Claremont Colleges Scholarship @ Claremont All HMC Faculty Publications and Research HMC Faculty Scholarship 5-1-2006 Teaching Time Savers: A Recommendation for Recommendations Michael E. Orrison Jr. Harvey Mudd College Recommended Citation Orrison, Michael. "Teaching Time Savers: A Recommendation for Recommendations." FOCUS 26.5 (2006): 20. This Article is brought to you for free and open access by the HMC Faculty Scholarship at Scholarship @ Claremont. It has been accepted for inclusion in All HMC Faculty Publications and Research by an authorized administrator of Scholarship @ Claremont. For more information, please contact [email protected]. FOCUS May/June 2006 FOCUS is published by the Mathematical Association of America in January, February, March, April, May/June, August/September, FOCUS October, November, and December. Editor: Fernando Gouvêa, Colby College; Volume 26 Issue 5 [email protected] Managing Editor: Carol Baxter, MAA Inside [email protected] 4 A Pilgrimage to Ramanujan’s Hometown Senior Writer: Harry Waldman, MAA hwald- By Krishnaswami Alladi [email protected] 7 The First SASTRA Prizes Please address advertising inquiries to: Rebec- ca Hall [email protected] By Krishnaswami Alladi President: Carl C. Cowen 8 “Just tell me how: I Don’t Care About the Theory Behind It!” President-Elect: Joseph Gallian By Jeff Suzuki First Vice-President: Carl Pomerance Second 9 Is Math Anxiety on the Way Out? Vice-President: Deanna Haunsperger, By Harry Waldman Secretary: Martha J. Siegel, Associate Secretary: James J. Tattersall, Treasurer: John W. Kenelly 10 Archives of American Mathematics: H.S. Vandiver Papers By Kristy Sorensen Executive Director: Tina H. Straley 12 Complex NUMB3RS? Associate Executive Director and Director By Sarah J. Greenwald of Publications: Donald J. Albers FOCUS Editorial Board: Rob Bradley; J. 14 Math March Madness—Highlights From the 2005 Putnam Competition Kevin Colligan; Sharon Cutler Ross; Joe By Joseph A. Gallian Gallian; Jackie Giles; Maeve McCarthy; Colm Mulcahy; Peter Renz; Annie Selden; 16 New MAA Position Reflects Growth of Publications Hortensia Soto-Johnson; Ravi Vakil. By Tina Straley Instructions for submitting articles for FOCUS can be found at http://www.maa. 18 William A. Massey Wins the 2006 Blackwell/Tapia Award org/pubs/writingforfocus.html. Letters to the editor should be addressed to 20 Teaching Time Savers: A Recommendation for Recommendations Fernando Gouvêa, Colby College, Dept. of By Michael E. Orrison Mathematics, Waterville, ME 04901, or by email to [email protected]. 21 Short Takes Subscription and membership questions Compiled by Fernando Gouvêa should be directed to the MAA Customer Service Center, 800-331-1622; e-mail: 22 President Bush Establishes National Mathematics Advisory Board [email protected]; (301) 617-7800 (outside By Harry Waldman U.S. and Canada); fax: (301) 06-9789. MAA Headquarters: (0) 387-500. 23 MAA Contributed Paper Sessions Copyright © 006 by the Mathematical New Orleans Joint Mathematics Meetings, January 5-8, 2007 Association of America (Incorporated). Educational institutions may reproduce articles 29 Employment Opportunities for their own use, but not for sale, provided that the following citation is used: “Reprinted On the cover: Lennart Carleson, winner of the 2006 Abel Prize. Photo supplied by with permission of FOCUS, the newsletter of the Mathematical Association of America the Abel Prize Committee. Used by permission of the Abel Prize/The Norwegian (Incorporated).” Academy of Science and Letters. Periodicals postage paid at Washington, DC and additional mailing offices. Postmaster: Send FOCUS Deadlines address changes to FOCUS, Mathematical August/September October November Association of America, P.O. Box 90973, Editorial Copy July 8 September 16 Washington, DC 0090-0973. Display Ads July 10 August 0 September 4 ISSN: 0731-040; Printed in the United States Employment Ads June 11 August 13 September 10 of America. May/June 2006 FOCUS MAA Dues Structure Simplified The practical effects for 007 will be a much simpler dues form and a modest You’ll see a different — and simpler! do not produce revenue plus average cost increase in dues that better reflects the — structure to MAA dues, starting with of the journal selected. It is currently less fiscal realities of the Association. Here the dues notice for 007. The new struc- than this, and so the rate will gradually are two examples. ture replaces the current dues matrix. be adjusted to that level. For 007, the The restructuring was approved by the base rate for Regular members will be 1) A Regular member taking the Monthly MAA Board of Governors in January. $178 for those choosing the Monthly and and the CMJ will have dues of $14 The goals were to: simplify the dues $158 for those choosing the Magazine ($178 Regular base with the Monthly + notice and to determine dues by con- or the CMJ. $36 CMJ subscription, or $158 Regular sidering actual costs. In particular, the