Recommended Reading

• Scientific Elites and Scientific Illiterates, by David Goodstein, provost of CalTech. The best-written and most disturbing essay I have read on the future of academic science.

• What is the Future for the Physical and Mathematical Sciences?, Representative George Brown, Jr.'s February 1995 address to the annual meeting of the AAAS. Eloquently describes the grim political realities for science in Washington.

• Putting to Rest the Damaging Myths About Mathematics, by Charles Mannix and Kenneth Ross, in the August 11, 1995 Chronicle of Higher Education. Very well-written math-specific version of the ideas above. Valuable reading. A more detailed version of the same article, entitled Myths in Math appeared in the August 1995 Notices of the AMS.

• Philip Griffiths' article, Science and the Public Interest describes the history of the covenenant which has governed relations between the federal government and research universities for the past half century.

• The SIAM Report on Mathematics in Industry has just been released. This is a must read. In addition, the gopher site has numerous articles on work done by industrial mathematicians and commentaries on the future of applied mathematics.

• The National Academy of Science's report, Reshaping the Graduate Education of Scientists and Engineers is available here. A summary is available as well. The NAS report suggests a number of much-needed reforms to graduate education in the sciences.