From the Associate Executive Director's Desk

FROM THE ASSOCIATE Executive Director’s Desk Joseph Khoury University of Ottawa, Ottawa IN THIS ISSUE DANS CE NUMÉRO for the second year in a December 2008, the Board of row, and my decision not to Directors approved the move Editorial ....................................2 assume the Executive Director to a new location owned by position did not make things the Pharmacists Association of Book Review: Lewis Carroll in easier. The determination and Canada. A one year renewable Numberland and Kelvin: Life, hard work of the Executive lease was signed in December Labours and Legacy ..............4 Office staff, the efforts made and the move took place over Book Review: Mathematics by the Dean of Science and the Holiday period. The new the Chair of the Department address is: and Technology .....................5 This was supposed to be my first message as the new Executive of Mathematics and Statistics Brief Book Reviews ..................6 Director of the Canadian at the University of Ottawa Canadian Mathematical Society and their staff got us through 1785 Alta Vista Drive, Suite 105 Education Notes .......................7 Mathematical Society. As many of you know by now, I informed this hard time. On behalf Ottawa, ON K1G 3Y6 Canadian Mathematics the Executive Committee of the CMS, I would like to CANADA Education Forum 2009 ...........10 and the Board of Directors thank the dedicated and hard working Executive Office staff, The main telephone number CMS/CSHPM Summer Meeting in October 2008 about my decision not to assume the André Lalonde (Dean), Victor is (613) 733-2662. Staff e- 2009 / Réunion d’été 2009 Leblanc (Chair) and their staff mail addresses remain the SMC/SCHPM ............................11 position effective January 1, 2009 for reasons beyond my for their help on the many same. Through the significant CMS-SMM-2009 control. I would like to take aspects of both moves, and efforts of the Executive Office SMC-SMM-2009 .....................13 this opportunity to express my their commitment to keep staff, particularly the Electronic deepest gratitude for all the the connection between the Services Group (Alan Kelm Call for nominations - CJM/CMB support I have received in my University and the CMS. and Steve La Rocque), the Associate Editors / APPEL DE role as Associate Executive Office was up and running mises en candidature - JCM/BCM Director from the Executive In the November Issue of without major interruptions by Rédacteurs associés ...............15 Office staff and all the officials the NOTES, Graham Wright the first week of January. and members of the CMS. In and I outlined the changes Call for Nominations - Adrien related to relocating the Rachel Cunningham resigned Pouliot Prize / Appel de mises particular, I am deeply moved by the support of my friend and Executive Office. Shortly after her position as Administrative en candidatures - prix Adrien- colleague Graham Wright, the November issue was Assistant in December so that Pouliot ....................................18 who was willing to alter his released, the University of she could pursue options in Call for Nominations - Graham retirement plans for this period Ottawa informed the CMS Europe. Taking into account that the space occupied the deficit situation and the Wright Award for Distinguished until a new Executive Director since September would be space available at the new Service / Appel de mises en takes office. For three decades, Graham’s dedication, undergoing major renovations location, it was decided to not candidatures - prix Graham- and would necessitate fill this position at this time. Wright pour service leadership and incredible energy has transformed the evacuating the building by As you will appreciate, this méritoire .................................18 CMS and helped shape the end of December. The decision puts more pressure Call for Nominations - Research most of the Society’s policies space problem the University on the staff and the Society is Prizes / Appel de mises and practices. is experiencing made it hoping for understanding and impossible for the CMS to patience from members. en candidatures - prix de relocate on campus, at least recherches ..............................19 2008 was in particular a hard year for the CMS. The for the coming few years. The CMS President, Anthony 2008 Presentation of Prizes Executive Office space was A number of other options Lau, has written to Alan Rock, Présentation des prix 2008 ....21 reconfigured in August, as a were explored and visits took President of the University of place to rental spaces that Ottawa, requesting a meeting Calendar of Events result of demolition of part of the Office and there were could possibly accommodate with him, or his delegate, to Calendrier des événements.....26 two actual moves within four the Society’s needs, in the discuss the possibility of the Math in Moscow Competition months. The