sponsors engineering programs aimed at meeting national needs, encourages education and research, and recognizes the superior achievements of engineers. Dr. Charles M. Vest is president of the National Academy of Engineering.

The Institute of Medicine was established in 1970 by the National Academy of Sciences to secure the services of eminent members of appropriate professions in the examination of policy matters pertaining to the health of the public. The Institute acts under the responsibility given to the National Academy of Sciences by its congressional charter to be an adviser to the federal government and, upon its own initiative, to identify issues of medical care, research, and education. Dr. Harvey V. Fineberg is president of the Institute of Medicine.

The National Research Council was organized by the National Academy of Sciences in 1916 to associate the broad community of science and technology with the Academy’s purposes of furthering knowledge and advising the federal government. Functioning in accordance with general policies determined by the Academy, the Council has become the principal operating agency of both the National Academy of Sciences and the National Academy of Engineering in providing services to the government, the public, and the scientific and engineering communities. The Council is administered jointly by both Academies and the Institute of Medicine. Dr. Ralph J. Cicerone and Dr. Charles M. Vest are chair and vice chair, respectively, of the National Research Council.

www.national-academies.org

Suggested Citation:"Front Matter." National Research Council. 2013. The Mathematical Sciences in 2025. Washington, DC: The National Academies Press. doi: 10.17226/15269.
×

This page intentionally left blank.

Suggested Citation:"Front Matter." National Research Council. 2013. The Mathematical Sciences in 2025. Washington, DC: The National Academies Press. doi: 10.17226/15269.
×

COMMITTEE ON THE MATHEMATICAL SCIENCES IN 2025

THOMAS E. EVERHART, California Institute of Technology, Chair
MARK L. GREEN, University of California, Los Angeles, Vice-chair
TANYA S. BEDER, SBCC Group, Inc.
JAMES O. BERGER, Duke University
LUIS A. CAFFARELLI, University of Texas at Austin
EMMANUEL J. CANDES, Stanford University
PHILLIP COLELLA, E.O. Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory
DAVID EISENBUD, University of California, Berkeley
PETER W. JONES, Yale University
JU-LEE KIM, Massachusetts Institute of Technology
YANN LeCUN, New York University JUN LIU, Harvard University
JUAN MALDACENA, Institute for Advanced Study
JOHN W. MORGAN, Stony Brook University
YUVAL PERES, Microsoft Research
EVA TARDOS, Cornell University
MARGARET H. WRIGHT, New York University
JOE B. WYATT, Vanderbilt University

Staff

SCOTT WEIDMAN, Study Director
THOMAS ARRISON, Senior Program Officer
MICHELLE SCHWALBE, Program Officer
BARBARA WRIGHT, Administrative Assistant

Suggested Citation:"Front Matter." National Research Council. 2013. The Mathematical Sciences in 2025. Washington, DC: The National Academies Press. doi: 10.17226/15269.
×

BOARD ON MATHEMATICAL SCIENCES AND THEIR APPLICATIONS

DONALD G. SAARI, University of California, Irvine, Chair
GERALD G. BROWN, U.S. Naval Postgraduate School
LOUIS ANTHONY COX, JR., Cox Associates
BRENDA L. DIETRICH, IBM T.J. Watson Research Center
CONSTANTINE GATSONIS, Brown University
DARRYLL HENDRICKS, UBS Investment Bank
ANDREW LO, Massachusetts Institute of Technology
DAVID MAIER, Portland State University
JAMES C. McWILLIAMS, University of California, Los Angeles
JUAN MEZA, University of California, Merced
JOHN W. MORGAN, Stony Brook University
VIJAYAN N. NAIR, University of Michigan
CLAUDIA NEUHAUSER, University of Minnesota, Rochester
J. TINSLEY ODEN, University of Texas at Austin
FRED ROBERTS, Rutgers University
J.B. SILVERS, Case Western Reserve University
CARL SIMON, University of Michigan
EVA TARDOS, Cornell University
KAREN VOGTMANN, Cornell University
BIN YU, University of California, Berkeley

Staff

SCOTT WEIDMAN, Director
NEAL GLASSMAN, Senior Program Officer
MICHELLE SCHWALBE, Program Officer
BARBARA WRIGHT, Administrative Assistant
BETH DOLAN, Financial Associate

