The Education of Mathematicians for Industry

Extract

Everyone connected with the teaching or practice of mathematics is aware that in recent years there has been a great increase in the number and variety of opportunities for the employment of mathematicians. In particular, industry, and especially engineering industry, has found a need to recruit mathematicians in large numbers with a view to employing them to do mathematics as a full-time occupation. This is quite a new development; although the value of the mathematically trained mind has long been recognised in many places, it is only quite recently that mathematics, as opposed to mathematicians, has been extensively employed by industry This change has, of course, largely coincided with the advent of the electronic digital computer, and the computer has certainly had a great influence on it; new mathematical disciplines have grown up as a result of the existence of computers, and it is now practicable to solve problems whose solution would be inconceivable without the use of a computer. As a result of this it has become fashionable to attribute the spread of mathematics to the computer. I think it more likely that the computer has accelerated rather than created the demand for mathematicians, and that the development of new industries and the introduction of new techniques to old ones would have brought about a demand for mathematicians even in the absence of computers. However there is no doubt that this demand exists, and it has certainly been stimulated by the existence of the computer.