OTICES OF THE AMERICAN MATHEMATICAL SOCIETY Graduate Education in Mathematics Is it Working? page 266 University Park Meeting (April 7-8) page 297 Albuquerque Meeting (April 19-22) page 305 MARCH 1990, VOLUME 37, NUMBER 3 Providence, Rhode Island, USA ISSN 0002-9920 I Calendar of AMS Meetings and Conferences This calendar lists all meetings which have been approved prior to Mathematical Society in the issue corresponding to that of the Notices the date this issue of Notices was sent to the press. The summer which contains the program of the meeting, insofar as is possible. and annual meetings are joint meetings of the Mathematical Associ­ Abstracts should be submitted on special forms which are available in ation of America and the American Mathematical Society. The meet­ many departments of mathematics and from the headquarters office ing dates which fall rather far in the future are subject to change; this of the Society. Abstracts of papers to be presented at the meeting is particularly true of meetings to which no numbers have been as­ must be received at the headquarters of the Society in Providence, signed. Programs of the meetings will appear in the issues indicated Rhode Island, on or before the deadline given below for the meet­ below. First and supplementary announcements of the meetings will ing. Note that the deadline for abstracts for consideration for pre­ have appeared in earlier issues. sentation at special sessions is usually three weeks earlier than that Abstracts of papers presented at a meeting of the Society are pub­ specified below. For additional information, consult the meeting an­ lished in the journal Abstracts of papers presented to the American nouncements and the list of organizers of special sessions. Meetings Abstract Program Meeting# Date Place Deadline Issue 855 • March 16-17, 1990 Manhattan, Kansas Expired February 856 • March 23-24, 1990 Fayetteville, Arkansas Expired February 857 • April 7-8, 1990 University Park, Pennsylvania Expired March 858 • April19-22, 1990 Albuquerque, New Mexico Expired March 859 • August 8-11, 1990 Columbus, Ohio May 18 July1 August (93rd Summer Meeting) October 20-21,1990 Amherst, Massachusetts August 6 October November 2-3, 1990 Denton, Texas August 6 October January 16-19, 1991 San Francisco, California October 10 December (97th Annual Meeting) August 8-11, 1991 Orono, Maine (94th Summer Meeting) March 16-17, 1991 South Bend, Indiana March 22-23,1991 Tampa, Florida January 8-11 , 1992 Baltimore, Maryland (98th Annual Meeting) June 29-July 1, 1992 Cambridge, England (Joint Meeting with the London Mathematical Society) January 13-16, 1993 San Antonio, Texas (99th Annual Meeting) January 5-8, 1994 Cincinnati, Ohio (100th Annual Meeting) • Please refer to page 179 for listing of special sessions. Conferences June 7-July 4, 1990: Joint Summer Research Conferences in July 8-28, 1990: AMS Summer Research Institute on the Mathematical Sciences, University of Massachusetts at Differential Geometry, University of California, Los Angeles, Amherst, Massachusetts. California June 18-29, 1990: AMS-SIAM Summer Seminar on Vortex Dynamics and Vortex Methods, University of Washington, Seattle, Washington. Events Cosponsored by the Society February 15-20, 1990: Section A (Mathematics) Sessions at the AAAS Annual Meeting, New Orleans, Louisiana. Deadlines April Issue May-June Issue July-August Issue September Issue Classified Ads* March 6, 1990 April 23, 1990 June 14, 1990 July 30, 1990 News Items March 5, 1990 April 25, 1990 June 18, 1990 August 3, 1990 Meeting Announcements•• Feb 27, 1990 April16, 1990 May 29, 1990 July 19, 1990 • Please contact AMS Advertising Department for an Advertising Rate Card for display advertising deadlines. ** For material to appear in the Mathematical Sciences Meetings and Conferences section. OTICES OF THE AMERICAN MATHEMATICAL SOCIETY ARTICLES DEPARTMENTS 263 Letters to the Editor 266 Graduate Education in Mathematics: Is it Working? 284 News and Announcements Despite the fact that mathematics education reform is being discussed in many forums-from government to business to academia-doctoral 293 Funding Information for the education in mathematics has largely gone unexamined. What is the Mathematical Sciences mathematical sciences community saying about graduate education? Allyn 294 For Your Information Jackson's report focuses on the Joint Mathematics Meetings in Louisville 295 AMS Elections in January, which provided a forum for discussion of this issue. 