ANNOUNCEMENT
For More Information, Please Contact:
Tim Goggins
Office (401) 455-4110
Fax (401) 331-3842
tjg@ams.org
To: Mathematical Sciences Community
Date: January 1999
Re: MATHEMATICS AWARENESS MONTH, April 1999
In preparation for Mathematics Awareness Month, April 1999, the Joint
Policy Board for Mathematics is pleased to announce that Texas Instruments
Incorporated has been named as the official sponsor of this year's event,
Mathematics and Biology.
Mathematics Awareness Month provides the mathematical sciences community
opportunity to promote the importance and versatility of mathematics and
its relationship to our daily lives. Texas Instruments and the JPBM
invite you to use the enclosed MAM 1999 materials and the resources
available on the MAM website to inform your colleagues, students, and the
public about the value of mathematics. The MAM web address is
http://www.mathaware.org/mam.
The 1999 MAM theme is Mathematics and Biology. Mathematics is an
essential element in fields as diverse as medicine, the human genome,
epidemiology, and research analysis. As a representation of Mathematics
in Biology, the enclosed 1999 Math Awareness Month poster depicts the
electrical activity of a normal heart as if it were stimulated at a single
point. Color is used to highlight the arrival time of the electrical
signal as it propagates through the heart. The rectangular domain
represents a large slab of the ventricular wall, and all domains use
geometry and fiber orientation that are taken from anatomical data.
Without mathematics there is no other way to view this three-dimensional
concept. For a more detailed article on mathematics in heart research
please visit the MAM website (/mam/99/essay1.html).
Mathematics Awareness Month is an excellent time to communicate with new
audiences about the relevance of mathematics in their lives. Here are
some suggested activities:
* Design your own World Wide Web page,
* Link it to the MAM web site or to any site related to, or dependent on,
biology;
* Encourage your local student chapter Pi Mu Epsilon to organize campus
events;
* Request that appropriate state and local officials issue a proclamation
declaring April 1999 to be Mathematics Awareness Month in your locality -- a
sample proclamation can be found on the MAM website;
* Invite your local legislators and other elected officials to visit your
department -- public officials appreciate opportunities to speak with
faculty about their public policy concerns;
* Tailor the following sample news release to include details on your MAM
activities and mail it to your local print and broadcast media
outlets -- you can find media listings in the reference section of your
library, or work with you institution's public information office;
* Check the MAM website for an extensive listing of past activities and
events.
Please help us share Mathematics Awareness Month by posting announcements
and reports of your MAM activities on our electronic mailing list
/mam/mamlist.html.
Texas Instruments Incorporated, JPBM and its member societies -- the
American Mathematical Society, the Mathematical Association of America,
and the Society for Industrial and Applied Mathematics -- appreciate the
involvement of the American mathematical sciences community in Mathematics
Awareness Month.
