The goal of this workshop is to explore the value of professional education at the graduate level in mathematics by examining a new trend that responds to workforce needs by preparing students with substantial knowledge of mathematics as well as a broad set of professional skills to respond to the needs of employers. These rapidly growing new programs called Science Masters or Professional Science Masters programs provide a new paradigm in the field of mathematics and warrant closer examination.
The workshop will involve a variety of participants: program directors, faculty, and students from current and developing programs, and industry and government employers. Representatives from professional societies and the Professional Science Masters Association are also involved in the development of the workshop. The workshop will explore in a methodical way the career opportunities created by the programs for mathematicians and statisticians, how these programs respond to local and regional workforce needs, and the current and future impact they will have on higher education.
Outcome data from recent graduates and descriptions of ongoing projects will help shape the discussions about the efficacy of these programs, future directions, and possible further evaluation.
The major activity was the organizing of a workshop focused on the Professional Science Programs (PSM) in the mathematical sciences: Creating Tomorrow’s Mathematics Professionals, October 13-15, 2011. Niagara Falls, NY. The workshop involved participants (program directors, faculty and students) from current PSMs as well as the ones from programs in planning stage. This meeting had as a goal to assess the current development of these programs, to explore in a more methodical way the opportunities created by PSMs for mathematicians and statisticians, the way these programs address regional and national workforce needs, as well as the current and potential impact on the educational environment in pure and applied mathematics in higher education. A volume containing the proceedings of the workshop was put together by the coPIs, who solicited experts in the field to review the submissions made by the conference presenters. The reviewers were: Douglas Arnold (University of Minnesota), Samuel Garfunkel (COMAP), Lisbeth Borbye (North Carolina State University), Kirk Jordan (IBM), Deborah Silver (University of New Jersey, Rutgers), Charles (Chuck) MacCluer (Michigan State University), Samuel M. Rankin (AMS) and Mark Rice (WPI).The volume starts with the presentation made by William Kolata (SIAM) addressing the demand for mathematicians in industry and the evolution of the roles of mathematicians between 1940 and 2012, including some of the findings of the 2012 SIAM Report on Mathematics in Industry. The need for innovation in graduate education is developed in the paper by Carol Stoel and Myles Boylan (NSF), who also proposed six questions for discussion during the workshop. The role of mathematics in industry is illustrated in the paper by Lillian Gomory Wu (IBM) and Ralph Gomory (NYU), in an intriguing account of how mathematics and data sciences can help provide a better understanding of the bigger picture ("macroscopy"). The volume includes PSM program case studies by Peiru Wu (Michigan State University), Marcel Blais (WPI), Sangya Varma et al (Rutgers) and Paul Eloe (University of Dayton), and discussions of aspects of the PSM curriculum by Lorena Mathien and Joaquin Carbonara (Buffalo State), Matt Nagowski (BuffaloState and M&T Bank), Teresa Eller (M&T Bank) and David King (SUNY Oswego). As the PSM programs in mathematical sciences were among the very first to start fifteen years ago, we wanted to better understand the impact and value these degrees had. The paper by Sheila Tobias and Susan Richards provides a first analysis ever of the employment of the graduates of mathematical sciences PSM programs, the types of employers and the job titles, making use of the information available on social media. The volume concludes with the contribution of Daryl Chubin (AAAS) at the NPSMA National Conference held in Denver, CO, in November 2012. We added this paper as it presents a succinct view of how PSM programs fit in the current higher education landscape and formulates thought provoking questions on how these will continue to evolve. The proceedings was published in 2013 and has been distributed at no cost at the National Professional Science Masters Association annual conferences, publicized at the NPSMA web site, and sent to many individuals that requested a copy of it.