297 Meetings and Conferences of the AMS University Park, PA April 7-8, 297 FEATURE COLUMNS Albuquerque, NM Apri/19-22, 305 Invited Speakers, 315 269 Computers and Mathematics Jon Barwise AMS-SIAM Summer Seminar, 318 This month's column contains a discussion of TE'(, by Michael Doob and AMS Summer Research Institute, several reviews: SNAPPEA by Colin Adams, Derive by Phil Miles, and ISETL 319 by Donald Muench. Symposium on Some Mathematical Questions in 280 Inside the AMS Biology, 321 Call for Topics, 322 Frederick Gehring, chairman of the AMS Membership Committee, discusses the objectives and some of the activities of the Committee, and 324 Mathematical Sciences Meetings Herb Clemens announces the formation of the AMS Ad Hoc Committee on and Conferences Cooperation with Latin American mathematicians. 335 New AMS Publications 339 AMS Reports and 282 Washington Outlook Communications This month, Hans J. Oser examines the 1991 Presidential budget, and how Recent Appointments, 339 it affects Science & Technology in general & the NSF in particular. Reports of Past Meetings, 340 342 Miscellaneous Personal Items, 342 Deaths, 342 Visiting Mathematicians (Supplement), 342 343 Backlog of Mathematics Research Journals 346 New Members of the AMS 354 Classified Advertising 373 Forms MARCH 1990, VOLUME 37, NUMBER 3 261 AMS Russian Translation Program I would like to report on dramatic changes taking place in the Society's Rus­ sian Translation Program and, more generally, in the relationship between the Society and the Soviet mathematical and publishing communities. AMERICAN MATHEMATICAL SOCIETY The Society began its Russian Translation Program, with the aid of gov­ ernment grants, in 1949. The Program has been guided over the years by the Committee on Translations from Russian and Other Slavic Languages, now a joint Committee with the Institute of Mathematical Statistics, The EDITORIAL COMMITTEE Association for Symbolic Logic and the Society for Industrial and Applied Robert J. Blattner, Michael G. Crandall Mathematics. By 1988, the Program had grown to include three book series, Robert M. Fossum (Chairman) six Russian translation journals and a Russian-English Dictionary. Lucy J. Garnett, D. J. Lewis The Society is committed to producing high-quality, low-cost translations. Nancy K. Stanton, Robert E. L. Turner The outstanding quality of our Program is recognized in both the Russian­ MANAGING EDITOR and English-reading communities. Over the years, the Society has received Donovan H. VanOsdol requests from both communities to become more active in seeking and con­ tracting for books and in supporting more translation journals. In 1988, ASSOCIATE EDITORS the Society arranged for the consulting services of four distinguished Soviet Ronald L. Graham, Special Articles mathematicians and hired an acquisition editor for the Russian Translation Jeffrey C. Lagarias, Special Articles Program to identify Soviet mathematics of the very highest scientific quality. SUBSCRIPTION INFORMATION These acquisition activities have brought exciting additions to our Russian Subscription prices for Volume 37 (1990) are Translation Program. We are adding two new Russian translation journals $113 list; $90 institutional member; $68 individual ·through cooperation with the Leningrad Mathematical Society, Leningrad member. (The subscription price for members is Mathematical Journal and Proceedings of the Leningrad Mathematical Soci­ included in the annual dues.) A late charge of 10% of the subscription price will be imposed ety, in addition to two new Russian translation book series, Proceedings of upon orders received from nonmembers after Regional Conferences and Advances in Soviet Mathematics. The latter is a January 1 of the subscription year. Add for post­ joint venture with the Academy of Sciences of the USSR and will be pub­ age: Surface delivery outside the United States lished only in English. There will also be translations of several new Russian and lndia-$11; to lndia-$22; expedited deliv­ ery to destinations in North America-$24; else­ books not in series, including expository writings in mathematics to be pub­ where-$49. Subscriptions and orders for AMS lished in cooperation with the Mathematical Association of America. The publications should be addressed to the Amer­ Society has co-publishing agreements with several Soviet publishing houses, ican Mathematical Society, P.O. Box 1571, An­ and the books published under these cooperative activities will appear in the nex Station, Providence, Rl 02901-1571. All or­ ders must be prepaid. continuing series Translations of Mathematical Monographs. Furthermore, the long-awaited update and expansion of the Russian-English Dictionary ADVERTISING (the Lohwater Dictionary) will be published this year. Notices publishes situations wanted and classi­ Our activities have also led to changes in our interactions with the Sovi­ fied advertising, and display advertising for pub­ ets. Contractual arrangements concerning copyright have heretofore been lishers and academic or scientific