Society has University area and beyond. In Executive Office returning to Concours Math à Moscou .......27 experienced a budget deficit français page 20 continued page 15 VOLUME 41 NO. 2 MARCH/MARS 2009 by Robert Dawson EDITORIAL Saint Mary’s University, Halifax Ancestors Recently I was browsing in the Christoph Notnagel, MA. After that, we can get back by database of the Mathematics any of several paths to Georg Rheticus, whose master’s Genealogy Project. I was interested thesis was supervised by Copernicus (a doctor of law!) And to see that the number of early Copernicus, in turn, was a great-great-great-grandstudent entries has expanded remarkably of Dr Heinrich von Langenstein, Doctor of Theology of the since a few years back. Whereas University of Paris, Class of Seventy-Five. previously the record got rather sketchy before about 1700, there is a good chance now Thirteen-Seventy-Five. that you can - should you be so inclined - trace your antecedents back to the fourteenth century. Be warned: tracing a complete pedigree has got a lot more difficult! While in the last few centuries it is not unusual for a tree to branch once or twice, joint supervisors appears to have been the norm in NOTES DE LA SMC CMS NOTES Renaissance Europe. The only hope to keep your chart Les Notes de la SMC sont publiés par la Société The CMS Notes is published by the Canadian small enough for a T-shirt is to be strict about whom you mathématique du Canada (SMC) huit fois l’an Mathematical Society (CMS) eight times a (février, mars, avril, mai, septembre, octobre, year (February, March, April, May, September, include. If you only include doctorates in mathematics, novembre et décembre). October, November and December). this is not too hard; most of the early degrees in the RÉDACTEURS EN CHEF EDITORS-IN-CHIEF database are in medicine, theology, and law. But if you Robert Dawson, Srinivasa Swaminathan Robert Dawson, Srinivasa Swaminathan include all doctorates (and the doctorate of medicine in [email protected] [email protected] those days was a research degree) things grow fast. RÉDACTEURS-GÉRANT MANAGING EDITOR Graham P. Wright Graham P. Wright For instance, suppose that you are one of the more [email protected] [email protected] than forty-five thousand mathematicians (about a third RÉDACTION CONTRIBUTING EDITORS of us) who can trace their mathematical ancestry back Éducation : Edward Barbeau Education: Edward Barbeau to Carl Friedrich Gauss. His supervisor was Pfaff, who [email protected] [email protected] Critiques littéraires: Keith Johnson was supervised by Kastner and Bode. Kastner was Book Reviews: Keith Johnson [email protected] [email protected] supervised by Hausen (1713), whose supervisors were Réunions : Gertrud Jeewanjee Meetings: Gertrud Jeewanjee [email protected] [email protected] Wichmannshausen (law) and Planer (medicine), while Recherche : Vacant Research: Vacant Bode was supervised by Busch, a theologian. So the [email protected] [email protected] Assistante à la rédaction : Editorial Assistant: “Gaussian” line stops there if you take the purist view. Solange Hupé Solange Hupé Note aux auteurs : indiquer la section choisie The Editors welcome articles, letters and an- But let’s include other subjects. One of Planer’s pour votre article et le faire parvenir au Notes nouncements, which can be sent to the CMS supervisors was Rudolph Camerarius; he can be traced de la SMC à l’adresse postale ou de courriel Notes at the address below. ci-dessous. through a chain of ten other medics (including Falloppio No responsibility for the views expressed by Les Notes de la SMC, les rédacteurs et la SMC authors is assumed by the CMS Notes, the and Vesalius) and three theologians to Leo Outers, who ne peuvent être tenus responsables des opin- editors or the CMS. The style files used in ions exprimées par les auteurs. Les fichiers obtained his doctorate in theology in Louvain in 1485. the production of this volume are a modified d’option de style utilisés pour la production version of the style files produced by Waterloo As far as I can tell, this is as far back as Gauss’s line de ce volume sont une version modifiée des Maple Software, © 1994, 1995. fichiers conçus par Waterloo Maple Software, can be traced through doctoral supervisors alone. © 1994, 1995. However,if we permit MAs (in an age when a doctoral Canadian Mathematical Society - Société mathématique du Canada dissertation might well be supervised by a Master of 1785 Alta Vista Drive, Suite 105 Ottawa, ON, Canada K1G 3Y6 T: (613) 733-2662 F: (613) 733-8994 Arts), then even more options are open. Planer’s other [email protected] supervisor was Pasch (an astronomer, and not the www.smc.math.ca www.cms.math.ca nineteenth-century discoverer of Pasch’s Axiom.) Pasch’s ISSN :1193-9273 (imprimé/print) ancestry can be traced through two doctors of theology to 1496-4295 (électronique/electronic) 2 VOLUME 41 NO.

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