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CMS De La SMC NOTES CMS NOTES de la SMC Volume 36 No. 7 November/novembre 2004 IN THIS ISSUE / DANS CE NUMÉRO MESSAGE FROM I also mentioned that the grant selection com- THE VICE-PRESIDENT mittee (whether it be GSC 336 or GSC 337 – Editorial/Éditorial . .2 the Applied Mathematics committee) has no Mapping Magic . .3 influence on the overall size of the budget NSERC gives them to award. This can have a Book review:Gamma: Exploring significant influence on the size of grants Euler’s Constant . .5 awarded in any given competition, as the com- Book review:Efficient Graph mittee is not allowed to recommend more Representations . .8 money be awarded than is available in the NSERC discovery grants budget, regardless of Call for Sessions - Winter Meeting how well the researchers applying satisfy the 2005 / Appel de propositions four criteria. de sessions - Réunion d’hiver 2005 . .9 In this issue, NSERC has made available to the mathematics community statistical information Brief Book Reviews . .10 Kathryn Hare on the discovery grants results of the last three University of Waterloo Education Notes . .12 years. NSERC tries to equilibrate the pressures Français page 15 over different competitions, as best as possible, Message de la within their limited budget. However, one can Vice-présidente . .14 NSERC Discovery Grants see from their data that results do vary some- CMS Committee List / Liste 2004 Competition what from year to year. In particular, the average des comités de la SMC . .17 In the CMS Notes of last May, I wrote an article grant size and success rates in the 2004 compe- Obituary - Murray Klamkin . .19 discussing my perspective, as a member of the tition were lower than the previous two years. Of NSERC Grant selection committee GSC 336 – course, each year consists of different groups of Awards/prix . .21 Pure Mathematics, on how NSERC discovery people, so some variation is to be expected. Appel de mises en candidature grants in mathematics are determined. I hope Prix de doctorat 2005 . .23 that people applying for grants in this year’s As with other government organizations, there competition found the article helpful. are many stresses on the NSERC budget. One Call for Nominations pressure on the budget comes from the number 2005 Doctoral Prize . .23 In that article, I tried to emphasize that the size of new applicants who are coming into the sys- of one’s Discovery grant should not be taken as tem. Some mathematics departments are grow- Math in Moscow the sole basis for measuring the stature of a ing. Others are hiring new researchers to Math à Moscou . .25 mathematician. Excellence of the researcher is replace retiring mathematicians, some of whom only one of four criteria that the committee continue to remain active in research, train Calendar of Events / Calendrier uses in evaluating a grant application, the four graduate students and post docs, and hold an des événements . .26 criteria being: NSERC grant as they meet the four criteria. Providing beginning faculty members with a Rates and Deadlines / Tarifs • Excellence of the researcher, grant adequate to establish their research pro- et échéances . .27 • Merit of the proposal, grams is very important, and NSERC is deliber- • Contribution to the training of highly quali- fied personnel, ate in ensuring that this happens by allocating • Need for funds. a substantial portion of the discovery grants Continued page 4 NOVEMBER CMS NOTES EDITORIAL/ÉDITORIAL In closing, then, let me wish the very best of luck NOTES DE LA SMC to all of you who applied for a grant this year; and let me thank in advance all of our hard- working colleagues who will be refereeing those Les Notes de la SMC sont publiés applications. par la Société mathématique du Canada (SMC) huit fois l’an (février, mars, avril, La saison des mai, septembre, octobre, novembre et demandes de subvention décembre). Au moment où ce numéro des Notes de la SMC Rédacteurs-en-chef paraîtra, bon nombre de mathématiciens canadi- Robert Dawson; Srinivasa Swaminathan; ens (moi y compris) viendront tout juste d’envoy- [email protected] Robert J. MacG. Dawson er au CRSNG leur demande de subvention de Rédacteur-gérant découverte. Bien des gens détestent ce rituel Graham P.Wright It’s That Time Of Year Again quinquennal autant qu’ils détestent remplir leur [email protected] About the time that this issue of the CMS Notes déclaration de revenu, même s’il est probable comes out, a significant proportion of Canadian qu’ils recevront en retour de l’argent du gou- Rédaction mathematicians (myself included) will just have vernement, qu’ils n’auront pas à en payer ou au Éducation: Edward Barbeau finished submitting their applications for NSERC