The survival of a mathematician: from tenure to emeritus

281 Pages·2007·1.214 MB·English

by  Krantz S.

The Survival of a Mathematician:
From Tenure to Emeritus
Steven G. Krantz
October 17, 2007
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To all the advice I never got and had to figure out for myself.
Table of Contents
Preface vii
I Simple Steps for Little Feet 1
1 I Didn’t Sign on for This! 3
1.1 What am I Doing Here? . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 4
1.2 Getting to Know You . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 5
1.3 Getting to Know your Teaching . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 7
1.4 Getting to Know the Other Aspects of Your Life . . . . . . . . 8
1.5 Collegiality . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 9
1.6 What Else is There to Life? . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 11
2 Your Duties 13
2.1 How to Teach . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 14
2.2 How Not to Teach . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 15
2.3 How Teaching is Evaluated . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 19
2.4 How to Establish a Teaching Reputation . . . . . . . . . . . . 21
2.5 Choosing a Textbook . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 23
2.6 Teaching Cooperatively . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 25
2.7 Media . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 26
2.8 Research . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 30
2.9 Committee Service . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 31
2.10 A Panorama of Committees . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 33
2.11 University-Wide Committees . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 34
2.12 What Goes on at Faculty Meetings? . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 35
2.13 Serving as a Mentor. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 37
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2.14 Undergraduate Advising . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 39
2.15 Graduate Advising . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 40
2.16 Your Role in The Professional Societies . . . . . . . . . . . . . 41
2.17 Translators . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 42
2.18 Is Mathematics Just a Service Department? . . . . . . . . . . 43
3 Sticky Wickets 49
3.1 How to Deal With a Sequence of 1-Year Jobs . . . . . . . . . . 50
3.2 If You Cannot Get Along . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 51
3.3 What to Do if You Cannot Get Along with Your Students . . 54
3.4 What to Do With a Problem Graduate Student . . . . . . . . 55
3.5 Jobs in Industry . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 57
3.6 What Do People in Industry Do? . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 59
3.7 What about Tenure? . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 61
3.8 Sex and the Single Mathematician . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 62
3.9 First Kill All the Lawyers . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 64
3.10 The Two-Body Problem . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 66
II Living the Life 69
4 Research 71
4.1 What is Mathematical Research? . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 72
4.2 How to Do Mathematical Research . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 74
4.3 How to Establish a Research Reputation . . . . . . . . . . . . 76
4.4 Seminars . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 78
4.5 Writing Papers . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 79
4.6 Writing Books . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 82
4.7 Working on Your Own . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 85
4.8 Working in Collaboration . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 86
4.9 Publishing Papers . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 88
4.10 Being a Referee . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 89
4.11 How to Apply for a Grant . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 92
4.12 How to Give a Talk . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 96
4.13 Graduate Teaching . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 101
4.14 Directing a Ph.D. Thesis . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 103
4.15 Professional Travel . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 104
4.16 Sabbatical Leaves . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 106
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4.17 The Mathematics Research Institutes . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 108
4.18 Outside Offers . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 109
4.19 What Goes on at Conferences? . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 111
4.20 The International Congress of Mathematicians . . . . . . . . . 113
4.21 The January Joint Mathematics Meetings . . . . . . . . . . . 114
4.22 Prizes and Encomia . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 116
5 Non-Research 121
5.1 Writing a Textbook . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 122
5.2 The Mathematics Curriculum . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 124
5.3 How to be a Departmental Citizen . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 127
5.4 Letters of Recommendation . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 127
5.5 Editing . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 137
5.5.1 The Purpose of Editors . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 139
5.5.2 Types of Editors . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 140
5.5.3 Dealing with Editors . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 152
5.6 What if You are a Foreigner? . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 154
5.7 National Service . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 156
6 Being Department Chair 159
6.1 What is a Chair? . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 160
6.2 Characteristics of a Chair . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 160
6.3 First, Do No Harm . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 161
6.4 How to Become the Chair . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 162
6.5 How to Stay Chair . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 163
6.6 How to Cease Being Chair . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 166
6.7 The Chair’s Duties . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 167
6.7.1 The Budget . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 167
6.7.2 Promotion and Tenure . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 171
6.7.3 Hiring . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 176
6.7.4 General Departmental Management . . . . . . . . . . . 181
6.7.5 The Reward System . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 182
6.7.6 When One of Your People Wins a Prize . . . . . . . . 184
6.7.7 Relations with Other Departments . . . . . . . . . . . 184
6.7.8 Vice-Chairs . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 187
6.7.9 Committees . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 187
6.7.10 Graduate Students . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 188
6.7.11 The Graduate Vice-Chair . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 189
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6.7.12 Undergraduate Math Majors . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 190
6.7.13 The Undergraduate Vice-Chair . . . . . . . . . . . . . 191
6.7.14 The Curriculum . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 192
6.7.15 Getting Along With the Staff . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 193
6.7.16 Working Together as a Team . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 195