Suggested Citation:"Front Matter." National Research Council. 2013. The Mathematical Sciences in 2025. Washington, DC: The National Academies Press. doi: 10.17226/15269.
×

Preface

When I was asked to chair a committee of mathematical scientists charged with examining the field now with an eye toward how it needs to evolve to produce the best value for the country by 2025, I demurred because I am not a mathematical scientist. The counter was that therefore I would not be biased, could be objective to prevent possible internal politics from “capturing” the report, and would be continuing a tradition of having such committees chaired by nonexperts. The assignment was educational in many ways.

The committee was extraordinary in its makeup, with experts from the core of mathematics as well as from departments of statistics and computer science, from both academia and industry. My eyes were opened to the power of the mathematical sciences today, not only as an intellectual undertaking in their own right but also as the increasingly modern foundation for much of science, engineering, medicine, economics, and business. The increasingly important challenges of deriving knowledge from huge amounts of data, whether numerical or experimental, of simulating complex phenomena accurately, and of dealing with uncertainty intelligently are some of the areas where mathematical scientists have important contributions to make going forward—and the members of this committee know it. They have demonstrated a great capacity to envision an emerging era in which the mathematical sciences underpin much of twenty-first century science, engineering, medicine, industry, and national security. I hope that this report persuades many others to embrace that vision.

While all members of the committee contributed to this report, vice-chair Mark Green, from the University of California at Los Angeles, and

Page viii Cite
Suggested Citation:"Front Matter." National Research Council. 2013. The Mathematical Sciences in 2025. Washington, DC: The National Academies Press. doi: 10.17226/15269.
×

NRC staff, headed by Scott Weidman, worked tirelessly to provide much of the writing and data that give the report its coherence, organization, and credibility. I especially thank them, for myself and for the rest of the committee, for their essential contributions.

Thomas E. Everhart, Chair

Suggested Citation:"Front Matter." National Research Council. 2013. The Mathematical Sciences in 2025. Washington, DC: The National Academies Press. doi: 10.17226/15269.
×

Acknowledgments

This report has been reviewed in draft form by individuals chosen for their diverse perspectives and technical expertise, in accordance with procedures approved by the National Research Council’s Report Review Committee. The purpose of this independent review is to provide candid and critical comments that will assist the institution in making its published report as sound as possible and to ensure that the report meets institutional standards for objectivity, evidence, and responsiveness to the study charge. The review comments and draft manuscript remain confidential to protect the integrity of the deliberative process. We wish to thank the following individuals for their review of this report:

Emery Brown, Massachusetts General Hospital and Massachusetts Institute of Technology

Anna Gilbert, University of Michigan

Leslie Greengard, New York University

Yu-Chi Ho, Harvard University

Stephen Robinson, University of Wisconsin

Kenneth Ribet, University of California, Berkeley

Terence Tao, University of California, Los Angeles

Yannis Yortsos, University of Southern California

Bin Yu, University of California, Berkeley

Robert Zimmer, University of Chicago

Although the reviewers listed above have provided many constructive comments and suggestions, they were not asked to endorse the conclusions

Suggested Citation:"Front Matter." National Research Council. 2013. The Mathematical Sciences in 2025. Washington, DC: The National Academies Press. doi: 10.17226/15269.
×

or recommendations nor did they see the final draft of the report before its release. The review of this report was overseen by Lawrence D. Brown of the University of Pennsylvania and C. Judson King of the University of California, Berkeley. Appointed by the National Research Council, they were responsible for making certain that an independent examination of this report was carried out in accordance with institutional procedures and that all review comments were carefully considered. Responsibility for the final content of this report rests entirely with the authoring committee and the institution.

