[CvGmt News] IMU-Net 31: September 2008

Sun Sep 28 18:06:09 CEST 2008

IMU-Net 31: September 2008

A Bimonthly Email Newsletter from the International Mathematical Union
Editor: Mireille Chaleyat-Maurel, University Paris Descartes, Paris, France

CONTENTS

1. Editorial
2. IMU on the Web
3. Emmy Noether lecturer
4. Sad news about Ibni Oumar Mahamad Saleh
5. Subscribing to IMU-Net

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1. EDITORIAL

A year ago two lecturers were sought to participate in the beautiful
project of the French organization CIMPA (Centre International de
Mathématiques Pures et Appliquées) to help rebuild the mathematics
infrastructure in Cambodia. The context of this work was described to
potential volunteers as follows:

"We seek lecturers for intensive 3-4 week courses at universities in the
developing world, at the advanced undergraduate level.  The lecturer
would be assisted by a local mathematics professor who prepares the
students beforehand, assists when necessary during the course, and takes
care of any necessary follow-up. These courses should have a student
audience of 20 or more, be controlled, with examinations, and be part of
a regular degree program at the university at which they are offered.

Past experience in the developing world is desirable but not necessary.
However what is required is tolerance for working in circumstances of
modest resources, unexplained inefficiencies, and limited physical
comforts.

Funds for all expenses, including travel, will be provided; however,
we request that the mathematician's home institution offer leave with
pay during his/her 3-4 week absence.  We believe that a strong case
can be made that cooperation with this program will not only bring
personal and professional benefit to the lecturer, but will also
redound to the credit of the lecturer's institution."

40 volunteers immediately responded!  Such an outpouring of interest
in contributing to the formation of students of mathematics in the
developing world could not be ignored!  The Developing Countries
Strategy Group of the International Mathematical Union, in cooperation
with CIMPA and the U.S. National Committee for Mathematics, have built
on that nucleus of 40 volunteers to launch the "Volunteer Lecturer
Program" (VLP), whose goal is to provide mathematician volunteers to
give intensive month-long courses at universities in the developing
world. The program is quite modest in size due to the
limited financial resources of the sponsoring organizations.  But
mathematicians interested in participating in the VLP,  universities in the
developing world interested in hosting lecturers to teach in the
context described above, and, as importantly, donors desiring to
provide the E.3000 necessary to support a VLP lecturer, should contact:
Sharon Berry Laurenti
Administrative Secretary
Developing Countries Strategy Group of the International Mathematical Union
e-mail: cde at ictp.it

Herbert Clemens
Chair of the DCSG

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2. IMU ON THE WEB: Preserving our History

The use of TeX over the last decade and a half to write papers,
lecture notes and even ephemera has moved from the unusual to the
commonplace. Indeed, some of my younger colleagues can't remember using
anything else but TeX to write mathematics.  For those of us somewhat
longer in the tooth, we remember using other software, which was preceded
by the little golf balls that allowed typing of mathematical symbols,
which in turn was preceded by writing in the mathematics by hand (with
the hope that the typesetting would introduce only a few errors).

One of the happier results of this migration to TeX has been the ability
to put our papers on personal web pages so that anyone with a standard
computer configuration can acquire them. This usually means making a pdf
or a PostScript file available for download. The little postcards that
were mailed to request reprints has now joined those little golf balls
as historical curiosities.

Happily, the papers that were written in the predigital era are not
beyond redemption. They, too, can and perhaps should be made available
for download. In the past several years there have been significant
advances in the ability to scan paper documents. With the right equipment,
scanning several hundred or even a thousand pages is not difficult.

The are two approaches, both of which work well. The first is to use
a standalone scanner. Robust models with document sheet feeders are
available for under $1000. These include the software for doing the
scanning. There are lots of options when using such software, so here
are some suggestions.

When scanning the pages, the software can produce colour, grayscale or
black and white files. Unless there is a compelling reason, black and
white is usually the best choice for older documents. There is also a
choice of resolution: 200, 300, 600 or 1200dpi (dots per inch). Usually
the 600dpi is the best choice.

There are also several different types of files that can be produced
by the scanning software. All of them have some compression: these come
in two types: lossless (no data lost during the compression) and lossy
(some data irretrievable). A lossless compression is the best. There
are also different file formats, the most common being pdf and TIFF.
The pdf files are the ones to put on your web page; they can be read
on any modern computer with readily available software. Note that there
are two different types of pdf files: ones that are image only and those
that are also text searchable. The latter type is preferable, and most
scanners can produce them.

There is also a compelling reason to keep lossless TIFF files. Newer and
smarter software will emerge that will do things we can't do today. If
you keep the TIFF files, there will be no need to rescan since the
information is already in an industry-standard format.

A second approach is to use a photocopier. Many of them come with scanning
software built in: you feed in the pages and the image files are emailed
back to you. Usually there are fewer options than with a scanner. The
default resolution is usually 200dpi, so be sure to set it to 600dpi.
The provisos given above for scanners are also valid for photocopiers.

I recently carried out a two-month project that involved scanning of
some 53000 pages. It really wasn't difficult. In fact the hardest part
of preserving your mathematical history may be taking the staples out
of those old pages.

Our mathematical history is important and worth preserving. A bit of
effort by all of us can produce a significant body of mathematical
literature.  Let's get our history out of the file cabinet and onto
the web!

Michael Doob
Member of CEIC

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3. EMMY NOETHER LECTURER: for ICM 2010 in Hyderabad

Emmy Noether was one of the great mathematicians of her time, someone
who worked and struggled for what she loved and believed in. Her life
and work remain a tremendous inspiration. The 2010 Emmy Noether
Lecture will be presented as a plenary lecture at the International
Congress of Mathematicians in August 2010 in Hyderabad, to honour
women who have made fundamental and sustained contributions to the
mathematical sciences.

There have been Emmy Noether Lectures at four previous ICMs, and this
will be the second time that the selection of the Emmy Noether
Lecturer has been made formally by the IMU. The IMU Executive
Committee has established a committee of five, chaired by Cheryl
Praeger (Australia), to select the 2010 Emmy Noether Lecturer. The
committee will conduct their work over the next 6-9 months, and
suggestions for consideration by the committee may be sent to Cheryl
Praeger at praeger at maths.uwa.edu.au

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4. Sad news about Ibni Oumar Mahamat Saleh

Following the report of an independent enquiry on the events that took
place in the Republic of Chad between January 28 and February 8, 2008,
the French professional societies (SFdS, SMAI, and SMF) have notified
the IMU that almost certainly Ibni Oumar Mahamat Saleh died in detention
a few days after having been kidnapped from his home on February 3rd,
2008 by the armed forces of Chad. Ibni Oumar Mahamat Saleh, Professor of
Mathematics at the University of N'Djamena was instrumental in the
establishment of higher-education exchanges between France and Chad. He
was one of the leading figures in the democratic opposition to the
government of Chad. For more information and to continue demanding the
truth on the fate of Ibni Oumar Mahamat Saleh, please go to:
http://smf.emath.fr/PetitionSaleh/

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5. SUBSCRIBING TO IMU-NET

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1. Click on http://www.mathunion.org/IMU-Net with a Web browser and go
to the "Subscribe" button to subscribe to IMU-Net online.

2. Send an e-mail to imu-net-request at mathunion.org with the Subject-line:
Subject: subscribe

In both cases you will get an e-mail to confirm your subscription so
that misuse will be minimized. IMU will not use the list of IMU-Net
addresses for any purpose other than sending IMU-Net, and will not
make it available to others.

Previous issues can be seen at:
http://www.mathunion.org/Publications/Newsletter/archive

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