6.7.17 Supporting Your Faculty’s Teaching Efforts . . . . . . 197
6.7.18 Supporting Your Faculty’s Research Efforts . . . . . . 198
6.7.19 Endowed Lecture Series . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 199
6.7.20 Faculty Complaints . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 200
6.7.21 Faculty Discipline . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 201
6.7.22 Prima Donnas and the Like . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 202
6.7.23 Outside Offers . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 204
6.7.24 The Library . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 205
6.7.25 Computer Support and Technology for the Department 206
6.7.26 Part-Time Faculty and Freeway Fliers . . . . . . . . . 207
6.7.27 Chair Professorships for the Department . . . . . . . . 210
6.7.28 Retirement and Emeritus Professors . . . . . . . . . . . 211
6.7.29 Tenured Faculty Changing Departments . . . . . . . . 214
6.7.30 Raising Money for Your Department . . . . . . . . . . 215
6.7.31 The Interface Between the Dean and the Faculty . . . 216
6.7.32 Miscellany of Being Chair . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 220
6.7.33 The Duration of Your Term as Chair . . . . . . . . . . 222
6.7.34 Staying Alive While You Are Chair . . . . . . . . . . . 223
6.7.35 A Second Term as Chair . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 224
6.7.36 Do You Want to Become a Dean? . . . . . . . . . . . . 225
III Looking Ahead 227
7 Living Your Life 229
7.1 Time Management . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 230
7.2 Publish or Perish . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 232
7.3 Tenure and the Like . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 234
7.4 How to Be a Tenured Faculty Member . . . . . . . . . . . . . 238
7.5 What Happens if You Don’t Get Tenure? . . . . . . . . . . . . 240
7.6 If Tenure Doesn’t Make You Happy . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 241
7.7 How to Keep Your Teaching Alive and Vital . . . . . . . . . . 242
7.8 Promotion through the Ranks . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 245
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7.9 Striking a Balance . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 247
7.10 How to Know When You are Done for the Day . . . . . . . . . 248
7.11 Managing Your Life . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 249
Glossary 195
Bibliography 215
Index 217
Preface
The tradition in mathematics is that the profession is a sink-or-swim oper-
ation. Nobody tells you, once you earn the venerable Ph.D., what you are
supposed to do next. If you are lucky, your thesis advisor will get you a job.
If you are especially lucky, this will be an academic job. But, in point of
fact, there are many choices these days. Your first job could be at a lab that
is part of the genome project. It could be at Microsoft. It could be with the
Federal Government. But then just what are you supposed to do? How do
you function? What are your goals? What is expected of you? To whom are
you answerable?
It is a hard fact that more than 90% of American Ph.D. mathematicians
never write a paper. Of those who do, most write just one paper based on
the Ph.D. thesis and that’s it. Nothing more. Why is this? Is the cutting of
the (academic) umbilical cord so traumatic that most people just fall off the
wagon? Or are the reasons more complicated? Do people just get wrapped
up in other duties, or other career pursuits, and decide after a while that
“Publish or perish” is not part of their credo? Are they perhaps in a job
where publishing and doing research is not really the thing that is rewarded?
And what about teaching? If you are working for the National Security
Agency (as, for instance, three of my Ph.D. students now are), then you
certainly will not be teaching classes, or grading papers, or giving grades.
But you will have to give seminars. You will have to mentor others. You
will have to provide guidance to younger staff members. How does one learn
these skills?
And, no matter where you work or what you do, you will no doubt work
as part of a team. You will have to function in meetings, and on conference
calls, and in interactions with your supervisors and your underlings.
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If you are in an academic job, then your role(s) in life are carefully de-
lineated and described in your institution’s Tenure Document: teaching, re-
search, and servicearethe threebranches ofan academic’sprofessional activ-
ity. He/she is judged on each of these, and in different ways. For example, if
youmanage toprovetheRiemannhypothesis, thenitdoesn’tmatterwhether
you spend your time at staff meetings rolling your eyes and humming The
Battle Hymn of the Republic. If you are a world-class teacher, then you will
probably be granted someslackinyour researchprogram. Ifyou area terrific
departmental citizen, seen as a person who holds the ship of state together,
then you will perhaps not have to put in quite so much time on the other
two portions of your profile.
The bottom line is that there is an awful lot about this profession that
you are going to have to figure out for yourself. This book is intended to
help you through the process. One of the main messages here is to talk to
people. Find a senior faculty member who is willing to let his/her hair down
and tell you some things about how life works in your department, or your
organization, or your company. Bond with others who are your peers, and
who can share experiences with you. Become friendly with the staff, with
the Chair, with the key players in your group or department. I can assure
you that—if you are in an academic department—a good deal of the decision
of whether to tenure you is based on raw quality, but another good part of it
is based on collegiality and whether you will fit in. Is this someone that we
want to have knocking about in this building for the next forty years or not?
Is this someone whom we would look forward to seeing each day? These are
intangibles, not written in any guidebook or TenureDocument. But they are
facts of life.
The purpose of the present volume is to give you some hints as to how
to make your way in the academic world, or more generally in the corporate
world or professional world of mathematics. I cannot claim to be expert in
every nuance and corner of the profession; but I have had more experience
than most. I can certainly help you to avoid most of the pitfalls.
I should perhaps stress that I know quite a lot about the life of a math-
ematician in the United States. I know very little about that life in other
countries. I do know that there can be considerable differences—in culture,
in style, and in emphases. I must leave it to another scholar to write a book
about the mathematical life in Italy or Sri Lanka.
I also note that my book A Mathematician’s Survival Guide was written
a few years ago to help the student learn how to become a mathematician.
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This new book is intended to pick up where that one left off. Reading this
tract will tell you how to advance throug the ranks, how to survive in your
Department, and how to get along in the mathematical life.
It is a pleasure to thank Robert Burckel, Gerald B. Folland, and James
S. Walker for a careful reading of an early draft of this book, and for con-
tributing many useful and incisive comments. Ed Dunne, as always, was an
encouraging and proactive Editor. He read several drafts of the book and
contributed decisively to its form and structure.
Mathematics is a highly varied, rich, and rewarding life. Welcome to it.
I hope that you spend a very pleasant and productive thirty or forty years
making your way throught the profession, and that you find many rewards
and comforts. May this book be your touchstone as you get started.
— Steven G. Krantz
Palo Alto, California