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CMS NOTES de la SMC Volume 34 No. 6 October/ Octobre 2002 In this issue / Dans ce numer´ o A Wonderful Interaction an iron chain. The rings each con- Book Review by Dale Rolfsen, tained 34 carbon atoms. Since that pi- University of British Columbia oneering work, there have been many interesting syntheses of knotted and Editorial . 2 When Topology Meets Chemistry linked molecules. For long stringy polymers, such as DNA, the topolog- Report on Reallocation. 3 Erica Flapan Outlooks Series ical effects are perhaps much more im- portant. Knotted and linked DNA ac- Awards / Prizes . 5 Cambridge University Press and the Mathematical Association of America tually occurs in nature, and mathemati- xiii + 241 pages, 2000 cal knot theory has contributed signifi- Education Notes . 6 cantly to our theoretical understanding of, for example, how strands of DNA Canada Research Chair can recombine or pass through each Appointments . 9 other, utilizing specific enzymes. Our understanding of protein folding is in Book Review: The Problem its infancy and clearly will rely heav- With Conference Proceed- ily on topological and geometric con- ings . 11 siderations. Such understanding may well have very practical medical con- The Sesquicentenary of sequences. William Burnside . 12 The book under review is a brave attempt to explain the current state of Obituary / Avis de dec´ es` the art of the interplay between topol- W. T. Tutte . 14 ogy and chemistry, with a bit of molec- ular biology thrown in at the end. It is IMO 2002 Canadian Team Re- intended for an audience of either un- sults . 17 There have been some wonderful in- dergraduate mathematics students (or teractions between so-called abstract professional mathematicians, for that 2001 Treasurer's Report . 19 mathematics and real-world science in matter) or workers in the chemical or recent years. Indeed, the old distinc- biological sciences. It largely suc- Positions Available / Offre tions between “pure” and “applied” ceeds, though I would say it is easier d'emplois . 19 mathematics have faded considerably, going for a mathematician than for a if indeed they ever had real validity. A lay person or scientist who is not com- News from Departments . 26 good example of this is the application fortable with mathematical jargon. of topological ideas to chemistry and Calendar of events / Calendrier molecular biology. continued on page 13 des ev´ enements´ . 26 About forty years ago, Frisch and Wasserman synthesized the first cate- Rates and Deadlines / Tarifs et nane, a molecule which was topolog- Ech´ eances´ . 28 ically bonded, linked like the rings in OCTOBER/OCTOBRE CMS NOTES EDITORIAL mathematics to a larger audience. Per- CMS NOTES haps one of them can serve as a model or inspiration for you. Please help us NOTES DE LA SMC to tell our story! The CMS Notes is published by ˆ the Canadian Mathematical Society Etes-vous emballes´ par les nou- (CMS) eight times a year (February, veaux dev´ eloppements dans votre do- March, April, May, September, Oc- maine de specialisation?´ Par un tober, November, and December). congres` ou un colloque auquel vous avez assiste´ cet et´ e?´ Par une de vos lec- Editors-in-Chief tures estivales? Par votre derniere` pub- Peter Fillmore; S. Swaminathan lication? Par une conference´ a` laquelle [email protected] vous avez assiste?´ Par un projet auquel Managing Editor vous avez participe?´ Graham P. Wright Dans leurs formes les plus di- Contributing Editors Peter Fillmore verses, les mathematiques´ sont floris- Education: Edward Barbeau; Harry santes au Canada ces temps-ci, et notre White travail, comme redacteurs´ des Notes de Are you excited by recent develop- [email protected] la SMC, est de vous tenir au courant de ments in your area of mathematics? by Meetings: Monique Bouchard tout ce qui se passe, dans la mesure de a conference or meeting you attended [email protected] nos moyens, bien sur. Seulement, il y a this summer? by a book you read? by Research: Noriko Yui un petit hic : nous n'avons aucun jour- a book you wrote? by a lecture you [email protected] naliste... Autrement dit, c'est vous, nos heard? by a project you were part of? lecteurs, qui etesˆ nos journalistes. Editorial Assistant Mathematics in Canada, in all Alors, si vous avez repondu´ Victoria L. Howe its many aspects, is flourishing these <oui>a` l'une des questions du pre- days, and our job at the CMS Notes The Editors welcome articles, letters mier paragraphe, pourquoi ne pas ou- is to put it all (or as much as we can) and announcements, which should vrir votre traitement de texte et nous CMS Notes on record. But there's a little problem: be sent to the at: faire part de vos coups de coeur sous we don't have any reporters. Or to put Canadian Mathematical Society la forme d'un article, d'un compte it another way, all of you, our readers, 577 King Edward rendu ou simplement d'une lettre a` la are our reporters. P.O. Box 450, Station A redaction?