I was just asked about the “R Project for Statistical Computing“.  Any one on to this?  Any one familiar?

Let me know what you think?

The Mathematical Association of America offers 8 reviews of new math books per week in their MAA Reviews online.  The full database includes both “MAA Reviews,” which are commissioned by the editor, and reviews submitted by our readers. It also indicates which books belong to MAA’s Basic Library List, and allows you to search for those books in particular. The full MAA Reviews database is available to members only and requires a password.

I will on the look out for more sites that review math books specifically.

April is Math Awarenss Month.  The American Mathematical Society, the American Statistical Association, the Mathematical Association of America, and the Society for Industrial and Applied Mathematics announce that the theme for Mathematics Awareness Month, April 2009, is:

Mathematics and Climate

One of the most important challenges of our time is modeling global climate. Some of the fundamental questions researchers are currently addressing are: How long will the summer Arctic sea ice pack survive? Are hurricanes and other severe weather events getting stronger? How much will sea level rise as ice sheets melt? How do human activities affect climate change? How is global climate monitored? Calculus, differential equations, numerical analysis, probability, and statistics are just some of the areas of mathematics used to understand the oceans, atmosphere, and polar ice caps, and the complex interactions among these vast systems.

We at Hagerty Library are planning an exhibit on this theme.  It should be up in the next week.  Please do visit.

Welcome back students!  Ready to take on the Spring term?  Just to let you math students know that we have 3 scientific calculators available for use in the library for a three hour loan (go to the circulation desk).  Also the following software packages on all library laptops and computer stations:  Maple, MATLAB, and SPSS.  More things coming down the pike.  So stay tuned.  This term is going to be FUN!

Dear Drexel Math Graduate Students,

Will you be taking the Ph.D. qualifying exam in the next year?  Want to start preparing for it?  The faculty of Drexel’s Mathematics Department have selected a set of books, they believe to be pertinent to the Math Ph.D. qualifying exam.  These books have been placed on Reserve in Hagerty Library for your convenience.  You can find the list by searching Reserves with “Mathematical Qualifying Exam“  The list is also below.

The Graduate Junction is the first website to give graduate researchers an easy way of making contact and communicating with other researchers who share their research interests no matter which department, institution or country they work in.

Tell the world…

…about your work on your very own research homepage

• Summarise your research interests and current work
• Review your educational background
• List any publications you have
• Describe any specific research skills you have acquired
• Detail any positions you hold on Professional Associations
• Keep a record of your existing Graduate Junction Research Links
• Record your group memberships
• Stay up to date by adding notes to your Research Notepad

Also coming soon, a conference diary to record events you have attended or are planning to attend.

Go to:  

A report from the International Mathematical Union (IMU) in cooperation with the International Council of Industrial
and Applied Mathematics (ICIAM) and the Institute of Mathematical Statistics (IMS).

This is a report about the use and misuse of citation data in the assessment of scientific research. The idea that research assessment must be done using “simple and objective” methods is increasingly prevalent today. The “simple and objective” methods are broadly interpreted as bibliometrics, that is, citation data and the statistics derived from them. There is a belief that citation statistics are inherently more accurate because they substitute simple numbers for complex judgments, and hence overcome the possible subjectivity of peer review. But this belief is unfounded.

For the full report, go to: http://www.mathunion.org/fileadmin/IMU/Report/CitationStatistics.pdf

Well, I am embarrassed to say that I haven’t been to the American Mathematical
Society web site for quite awhile. Although, I do use MathSciNet regularly. Anyway, I have just discovered Mathematical Moments. The Mathematical Moments program promotes appreciation and understanding of the role mathematics plays in science, nature, technology, and human culture via podcasts. In addition, a few display the national flags of various countries, by selecting the flag icon, you can hear the podcast in that language. Also, there are links to supplemental resources (web sites and pdf documents). Some examples of topics of the podcasts are: Bending It Like Bernoulli, Burying Carbon Dioxide, Finding Fake Photos, Predicting Storm Surge. There many more.

If this is news to you, please check it out.

There is a new, online-only journal from SIAM:
SIAM Journal on Imaging Sciences http://epubs.siam.org/SIIMS/siims_toc.html

– first articles are now available.

Access is free during 2008.