ContinuUM Newsletter of the Department of Mathematics at the University of Michigan Summer 2001 On July 31, 2001, Al Taylor stepped down as department Chair after six successful years in the postion. Trevor Wooley has been selected as the new Chair. Due to Trevor’s scheduled sabbatical leave for the 2001-02 academic year, Alejandro Uribe, the current Associate Chair for Academic Affairs, will serve as the interim chair for the coming year. You should hear about Alejandro’s experience as Chair in the next ContinuUM. In the two “Notes from the Chair” columns, Al reflects on his chairmanship, and Trevor lays some plans for the future of the department. Reflections on Six The Future of the Years as Chair Mathematics Department This is a piece I’ve looked forward to The Mathematics Department at writing for some seven years now, my fi- Michigan has experienced extensive nal one for the “Notes from the Chair” change in virtually all aspects of its mis- column. At the end of July, I’ll have fin- sion over the past several years, and we ished my two terms as Chair and am ex- are fortunate indeed that, through Al cited about returning to my normal career Taylor’s commitment and balanced lead- of teaching and research. Alejandro ership through six of the last seven years, Uribe will assume the chairmanship next almost all of these developments have year, filling in for Trevor Wooley, who been for the good. As Al begins some has agreed to serve a 3-year term as Chair, well-deserved relief from administrative the 2002-2005 academic years, after he duties, it seems an opportune moment to returns from a year’s leave in Cambridge highlight some of the developments and and Bonn. challenges that we expect to see in the fu- I don’t believe the Dean could have ture. Fortunately for me, the “future” does made any better choice of Chairs to keep not begin until July of 2002! The Depart- the department on its upward trend. My opinion is confirmed by ment is very fortunate that Alejandro Uribe has agreed to serve as the selection of three new Associate Chairs to join the leadership Chair during my long-awaited year of leave next year. team, Tony Bloch for graduate affairs, Dick Canary for educa- Competing with Peer Departments tion, and Mel Hochster for faculty appointments. Other major One of my regular complaints in recent years has been that the leadership jobs are being filled by Toby Stafford (Chair of the resources provided to us by the College barely enable us to main- Faculty Recruitment Committee), John Stembridge (Doctoral tain our status within the Big Ten, let alone compete with the top Chair), and Ralf Spatzier (Undergraduate Chair). This leadership ten departments. The good news is that this situation is changing team is remarkable for its youth and vitality! for the better. In the final years of Al’s term as Chair, increased re- While we have for decades been a democratic department with sources were forthcoming from LS&A. In addition, we have just important decisions being made on a near consensus basis, the secured a significant new package of resources that, starting next new team reflects the fact that administrative work and responsi- year, will incrementally address issues involving salary and teach- bility must be shared to a much greater degree than ever before. ing so crucial in a competitive hiring environment. Taken together, The youth of the team reflects the fact that the department has im- these resources will allow us to concentrate our competitive en- proved to one in which almost every faculty member has an active ergy on the top ten departments, and offer prospects of entering research program, most of which are increased in impact by re- the elite five departments nationally. ceiving highly competitive external research funding. Faculty, As one contemplates the difficulties of competing with the especially young faculty, can’t afford to de-emphasize their re- very strongest departments, one is struck by the scale of financial search work for several years to spend large amounts of time on resources available to highly endowed private schools. However, the important administrative work that is necessary to keep a large the size and quality of the department at Michigan provides a criti- department functioning smoothly. Therefore, the new Chairs have cal mass of excellence that offers an extraordinarily stimulating obtained some incremental resources to enable active young fac- environment unavailable to smaller departments, no matter how ulty to take on these tasks while maintaining their research well-endowed. What we seek to do in the future is to exploit this continued on page 6 continued on page 7 Bioinformatics: Professor Math’s Role in the Life Sciences Initiative Phil Hanlon Bioinformatics sits at the intersection of blueprint under different conditions? Given Collegiate Chair and molecular biology and computer science, the DNA blueprint for a protein, how do two disciplines which have undergone