Message from Professor Jim Hill as the incoming Chair of ANZIAM

Dear Colleagues, I can report that both the recent MISG and the ANZIAM meetings were extremely successful with about 120 participants at each of them. The MISG, organised at QUT by Professor Sean McElwain, attracted five industrial problems, and the usual energy and excitement exhibited by participants at these meetings was as apparent as always. The annual ANZIAM meeting took place at Mollymook, organised jointly by Professor Phil Broadbridge and Associate Professor Song-Ping Zhu. This meeting was followed by a short conference on combustion to honour Professor Brian Gray. The ANZIAM meeting was opened by Professor Peter Robinson, the Deputy Vice-Chancellor of Wollongong University. In his opening remarks Professor Robinson described Applied Mathematics as ``the golden bowl of innovation. Unfortunately, in our region mathematics has become a ``forgotten discipline and is presently suffering something of a ``depression. This is happening uniformly throughout Australia and New Zealand, and is a consequence of the simple fact that fewer students now wish to study mathematics, engineering and the physical sciences. This trend will continue unless all of us make a determined effort to reinvigorate our discipline, through imaginative use of our skills, especially in the new technology areas which are likely to attract the attention and interest of those embarking on careers. As the incoming Chair of ANZIAM, I encourage all of you to be far more pro-active in interacting with your colleagues from other disciplines, in seeking out new areas for the application of mathematics, and in attracting new members to the Australian Mathematical Society and ANZIAM. The recent downsizing of tertiary-institution mathematics departments is now mirrored in the membership of ANZIAM and the Australian Mathematical Society, and it is especially important in this period that all of us strive to maintain these Societies as strong and vibrant organisations. In the interests of the health and well-being of the discipline of mathematics, not only educationally, but also in the wider community, it is important that many more potential members of these organisations actually become members. Please encourage your students and mathematical colleagues to become members. Please encourage both your mathematical and non-mathematical colleagues to participate in some of the many activities sponsored under the ANZIAM umbrella, such as the Mathematics-in-Industry Study Groups or the meetings organised by the Engineering Mathematics Group, the Mathsport Group or the Computational Mathematics Group, noting especially that CTAC 99 will be held at the ANU in Canberra, September 20-24. The application of mathematics has no boundaries and we welcome both new colleagues and new areas of application of mathematics. ANZIAM members have a network of contacts with access to a vast range of analytical, numerical and modelling skills. We certainly need new ideas as to how best we might continue to utilise and exploit this vast experience and expertise in a manner which will benefit all of us, and I welcome your input. Mathematics is undergoing a testing period and it is important that we respond accordingly. If each present member of ANZIAM recruits just one new student or colleague to the membership, then we shall have more than adequately accommodated the current decline in membership. This is our objective for 1999. Over the next three years MISG will be organised by Associate Professor Phil Howlett at the University of South Australia, and we wish him and his colleagues well in this new endeavour (MISG 2000 is from January 31st through to February 4th). ANZIAM 2000, the annual February meeting, once again takes place in New Zealand (Waitangi, in the Bay of Islands, Tuesday 8th through to lunchtime of Saturday 12th February 2000). As a prelude to this meeting there will be a one and half day meeting to honour Dr Alex McNabb and his 70th birthday (Monday 7th and the morning of Tuesday 8th). I came away from both the MISG and ANZIAM meetings with the distinct impression that our New Zealand colleagues make major contributions to these meetings, and that these activities wouldnt be quite the same without their participation. It is one of the great strengths of ANZIAM that it is a multi-nation organisation. Finally, I would like to congratulate Professor Ernie Tuck for being awarded the 1999 ANZIAM Medal, Dr Harvey Sidhu for being awarded the inaugural Michell Medal, and Ms Elana Ostrovskaya as the T. M. Cherry Student Prize winner for her talk on multi-hump optical solitons. I also wish all of you well in your own personal endeavours. Please do not hesitate to contact me if you believe I can be of assistance. \finished{Jim Hill} jim_hill@uow.edu.au

The Australian Mathematical Society Gazette is Copyright by the Australian Mathematical Society. Any enquiries about this electronic version of the Gazette should be sent to amsweb@maths.unsw.edu.au