base with the CMJ + $56 Monthly sub- new structure reflects the fact that many Members will be able to select additional scription). MAA activities do not produce revenue items for their total membership pack- — such things as administration, gov- age. These can include membership in ) A Discounted Regular member tak- ernance, planning, and programs that SIGMAAs, subscriptions to journals not ing those same journals will have dues are not fully funded externally (Project included under the base rate, subscrip- of $178 ($14 Discounted Regular base NExT, for example). The idea is that tions to Math Horizons, and JSTOR with the Monthly + $36 CMJ subscrip- member dues should reflect the actual access. The prices of these options will tion) or, if preferred, of $18 ($16 cost of these activities. be the same in every member category, Discounted Regular base with the CMJ discounted or not. In 007 the prices of + $56 Monthly subscription). Thus, The new structure has two parts: a base additional journal subscriptions will be discounted members taking the Monthly rate and additional items. $56 for the Monthly and $36 each for the will save (a little) money by choosing the CMJ and the Magazine. Monthly as their base journal. The base rate for each member category includes membership and exactly one As happens now, the base rates for mem- The Board of Governors hopes that journal — one rate for just the American bers in discounted categories will be cer- members find the new dues structure Mathematical Monthly, and another for tain percentages of the Regular base rate. both simpler and more logical and the either just the College Mathematics The base rate for “Regular Discounted” dues notices simpler and shorter. Ques- Journal or just the Mathematics Maga- members will be $14 for the Monthly tions can be addressed to MAA Director zine (both of which publish half as many and $16 for either the Magazine or the of Membership Jim Gandorf (jgandorf@ issues a year as the Monthly does). The CMJ. For Retired members, the base maa.org) or to MAA Budget Committee base rate for Regular members should be rates will be $89 and $79, respectively; Chair Jim Daniel ([email protected]. approximately equal to the per-member for Graduate Student members, $59 and edu). share of the cost of MAA operations that $5, respectively. Lennart Carleson Wins the 2006 Abel Prize The winner of the 006 Abel Prize is series: “In 1966, to the surprise of the namical systems. He is also known for Lennart Carleson of the Royal Institute mathematical community, Carleson his solution of the corona problem, “so of Technology in Sweden. The six mil- broke the decades-long impasse by called because it examines structures lion Kroner prize, which is awarded by proving Lusin’s conjecture that every that become apparent “around” a disk the Norwegian Academy of Science and square-integrable function, and thus in when the disk itself is “obscured,” for Letters, comes out to a little more than particular every continuous function, his work on Fourier multipliers, and for nine hundred thousand dollars. The Abel equals the sum of its Fourier series his work, with Benedicks, on the Hénon Committee citation says that Carleson “almost everywhere.” The proof of this strange attractor. is receiving the prize for his contribu- result is so difficult that for over thirty tions to harmonic analysis and to the years it stood mostly isolated from the King Harald of Norway will present the theory of smooth dynamical systems. rest of harmonic analysis. It is only Abel prize at a special ceremony to be The Committee says that “Carleson is within the past decade that mathemati- held in Oslo on May 3. The ceremony always far ahead of the crowd. He con- cians have understood the general theory will be followed by the full-day Abel centrates on only the most difficult and of operators into which this theorem Lectures, to be held at the University of deep problems. Once these are solved, fits and have started to use his powerful Oslo on May 4, and the Abel Party, on he lets others invade the kingdom he ideas in their own work.” May 7. For more information, includ- August/September October November has discovered, and he moves on to ing an expository account of Carleson’s Editorial Copy July 8 September 16 even wilder and more remote domains Carleson has, of course, done quite a lot work by Marcus du Sautoy, visit http:// Display Ads July 10 August 0 September 4 of Science.” of valuable and important mathemat- www.abelprisen.no/en/. Employment Ads June 11 August 13 September 10 ics since then, ranging over harmonic The committee specifically mentioned analysis, complex analysis, the theory Carleson’s famous result on Fourier of quasiconformal mappings, and dy- 3 FOCUS May/June 2006 A Pilgrimage to Ramanujan’s Hometown By Krishnaswami Alladi The district of Tanjore (Tanjavur in Tamil) in the state of Tamil Nadu, in South India, has been a seat of culture for several centuries.