gram for new and recent PhDs in the mathematical sciences that
addresses the full range of faculty responsibilities, including
teaching, scholarly activities, and service. Since its inception in
1994, the national Project NExT program has grown tremen-
dously, and sections of the MAA have been encouraged to or-
ganize regional NExT programs.
year, and has sponsored a dynamic cohort of participants at the
2002-2003 and 2003-2004 MAA Section meetings. SoCalNev
NExT will soon be recruiting applicants for the 2004-2005
school year. The program will accept applications from faculty
with Master's Degrees or PhDs who are within the first three
years of beginning full-time employment with significant teach-
ing responsibilities at the college or university level.
Spring meetings of the MAA Section and participate in special
activities. These activities involve practical information about
implementing effective pedagogical and professional strategies,
including topics such as teaching methods, directing under-
graduate research, and writing grant proposals. In addition,
SoCalNev NExT provides a venue in which its participants can
meet informally and discuss issues relevant to new faculty.
tion when it becomes available and a list of past activities,
please visit
developed during the careers of many active faculty members,
it may not be surprising that many mathematicians have a very
fragile grasp of statistics; indeed, correct responses to many
elementary questions are not widely understood. With a won-
derful array of examples, including an amazing collection of
"living histograms," the audience was treated to an opportunity
to learn some statistics while learning of some of the common
misunderstandings--as well as the embarrassing consequences--
of not having statisticians contributing to or reviewing the high
stakes assessments and standards in California and other states.
Not only did we learn how easy it is to make mistakes but we
also learned that many of the "traditional topics" are mere arti-
facts of the early stages of development of the very young sub-
ject of statistics and are already obsolete, both practically and
theoretically. Ken Millett, UC Santa Barbara
duced Ann Watkins by reading an impressive list of her ac-
complishments, including both professional and teaching
awards. Ann then began her final address as MAA President,
"Fallacies in Elementary Statistics." While the level of mathe-
matics in Ann's talk was not lofty, the situations that she de-
scribed were clearly of interest to the audience, as indicated by
the sprinkle of groans, chuckles, and nods of agreement
throughout the address. Ann's main thesis was that mistakes are
the subject. The typical questions found in statistics textbooks
have not been vetted to the extent of those in calculus texts.
This leads to simplistic solutions to questions that are much
more complicated. Guidelines written for K-12 standards are
at the least inconsistent and at the worst nonsensical. Ann's
audience left her presentation with two resolves: to ensure
that a statistician is involved in the writing of their state's
math standards, and to create a human histogram with their
math majors! Claudia Pinter-Lucke, Cal Poly Pomona
results and on the beauty of the visual aspects of mathematics.
His research has led to the development of very powerful
tools to concretely implement abstract results in three-
dimensional topology and geometry. His software, SnapPea,
has been extremely influential among researchers worldwide,
leading to a very effective census of knots and 3-dimensional
spaces. At about the same time he was trouble-shooting
SnapPea, Weeks also was writing the groundbreaking text-
book, The Shape of Space, developing a novel approach to the
college-level teaching of geometry. His later educational ac-
tivities include the development of multimedia tools for the
middle-school teaching of geometry through computer games
and other hands-on experiments. He has taught us the fun of
playing chess on a Klein bottle, and of flying inside Poincare
dodecahedral space. His more recent research includes a col-
laboration with cosmologists aiming at determining the shape
of our universe through the analysis of satellite data on micro-
wave radiation.
has received numerous awards, including the MacArthur Fel-
lowship--perhaps better known as the MacArthur "Genius
Grant"--in 1999.