PSU Magazine Fall 2013

W hat i a math major to do? In years past, a master's usually led to a doctorate, which led to a purely acade– mic career solving theoretical prob– lems and working in imaginary paradigms. This scenario is changing as lucrative industrial and technical careers open up for math grads--or at least for math majors with the right training. From 1988 to 1998 academic employment in the mathematical sciences dropped 25 percent, according to the Mathematical Sciences Research Institute of Berkeley, Califor– nia. At the same time, the percentage of Ph.D. grads with nonacademic employment doubled from 18 percent to 36 percent. The range of job opportunities for graduates of trong math program almost defies the imagination: from insurance actuaries, aerospace engi– neers, and air traffic controller to robotics programmers, cryptologists, and paranormal researchers. Residents of the Pacific Northwe t often think of giants uch a Micro oft or Intel, but thousands of mall and medium-sized companies have a crucial demand for skilled mathematician , too. "Math is an enabling discipline, every technical field uses it," ays Steven Bleiler, PSU mathematics pro– fessor. "We're experiencing an incredi– ble mathematization of our technical world, and industry is screaming for people with advanced math skills who can communicate well and work on interdisciplinary teams." A lthough most universiry computer science and engineering departments keep abreast of industry demands, math departments aren't tuning in. Nearly all post-graduate math courses still train students "classically" for an acad– emic future. Like strangers in a strange land, math graduates often enter for– eign environments to face a set of on– the-job tasks that seem far removed from their intellectual models. Math majors are frequently criti– cized as poor collaborators on projects with other disciplines and rotten at making information meaningful to a layperson. That's why P U's proposed doctoral program in mathematics (see sidebar) is creating such a buzz. After graduating from Portland State with a master's in mathematics in 1977, David Fitzpatrick began work– ing for Standard Insurance Company. Fitzpatrick, who works as an actuary, ay it wa n't easy jumping in cold at age 22, adjusting to a corporate envi– ronment, and applying classroom theo– ries. Over the years he has seen other math graduates struggle and now Fitzpatrick feels that students need a more well-rounded preparation. "Stereotypes about math majors being poor communicators are some- what true," he says. "I didn't take any speech classes or do any internships. I pretty much had a pure math back– ground and not much else." The demand for people with supe– rior math skills in industry isn't new; it's just exacerbated by the continuing explosion of technology and the need to proce s gargantuan amounts of information. Consider the following: • Fifteen years ago, there was virtu– ally no mathematical research being done in the software sector. Now it is a multibillion-dollar-a– year industry. • The finance industry continues to call upon mathematicians to develop complex risk mitigatiQn trategies and to create specialized software for derivative security funds and sophisticated options. • The computer and communication industries continue to experience growing need for advanced algo– rithms (the logical tructures that govern all computations) to handle emerging challenges such as Inter– net traffic, voice recognition, Web searching, and 3-D animation. John eil, who earned his M.S. in mathematics from PSU in 1991 and a Ph.D. from Portland State in systems science/mathematic in 1995, sees these needs firsthand. As director of an engineering department at an Internet-based firm that services the mortgage industry, Neil supervises employees who perform highly chal– lenging math operations and must also translate the computations into terms an average homebuyer can understand. After recently undergoing a large– scale hiring process, Neil reports that the applicants with superior math backgrounds tended to be more grounded in technical reality yet more flexible intellectually. "Overall, their intellectual horizons are expanded far beyond that of the average undergrad– uate," he says "The advanced math degree holders who succeed in industry," Neil says, "can apply their training to many types of situations." D (John Rumler '90 is a Portland freelance writer.) FALL 2001 PSU MAGAZINE 17