[cmath] NSERC Survey

[Jon Borwein]

Dear all: I think Ivar's synopsis is quite accurate and with some caveats I
strongly support the proposed envelope. I've dealt with the MFA since 1997 and
sat on like NSERC-committees, unless things change dramatically, we can not
expect an easy life in that arena.
Cheers, Jon
 
> 
> Dear colleagues
> 
> I have been asked what is the PIMS position on the NSERC survey. Here is 
> the situation as we see it:
> 
> - wherever they go, be it in a common envelope for mathematics (option 
> #2) or in a revamped MFA programs with experimental sciences (option 
> #1), the three mathematics institutes will bring in their own money.
> 
> - the question then is: once the institutes money is in a common pot, 
> how is it redistributed ?
> 
> In the case of the envelope, which would be administered by 
> mathematicians, that money would stay within mathematics, and the 
> community should be able to handle it in any way it wishes. I agree with 
> Nassif's position that, as NSERC has structured it now, the envelope 
> option does not empower the mathematical community in that respect, and 
> that this should be changed.
> 
> In the case of a revamped MFA, it would be a free-for-all between 
> disciplines, with the mathematicians in a small minority, but holding a 
> disproportionate share of the pot. I cannot conceive that we would turn 
> out to be the winners in that particular game, and any money lost in 
> that fight would go to other disciplines.
> 
> So I think that the envelope, option #2, is our best bet. Mathematicians 
> have been successful in Canada because they have stuck together and 
> developed long-term vision. The envelope concept, if suitably adjusted, 
> may become an institutionalized way of doing just that
> 
> -- 
> Ivar Ekeland
> Canada Research Chair in Mathematical Economics
> University of British Columbia
> http://www.pims.math.ca/~ekeland/
> 




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Jonathan M. Borwein, FRSC	    		      Canada Research Chair
Computer Science Faculty, 325	 Dalhousie University, Halifax, NS, B3H 1W5 
PHONE: (902) 494-2501 233-5584 (CELL)  	       URL: www.cs.dal.ca/~jborwein
FAX:   (902) 494-7710 494-8087 (DDRIVE)	         E-mail: jborwein at cs.dal.ca
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