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Preserving Strength While Meeting Challenges Summary Report of a Workshop on Actions for the Mathematical Sciences (1997) / Chapter Skim
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Expectations and New Opportunities at the Division of Mathematical Sciences
Pages 8-13

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From page 8...
... As one famous chemist remarked, "God decreed in 1950 the distribution of resources amongst the sciences and no one has dared to go against the decree." So while T see a growing awareness within the foundation that the mathematical sciences are underfunded relative to their importance to science, ~ am not optimistic that there is currently the will or the capacity within the foundation to double DMS's budget, which would alleviate some of the pain now being experienced, or to triple it, which would put things in a real comfort zone. At least, there will not be such a will or capacity until the scientific community and especially the mathematicians convince the general American public that investments in science and mathematics will improve their lives.
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From page 9...
... That being the case, in a qualitative manner we will need to address how our funding has been beneficial to the nation. NSF is funding basic research, and so the time lines for this assessment cannot be one or two years, but since many lines of inquiry will not have a payoff, ever, it will not be convincing to Congress if every investment takes in excess of 50 years before there is any indication that the investment has had a payoff.
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From page 10...
... The foundation and the National Science Board were challenged to take a more proactive leadership role in setting science policy on such matters. The current foundation leadership is seeking to inspire and motivate the research 10
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From page 11...
... At present the NSF provides very little funding for mathematics graduate students (about $10 million including fringe indirect costs)
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From page 12...
... We hear that they succeed because one-third of the citizens once owned a telescope, even if it did no more than show faint details of the moon's surface: We hear that many college students study introductory astronomy to satisfy distribution requirements and so have had some exposure. We fail to remember that a far larger percentage take calculus, and that when colleges introduced quantitative reasoning requirements, we let other disciplines respond or we offered college algebra.
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From page 13...
... , 1996, Graduate Education and Postdoctoral Training in the Mathematical and Physical Sciences, Workshop Report, June 5-6, 1995, document NSF 96-21, National Science Foundation, Arlington, Va. (To order, see the summary on NSF's home page on the World Wide Web at http://www.nsf.gov:80/mps/workshop.htm, or request a copy via e-mail to sspencer@nsf.gov.)
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Key Terms

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  • defense agencies
  • reduce substantially
  • overseas economic
  • critical resource
  • satisfy distribution

  • run mathematical
  • little intellectual
  • corner grocer
  • serves science
  • study introductory

  • ago dick
  • broader context
  • communications efforts
  • department undergoing
  • transmits knowledge

  • college algebra
  • bipartisan agreement
  • build major
  • multidisciplinary discourse
  • including fringe


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