VOLUME 141 • ISSUE 6 mathNEWS December 6, 2019 9 770705 041004 mastHEAD "WHAT IS THE BEST THING THAT HAPPENED THIS DECADE?" The 2010's. Ahh, what a time. waldo@<3.LE-GASP.ca I graduated :D Coming to the realization that CS is not for me To commemorate the end of a decade, let us go over all the Pikachu.exe and becoming happy with what I have: everyone major events that occurred in the past ten years, ordered by around me, my math program, etc. mathNEWS issue: honk Accepting my offer to Waterloo. UofT Rejecting my offer to Waterloo. v112i3–v112i4 — The 2010 Olympics are held in Vancouver, Sandwich Expert Feds rebranding as WUSA! culminating with the Golden Goal (ily sidney) Deriving for Dick Discovering mathNEWS v117i3 — M3 opens, marking the start of a new era in the dawdling C++14 Department of Statistics and Actuarial Sciences, and the use of David Jao Birth of Ronald Reagan a hideously oversized classroom by other faculties. Yellow pigs Finding my research area. Marine Whyologist Finding my research orca. v119i1 — Feds (aka WUSA) loses control of Fed Hall to the university, resulting in a mass migration of students to Wilf's. Asmodeus This decade cy My Little Pony: Friendship is Magic began and v120–v121 — The world ends. UWaterloo students didn't ended notice a difference as it was during exam season anyways. girafarig The Thinkpad X220 came out boldblazer Bernie Sanders, Pewdiepie, Pokémon Go v122i1 — Rob Ford's crack habit becomes public. We didn't Beyond Meta The friendships I maded write anything about that, but we just thought you'd like to Xavientois mathNEWS Redesign (we have consistency!) know. Finchey I was born. That bitch Ronald Reagan has NOTHING on me. v130i5 — George Lambrou comes in as editor, heralding a new Autowired Rick & Morty Season 3 era of mathNEWS. UW Unprint I came here and became a better version of myself. At least, I like to think so. v130i7 — mathNEWS gets a new horizontal layout, thanks to Somewhere along the way, I grew into a person George. clarifiED that 2010 me would think was cool. All I'm missing are bright red streaks in my hair. v131i4 — mathNEWS returns to its vertical layout, thanks to terrifiED I graduated (highschool)! George realizing his mistake. v133i4 — mathNEWS is redesigned. To all our critics: the paper literally tastes the same, I've tested it, please stop complaining. ARTICLE OF THE ISSUE v136i6 — George leaves. Goodbye, George (and congrats on If there's one thing that gets readers, it's celebrity feuds. Like graduating!) Tupac and Biggie before us, our generation's feud continues in Jao Versus Ken: A Refutation, by supermagictesseract. v139i2 — A forty-page issue of mathNEWS‽ Yes. After several fatalities in the editorial team, it gets published on time. RIP. Come to MC 3030 to claim your prize. If Jao turns up mysteri- ously shot in Las Vegas, you know what happened. (obviously v140i6 — Feds is rebranded. ME-SA, YOU-SA. WE-SA, WUSA! he's writing raps with Tupac at his beach villa). terrifiED UW Unprint clarifiED Editor, mathNEWS Editor, mathNEWS Do credited ghostwriters just become normal writers? CLARA XI, mathNEWS EDITOR FOR FALL 2019 ALONG WITH JAMIE ANDERSON, TERRY CHEN, AND JOSH RAMPERSAD December 6, 2019 mathNEWS 141.6 1 WUSA & GSA BRING mathASKS 141.6 EXPANSIONS TO MENTAL FEATURING PROFESSOR KAREN YEATS waldo@<3.le-GASP.ca: what got you started in your HEALTH COVERAGE TO field? do you wish you had done things differently in UWATERLOO STUDENTS! your career so far? I got started by doing what all your advisors will say not to Waterloo, ON – November 26, 2019 – The Waterloo do, namely going to a lesser ranked school for my PhD so my Undergraduate Student Association (WUSA) is excited to now-husband and I could stay together. We had applied to announce additional mental health support for University of pairs of schools in various cities. I got in everywhere except Waterloo students at no additional cost, as part of one of the MIT and he only got in to Boston University, which was our most comprehensive updates to a student healthcare plan in Boston pair. I ended up applying to Boston University as well, Canada. after the deadline, and got in. But now I was somewhere I hadn't expected to be, without a plan of who to work with. I On Monday, November 25, The Health Plan Oversight had been planning to study enumerative algebraic geometry. Committee voted unanimously to expand student healthcare One of their number theorists was something of an unofficial coverage. WUSA and the Graduate Student Association advisor at first for me, and he suggested I should take this (GSA) worked extensively with UW Campus Wellness and course from Dirk Kreimer on the mathematics of quantum StudentCare