The committee also acknowledges the valuable contribution of the following individuals, who provided input at the meetings on which this report is based or by other means:

Theodore T. Allen, Ohio State University

Yali Amit, University of Chicago

Nafees Bin Zafar, DreamWorks Animation

Emery Brown, Massachusetts General Hospital

Robert Bryant, Mathematical Sciences Research Institute

Philip Bucksbaum, Stanford University

Russel Caflisch, University of California, Los Angeles

James Carlson, Clay Mathematics Institute

William Cleveland, Purdue University

Ronald Coifman, Yale University

Peter Constantin, University of Chicago

James Crowley, Society for Industrial and Applied Mathematics

Brenda Dietrich, IBM T.J. Watson Research Center

David Donoho, Stanford University

Cynthia Dwork, Microsoft Research

Lawrence Ein, University of Illinois at Chicago

Charles Fefferman, Princeton University

Robert Fefferman, University of Chicago

John S. Gardenier, Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (ret.)

Scott Guthery, Docent Press

Alfred Hales, Institute for Defense Analyses’ Center for Communications Research, La Jolla

Kathryn B. Hall, Hewlett Packard

James J. Higgins, Kansas State University

Shi Jin, University of Wisconsin

C. Judson King, University of California, Berkeley

William E. Kirwan, University System of Maryland

Bryna Kra, Northwestern University

Deborah Lockhart, National Science Foundation

Dana Mackenzie, mathematics writer

Suggested Citation:"Front Matter." National Research Council. 2013. The Mathematical Sciences in 2025. Washington, DC: The National Academies Press. doi: 10.17226/15269.
×

Wen Masters, Office of Naval Research

Donald McClure, American Mathematical Society

Jill Mesirov, Broad Institute

Diane K. Michelson, International Sematech Manufacturing Initiative

Assaf Naor, New York University

Deborah Nolan, University of California, Berkeley

Martin Nowak, Harvard University

Sastry Pantula, National Science Foundation

Colette Patt, University of California, Berkeley

Walter Polansky, Department of Energy

Adrian Raftery, University of Washington

Samuel Rankin, American Mathematical Society

Nancy Reid, University of Toronto

Fadil Santosa, University of Minnesota

Terence Sejnowski, University of California, San Diego

Harry Shum, Microsoft Corporation

James Simons, Renaissance Technologies

Douglas Simpson, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign

Hal Stern, University of California, Irvine

Tina Straley, Mathematical Association of America

Terence Tao, University of California, Los Angeles

Richard Taylor, Harvard University

Charles Toll, National Security Agency

Kam Tsui, University of Wisconsin

Gunther Uhlmann, University of Washington

Ron Wasserstein, American Statistical Association

S.-T. Yau, Harvard University

Bin Yu, University of California, Berkeley

Robert Zimmer, University of Chicago

Suggested Citation:"Front Matter." National Research Council. 2013. The Mathematical Sciences in 2025. Washington, DC: The National Academies Press. doi: 10.17226/15269.
×

This page intentionally left blank.

Suggested Citation:"Front Matter." National Research Council. 2013. The Mathematical Sciences in 2025. Washington, DC: The National Academies Press. doi: 10.17226/15269.
×
Suggested Citation:"Front Matter." National Research Council. 2013. The Mathematical Sciences in 2025. Washington, DC: The National Academies Press. doi: 10.17226/15269.
×

This page intentionally left blank.