pire qu’ils devront le retourner après avoir béné- [email protected] discovery grants. This quinquennial ritual is ficié involontairement d’un prêt sans intérêts. Critiques littéraires: Peter Fillmore despised by many of us as heartily as filling out Sans compter que cet argent ne servira pas à [email protected] our income tax forms, despite the fact that in payer l’épicerie, ni l’hypothèque, ni les répara- Réunions: Gertrud Jeewanjee this case there is a good chance that it will tions de la voiture; il sera plutôt dépensé en frais [email protected] result in the government giving us money, not de déplacement, en assistanats de recherche et, Recherche: Vacant taking it away or at best returning it after an en général, pour nourrir notre fascination com- [email protected] involuntary interest-free loan. mune : les mathématiques. Assistante à la rédaction Nathalie M. Blanchard Moreover, this is not money that we will have Le fait que nous soyons si nombreux à rechigner to spend on groceries, the mortgage, and get- autant devant la formule 101 du CRSNG que Note aux auteurs: indiquer la section ting the car fixed – this is money to be spent devant la T1 de Revenue Canada m’amène à deux choisie pour votre article et le faire par- venir au Notes de la SMC à l’adresse on travel, assistants to help with our research, conclusions possibles : soit que nous réagissons postale ou de courriel ci-dessous: and in general on our common fascination – non pas au transfert de fonds qui s’effectue entre mathematics! nous et le gouvernement, mais à sa valeur Société mathématiques du Canada 577 avenue King Edward absolue, soit que nous n’aimons tout simplement Ottawa, Ontario, Canada K1N 6N5 Given that so many of us react in much the pas la paperasserie. Comme la plupart d’entre same way to NSERC’s Form 101 as we do to nous n’aimons pas tellement non plus les formu- Téléphone: (613) 562-5702 Télécopieur: (613) 565-1539 Revenue Canada’s T1, there are two possible laires de recensement ni les rapports annuels, je conclusions. One would be that it is not the penche plutôt pour la seconde possibilité. [email protected] transfer of funds between us and the govern- www.smc.math.ca ment, but its absolute value, that we react to; À vrai dire, cette formule n’est pas si longue à Les Notes de la SMC, les rédacteurs et la the other possibility is that it’s just the paper- remplir. La plupart des mathématiciens n’ont pas SMC ne peuvent être tenus responsables work. As most of us don’t like census forms or à se préoccuper des sections sur l’incidence envi- des opinions exprimées pas les auteurs. Les fichiers d’option de style utilisés pour la annual reports either, I’m inclined to go with ronnementale, la recherche sur les animaux, les production de ce volume sont une version the second theory. matières dangereuses, les cellules souches ni les modifiée des fichiers conçus par Waterloo sujets humains. Et tout comme le rapport annuel Maple Software, © 1994, 1995. Ah, well, it doesn’t take forever. Most – et peut-être même la déclaration de revenu – mathematicians don’t have to fill out the parts cet exercice s’avère parfois bénéfique puisqu’il on environmental impact, animal research, nous force à prendre quelques minutes pour ISSN : 1193-9273 (imprimé) hazardous substances, stem cells, or human réfléchir à ce que nous faisons et aux raisons qui 1496-4295 (électronique) subjects. And - like the annual report, if not the motivent nos choix. income tax form - this exercise does have some Société mathématique du Canada benefits in the way of a forced moment or two En terminant, je souhaite tout le succès possible © 2004 of introspection when we think about what we à ceux qui ont présenté une demande de sub- are doing and why we’re doing it. vention cette année, et je remercie à l’avance nos valeureux collègues qui évalueront toutes ces demandes. 2 NOTES DE LA SMC NOVEMBRE MAPPING MAGIC Sara Robinson My mother and stepfather, both professors of medicine, are relentlessly For SIAM News readers not familiar with this elegant and simple algo- curious about the world and often ask me about technology that fasci- rithm, which Edsger Dijkstra developed in 1956 while sipping coffee in a nates them. During one of our weekly phone calls, my mother alluded to Dutch cafe, this is how it works: my stepfather’s fascination with MapQuest, one of the Web sites that will produce a map for just about any U.S. address. My stepfather thinks the Starting with a graph, directed or undirected, with positively weighted mapping function is pretty neat, she said, but what really blows him away edges (distances) and a source node, Dijkstra computes the distances from are the driving directions.
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