´ Comme un petit groupe So if you answered yes to any of Ottawa, Ontario, Canada K1N 6N5 ne peut se tenir au courant de tout ce these questions, why not fire up your Telephone: (613) 562-5702 qui passe, il nous serait dej´ a` fort utile word-processor and tell us all about it? Facsimile: (613) 565-1539 de recevoir un mot de votre part ou` This could take the form of an article E-mail: [email protected] vous nous diriez ce dont nous devrions or a review, or be as simple as a let- Website: www.cms.math.ca parler. ter to the editors. It is impossible for a No responsibility for views expressed by Dans le present´ numero,´ nous vous small group to know about everything authors is assumed by the Notes, the ed- presentons´ des nouveaux titulaires de that is going on, so even if you just itors or the CMS. The style files used in Chaires de recherche du Canada ainsi let us know about something that we the production of this volume are a mod- qu'une bonne description des travaux ought to be covering, that would be a ified version of the style files produced de ces chercheurs, vraisemblable- big step in the right direction. by Waterloo Maple Software, c 1994, ment par eux-memes.ˆ Vous pour- In this issue we report on new 1995. rez eg´ alement lire la deuxieme` par- Canada Research Chair appointments, tie du rapport du Comite´ de direction which includes nice descriptions of ISSN: 1193-9273 (Print); en mathematiques´ pures et appliquees´ their work, presumably written by 1496-4295 (Online) ainsi qu'un article sur William Burn- the chairholders themselves. We're side, tire´ du bulletin de la SME. Ces c Canadian Mathematical Society also carrying the second instalment trois articles se veulent une tentative de 2002 of the Mathematics Steering Commit- transmettre des nouvelles de la com- tee report, as well as an article about munaute´ mathematique´ a` un vaste pub- William Burnside, reprinted from the lic. Qui sait? Peut-etreˆ qu'un de ces Newsletter of the EMS Newsletter. textes vous inspirera? Aidez-nous a` All three are attempts to communicate nous faire connaˆıtre! 2 NOTES de la SMC OCTOBER/OCTOBRE Report of the Steering Committee for Pure and Applied Mathematics PART 3: REPORT ON THE CANADIAN COMMUNITY The CMS Notes is publishing this lam Fellowships and election as a Fel- cyclic base change, a fundamental step report in instalments, beginning with low of the Royal Society of Canada in the effort to establish the Langlands Parts 1 and 2 in the September issue, (FRSC). In the past decade, mathe- program. The Langlands program also and continuing with Part 3 this month. maticians have been awarded 4 Stea- played a crucial role in Wiles's solu- cie Fellowships, 11 Sloan Fellowships, tion of the Fermat problem. H. Dar- This section presents a selected and 8 Killam Fellowships. Recent ma- mon (McGill; Sloan) and his collab- overview of recent Canadian mathe- jor recognition includes 4 mathemati- orators have applied these methods to matical research in the areas of Fun- cians who have received membership obtain new results on a wide class of damental Mathematics, Applied and in the Order of Canada, and one who Fermat-like equations and, more re- Industrial Mathematics, and Compu- has been both elected to the Royal So- cently, have introduced very novel p- tational Mathematics. In each case, ciety and awarded the NSERC Canada adic methods to prove cases of the the presentation will focus on signif- Gold Medal for Science & Engineer- main conjecture for elliptic curves. icant researchers by sub-discipline, ing. The affiliation and recognition of In analytic number theory, J. Fried- who were selected with a view to ver- individuals is noted below; the bulleted lander (Toronto; FRSC, ICM '94), in ifying key assertions surrounding our texts indicate specific, notable exam- a series of papers with Iwaniec and funding proposals. Among our goals ples. Duke, broke through the convexity are to highlight: bounds for L-functions associated to Fundamental Mathematics GL(2) modular forms. Major techni- • The very striking interdisci- (a) Number Theory: Number the- cal novelties they presented have led to plinary trend in Canadian math- ory is one of Canada's strongest math- a final resolution of Hilbert's eleventh ematics. Every area demon- ematical areas. It has intimate con- problem and also to a startlingly low strates major research activity nections with algebra, analysis and ge- bound on the size of Dirichlet L- based on interactions with other ometry and much of its modern de- functions on the half-line.