we predict the three-dimensional shape that LSA Associate Dean revolutionary scientific-technological de- this protein will eventually assume, a As described in the article to the left, velopment during the past few decades. Po- shape which largely governs its function in Phil Hanlon is spearheading Math’s par- sitioned on the interface of two rapidly the cell? This growing bank of molecular ticipation in the Bioinformatics portion of developing intellectual arenas, bio- information leaves us well short of under- UM’s life sciences initiative. In addition informatics is experiencing intensive devel- standing the principles that govern the in- to these activities, Hanlon has been opment as well as explosive growth in teractive biological system. named the Donald interest and demand. A key goal of bioinformatics is to con- J. Lewis Collegiate Improving techniques in molecular biol- struct the integrated behavior of the intact Professor of Math- ogy yield extensive information about the organism in relation to its underlying mo- ematics, 2000-05. molecular components of living cells. This lecular determinants (the genome). Mo- He has also been information includes determination of the lecular biology takes the first step towards selected to be the genetic make-up (the DNA) of organisms such an understanding with the measure- Associate Dean of and provides precise information about pro- ment of molecular features of a living cell. Finance and Plan- teins that are active in cells. This informa- The next few steps lie more on the ning for the College tion about DNA and proteins comes as informatics side, steps that may be most of Literature, Sci- exact information about molecular se- readily made by mathematicians, computer ence and the Arts, a position he assumed quences, and also as information about scientists and statisticians. These include in the winter of 2001. three-dimensional structure which is very mining of the molecular data to filter and Hanlon completed his undergraduate important in determining the way in which select out interesting features. Then math- degree at Dartmouth and received his the DNA or protein functions. Technologi- ematical modeling of how the cell/organ- Ph.D. from the California Institute of cal advances have made molecular technol- ism, as an integrated system, is acting on Technology in 1981. He taught at Massa- ogy commonly accessible. The result has the molecular information identified in the chusetts Institute of Technology and Cali- been a flood of information about the mo- previous step as lying in the genome and in fornia Institute of Technology before lecular composition of DNA and proteins protein structure. Computer science is pro- joining UM in 1986. He became a pro- from a wide variety of organisms. Articles viding us with more and more powerful fessor in 1990. Hanlon is an extremely in the popular press about genome sequenc- tools to do this analysis— hardware archi- well regarded mathematician, and has re- ing have given some indication of the revo- tectures and efficient algorithms for sym- ceived recognition over the years to in- lution in available information, but give bolic analysis, scientific computation, clude the NSF Presidential Young little indication of the magnitude of data graphical interpretation and data manage- Investigator Award, a Sloan Fellowship, a available as biologists worldwide produce a ment. Guggenheim Fellowship, and University constant flow of information about the mo- Michigan is one of a few institutions honors including the Henry Russel lecular structure of the genes and proteins that are playing a leadership role in Award, the LS & A Excellence in Educa- that control living cells. bioinformatics. With a truly interdiscipli- tion Award, and a Thurnau Professorship. As valuable and as plentiful as this in- nary effort rooted in the Medical School Considered a world leader in alge- formation is, it only provides a “parts cata- but including faculty in the Departments of braic combinatorics, Hanlon’s expertise log” for a variety of organisms without Mathematics, Biology, Chemistry and the has been used in various arenas. Combi- explaining how these parts work or fit to- Colleges of Pharmacy, Engineering and natorics describes the study of patterns. gether. Little is known about the integrated Public Health, we are launching a graduate Typically Hanlon applies combinatorial system—what makes a living cell, or how a degree in bioinformatics and expanding the methods and results to problems in alge- cell will respond to a novel environment or number of bioinformatics faculty positions bra or alternatively applies algebraic a specific change in its genome. DNA gives by ten to fifteen campus-wide. More about theory to combinatorial problems. His the blueprint for the design of various pro- the newly formed program can be found at leadership and expertise in this area has teins, but what controls the process its web site www.bioinformatics.med.