Suggested Citation:"Front Matter." National Research Council. 2013. The Mathematical Sciences in 2025. Washington, DC: The National Academies Press. doi: 10.17226/15269.
×
Page R1
Suggested Citation:"Front Matter." National Research Council. 2013. The Mathematical Sciences in 2025. Washington, DC: The National Academies Press. doi: 10.17226/15269.
×
Page R2
Suggested Citation:"Front Matter." National Research Council. 2013. The Mathematical Sciences in 2025. Washington, DC: The National Academies Press. doi: 10.17226/15269.
×
Page R3
Suggested Citation:"Front Matter." National Research Council. 2013. The Mathematical Sciences in 2025. Washington, DC: The National Academies Press. doi: 10.17226/15269.
×
Page R4
Suggested Citation:"Front Matter." National Research Council. 2013. The Mathematical Sciences in 2025. Washington, DC: The National Academies Press. doi: 10.17226/15269.
×
Page R5
Suggested Citation:"Front Matter." National Research Council. 2013. The Mathematical Sciences in 2025. Washington, DC: The National Academies Press. doi: 10.17226/15269.
×
Page R6
Suggested Citation:"Front Matter." National Research Council. 2013. The Mathematical Sciences in 2025. Washington, DC: The National Academies Press. doi: 10.17226/15269.
×
Page R7
Page viii Cite
Suggested Citation:"Front Matter." National Research Council. 2013. The Mathematical Sciences in 2025. Washington, DC: The National Academies Press. doi: 10.17226/15269.
×
Page R8
Suggested Citation:"Front Matter." National Research Council. 2013. The Mathematical Sciences in 2025. Washington, DC: The National Academies Press. doi: 10.17226/15269.
×
Page R9
Suggested Citation:"Front Matter." National Research Council. 2013. The Mathematical Sciences in 2025. Washington, DC: The National Academies Press. doi: 10.17226/15269.
×
Page R10
Suggested Citation:"Front Matter." National Research Council. 2013. The Mathematical Sciences in 2025. Washington, DC: The National Academies Press. doi: 10.17226/15269.
×
Page R11
Suggested Citation:"Front Matter." National Research Council. 2013. The Mathematical Sciences in 2025. Washington, DC: The National Academies Press. doi: 10.17226/15269.
×
Page R12
Page xiii Cite
Suggested Citation:"Front Matter." National Research Council. 2013. The Mathematical Sciences in 2025. Washington, DC: The National Academies Press. doi: 10.17226/15269.
×
Page R13
Suggested Citation:"Front Matter." National Research Council. 2013. The Mathematical Sciences in 2025. Washington, DC: The National Academies Press. doi: 10.17226/15269.
×
Page R14
Suggested Citation:"Front Matter." National Research Council. 2013. The Mathematical Sciences in 2025. Washington, DC: The National Academies Press. doi: 10.17226/15269.
×
Page R15
Suggested Citation:"Front Matter." National Research Council. 2013. The Mathematical Sciences in 2025. Washington, DC: The National Academies Press. doi: 10.17226/15269.
×
Page R16
Next: Summary »
The Mathematical Sciences in 2025 Get This Book
×
Buy Paperback | $48.00 Buy Ebook | $38.99
MyNAP members save 10% online.
Login or Register to save!
Download Free PDF

The mathematical sciences are part of nearly all aspects of everyday life—the discipline has underpinned such beneficial modern capabilities as Internet search, medical imaging, computer animation, numerical weather predictions, and all types of digital communications. The Mathematical Sciences in 2025 examines the current state of the mathematical sciences and explores the changes needed for the discipline to be in a strong position and able to maximize its contribution to the nation in 2025. It finds the vitality of the discipline excellent and that it contributes in expanding ways to most areas of science and engineering, as well as to the nation as a whole, and recommends that training for future generations of mathematical scientists should be re-assessed in light of the increasingly cross-disciplinary nature of the mathematical sciences. In addition, because of the valuable interplay between ideas and people from all parts of the mathematical sciences, the report emphasizes that universities and the government need to continue to invest in the full spectrum of the mathematical sciences in order for the whole enterprise to continue to flourish long-term.

  1. ×

    Welcome to OpenBook!

    You're looking at OpenBook, NAP.edu's online reading room since 1999. Based on feedback from you, our users, we've made some improvements that make it easier than ever to read thousands of publications on our website.

    Do you want to take a quick tour of the OpenBook's features?

    No Thanks Take a Tour »
  2. ×

    Show this book's table of contents, where you can jump to any chapter by name.

    « Back Next »
  3. ×

    ...or use these buttons to go back to the previous chapter or skip to the next one.

    « Back Next »
  4. ×

    Jump up to the previous page or down to the next one. Also, you can type in a page number and press Enter to go directly to that page in the book.

    « Back Next »
  5. ×

    Switch between the Original Pages, where you can read the report as it appeared in print, and Text Pages for the web version, where you can highlight and search the text.

    « Back Next »
  6. ×

    To search the entire text of this book, type in your search term here and press Enter.

    « Back Next »
  7. ×

    Share a link to this book page on your preferred social network or via email.

    « Back Next »
  8. ×

    View our suggested citation for this chapter.

    « Back Next »
  9. ×

    Ready to take your reading offline? Click here to buy this book in print or download it as a free PDF, if available.

    « Back Next »
Stay Connected!