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Second Simons Public Lecture

Dr. Emily Shuckburgh, British Antarctic Survey, visits the San Francisco Bay Area on March 4, 2013, for the second MPE2013 Simons Public Lecture "Climate disruption: what math and science have to say." Read more →

Recent Posts

mpe2013.org

March 3rd, 2013

 [...]

What is an MPE topic?

March 2nd, 2013

MPE2013 continues to spread among schools, science centers and universities. Many people are enthusiastic and eager to organize [...]

MPE2013 Newsletter

Letting a Thousand MPEs Bloom

General

MPE2013 is a success. It is has generated enthusiasm all over the world, and it is giving mathematics more visibility than we could have hoped for. The fact that over 120 organizations in many countries have joined MPE2013 as partners is an indication that we have hit a resonance.

As a life-long applied mathematician, I am of course very pleased with this outcome. I have often wondered how we can make applied mathematics more visible and present our discipline as an invaluable component of the scientific enterprise. Applied mathematics lacks the glamour that core mathematics generates with its “open problems.” Think of the four-color problem, Fermat’s last theorem, the Poincaré conjecture: all rather abstruse concepts, but they made the news in a big way. Would anything like that ever happen to geometric singular perturbation theory, or homogenization? I doubt. Yet, applied mathematics provides the infrastructure for science, engineering, and the life sciences. The trouble is: infrastructure is mostly invisible.

But MPE2013 has hit a chord. It has caught the attention of a wider audience, it has a catchy sound to it and could give us a handle to better advertise our stuff. So I have a suggestion. We adopt the MPE brand, trademark it and exploit it to present applied mathematics as a partner in society’s quest for a sustainable future. Anyone who is working at the interface of mathematics and Planet Earth is welcome to use the brand name, and soon we will see a thousand MPEs bloom.

TM

This entry was posted in General by Hans Kaper. Bookmark the permalink.

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