Letters to the Editor Mathematics in Pakistan ones on account of its more rigorous We found the article “The Abdus requirements for its postgraduate Salam School of Mathematical Sci- programs and the broad base pro- ences in Pakistan” by Loring W. Tu vided. It has already started pro- (Notices, August 2011) very interest- ducing extremely good Ph.D.’s and ing. It is highly commendable that M.Phils. in mathematics and physics, the efforts made in Pakistan to im- many of whom have already received prove the state of education in gen- international recognition. eral and mathematics, in particular, The COMSATS Institute of Infor- are acknowledged and appreciated mation Technology is producing the internationally. It is also desirable largest quantum of mathematical re- that these actions get support from search in the country and a very large mathematicians across the globe as number of research graduates. As at well as phase. A picture using this mathematics is essentially an interna- the SMS and QAU, the graduates are scheme appeared in the Mathematical tional activity. These include specific more limited in their backgrounds. Art Exhibit at the Joint Mathematics forms of support mentioned in this The Lahore University of Manage- Meetings in San Antonio in January article for SMS as well. ment Sciences started a graduate 2006 [see accompanying graphic]. As efforts towards improving the program in mathematics a long time Visual Basic code for this color map- state of education and research in ago. However, it did not become a ping can be found at http://w. Pakistan do not get much interna- major producer of graduates or re- american.edu/cas/mathstat/ tional attention, we have an appre- search at the time. Now the university lcrone/ComplexPlot.html. hension that this article might give a has initiated a Faculty of Science and wrong impression to the rest of the Engineering that is expected to follow —Larry Crone world that SMS is perhaps the only the lines of CAMP in the broader base American University institution in Pakistan working to required. [email protected] achieve these goals for mathemat- Other institutions around the ics, although there is no explicit in- country, including the oldest uni- (Received November 22, 2011) dication to this effect in the article versity in Pakistan, the University of itself. The purpose of this letter is to the Punjab in Lahore, are also mak- highlight briefly the efforts made at ing valuable efforts for the cause of some other institutions as well, and mathematics. we mention only four of them here. Quaid-i-Azam University (QAU) —Asghar Qadir Islamabad was established about fifty Centre for Advanced years ago. It produced the first Ph.D.’s Mathematics and Physics in mathematics in Pakistan and is National University of Sciences regarded as the mother institution in and Technology mathematics for all the other institu- Islamabad, Pakistan tions to come later. The mathematics [email protected] graduates from this university were (and are still) the seeds for most of —Khalid Saifullah the other institutions to come later. Department of Mathematics The number of Ph.D.’s and M.Phils. Quaid-i-Azam University produced here surpasses any other Islamabad, Pakistan institution in the country and has [email protected] produced extremely high-quality mathematicians. For a long time this (Received October 17, 2011) was without rival in terms of research publications. Phase Plots of Complex The Centre for Advanced Math- Functions ematics and Physics (CAMP) at the I was very pleased to see the excellent National University of Sciences and article “Phase plots of complex func- Technology, Islamabad, is a relatively tions: A journey in illustration”, by new institution (seven years old to be Wegert and Semmler in the June/July precise), but in terms of the quality 2011 Notices. A color scheme which and quantity of research output it is I have been using since the mid- performing much better than older 1980s shows changes in modulus as 262 NOTICES OF THE AMS VOLUME 59, NUMBER 2.