to re-evaluate our insurance coverage offerings. field theory since so much modern algebraic geometry has The health plan expansion will further recommendations laid applications in physics. I liked the material and I liked Dirk's out in the President’s Advisory Committee on Student Mental style as a supervisor, and I never looked back. Health (PAC-SMH) for expanding healthcare funding and developing better referral mechanisms to community partners. I think it served me well in my career since I don't do the same thing as anyone else. Changes include: unsophisticated: what is your favourite graph? • Addition of the EmpowerMe, a 24/7/365 confiden- tial student assistance program designed to support . It's small enough that the graph theorists don't bother mental health and wellbeing fighting me for it and its Feynman period is which is a 4 • Doubling the annual coverage limits for mental Knice number. health services under the health plan to 80% 6ζ(3) coverage for mental health practitioners to a new boldblazer: were you ever stranded on burnaby total of $800.00 per calendar year mountain or prevented from going to burnaby • Expanding the scope of allowed mental health prac- mountain due to too much snow? titioners covered under the health plan to include psychologists, registered social workers, psycho- No, but I was once biking up and there was a bear just across therapists, and clinical counsellors the road munching on the grass. Tempting as it was to stop • Eliminating referral requirement from a medical and marvel, I decided to calmly keep biking and hope not to doctor to have your psychological treatment attract its attention. Bears are pretty intimidating when they covered by the health plan are only a few meters away with nothing separating them from you. The expanded coverage will broaden the scope of care and remove barriers to accessing mental health supports dawdling: what is the worst mischaracterization of for students without increasing the current cost of their your field that you have heard? healthcare plan over the next two terms, with only minor increases in the fall 2020 academic year. I get tired of people who think combinatorics isn't serious mathematics, but you rarely meet such people around These changes are now approved and will come into effect Waterloo. on January 1, 2020, with WUSA and GSA working to have the program fully integrated with the University of Waterloo autowired: what do you miss about undergrad? Campus Wellness over the coming terms. All part-time and full-time on-campus students will have access to this program. Having time for random tangents and not having people depending on me. Waterloo Undergraduate Student Association (WUSA) uw unprint: have you considered teaching combinatorics & doptimization so that you can teach c&d? There's not really space to teach in the C&D. 2 mathNEWS 141.6 December 6, 2019 pikachu.exe: is it possible to give a layman's profTHOUGHTS 141.6 explanation of an introduction to Quantum field theory? if not, why do you think the topic is that I have only one thought for you: research is more accessible complicated and where would be a good 'stepping than you think it is. Try an undergrad research term (URA). If stone' into the topic? the Waterloo math URA program is too competitive for you, or you just want to get out of KW, apply to other universities for You want to understand fundamental particles and you attack a URA. Universities with smaller math programs don't always this problem by understanding what happens when particles use up all their NSERC funding for URAs. You don't have to collide (which you can do in a particle accelerator). Physicists be the cocky top-of-the-class student to do research. Profs can worked out a rather intricate theory that describes this also get funding through co-op to hire a student. This is more situation. Then you can study this mathematically: what are flexible than a URA and the work doesn't have to be research, the structures hidden in this intricate story? but research is what most profs want to be doing anyway, whether with you or otherwise. It's complicated to learn because there's a lot of background that goes into it, but I think for most mathematicians, If math research isn't your long term goal, a research term is especially those of an algebraic or discrete bent, the biggest still a good experience. You get to see what math really is, and problem is that the references expect a physicists' background then you go out into the world appreciating that. Wouldn't it and a physicists' perspective, so they can be quite hard to be great if more politicians and teachers, parents and adminis- make sense of for a typical mathematician.