The
Australian
Mathematical
Society
(Inc)
Reports for
the fifty-ninth
Annual General Meeting
and the
one hundred and nineteenth
Council Meeting
2015
President’s Report
Secretary’s Report
Treasurer’s Report
Audited Financial Statements
Editors’ Reports
ANZIAM Report
ANZAMP Report
Page 1 of 48
AustMS President’s Report
Annual Meeting 2015
Most of our members are employed within the Australian higher educational sector so I start my
report with a sector overview. The Federal Government has been blocked in its push to
deregulate university tuition fees for domestic students by the Australian Senate. As a
consequence of this, and the slowing of growth in domestic student numbers, many universities
have implemented staff hiring freezes or cutbacks. Whilst the level of cutbacks seems moderate
at this stage, new staff positions in the mathematical sciences have dried up in 2015. Moreover
the fall in the Australian dollar makes working here less attractive to mathematicians based
overseas, so the flow of talent to our shores is likely to be lower as well.
There are challenges in the research funding landscape too. Our members are highly reliant on
ARC funding to progress their research and to offer opportunities to talented early career
researchers. The highly successful ARC Future Fellows scheme supports mid-career researchers
and in the six years the scheme has been operational about fifty mathematicians have been
awarded Future Fellowships. The scheme is going forward in 2016 but with reduced funding for
only 50 new fellows. In 2015 the success rate for ARC Discovery grants dropped to 18% with
the total number of grants awarded dropping 5%. Again reduced funding will affect the research
activities of our membership.
External assessment of our discipline performance, via both ERA assessments and the QS
Mathematics subject rankings shows a healthy picture. The number of assessments scored at well
above, or above, world average (a score of 4 or 5) at the 4 digit FOR code levels in the
Mathematical Sciences increased from 20, in ERA2010, to 30 to ERA2012. I hope that
performance increases further in the upcoming ERA2015 assessment. The recent QS
Mathematics subject rankings show 16 Australian universities in their World top 400 list. Whilst,
as mathematicians, we are often concerned about methodological flaws in these types of
assessment exercises, most stakeholders in the sector (such as university managers and potential
students) take these assessments very seriously. I think it is important that the Society take a
more proactive role in supporting high research assessment and rankings outcomes in the
mathematical sciences. The main drivers of these assessments are journal paper citations and
reputational surveys and I think it is important for the Society to discuss measures that can
positively influence these metrics.
Some important initiatives that reflect well on the mathematical sciences occurred in 2015 and
are worth celebrating. BHP Billiton donated $22m to the AMSI Choose Maths initiative. This
programme will work to improve mathematics and statistics as a career choice for girls and
young women. Also the La Trobe University branch of the Kyushu University Institute of
Mathematics for Industry was launched, which will support stronger links between applied
mathematicians and industry on an international scale.
Page 2 of 48
The Federal Government is undertaking a review of Australia’s research training system.
Honours has proved to be a poor research training pathway degree in the mathematical sciences.
Peter Johnston’s annual report shows 170 honours completions in 2013. This is about the same
number as completing in the 1970s! Hence it seems appropriate that we examine other options in
order to increase the number of domestic students progressing to doctoral degrees in Australia.
What can Society members do to invigorate research training in the mathematical sciences? I
think alternative pathway degrees need to be more widely offered; for example both Macquarie
University and Western Sydney University have recently replaced honours by a two year
research masters degree. We also need to do more to build links with international partner
universities, which will attract additional research student candidates to Australia. In terms of
post-graduate employment, developing industry experience and skills is also vital for many
students. AMSI Intern programme and the ATN Doctoral Training Centre represent successful
initiatives to build industry skills but more links and interactions are needed between industry
and research students in our discipline.
2015 saw the approval of the Australian and New Zealand Association of Mathematical Physics
(ANZAMP) as a Division of the Society. ANZAMP was formed in 2011 and was previously a
special interest group of the Society. It has been very active in promoting Mathematical Physics
in Australia via workshops and conferences and boasts a healthy membership. I welcome
ANZAMP to the Society and look forward to working with both its leadership and its members.
The level of Society membership has been declining for some years now and I chair a
membership subcommittee. Our membership is dominated by university academics and we need
to both maximize the number of academics who are Society members and also broaden the
membership to mathematicians who work in industry, government and school education. This
year has seen promotional emails sent to relevant (non-member) academics, asking that they join
the Society, and also promotion of our fellowship accreditation scheme. The benefits of AustMS
fellowship have been spelt out in a new online document and a promotional campaign has seen
fellowships increase. This will increase the profile of our society and also provide a pool of role
models for early career researchers. There is much more work to do in this space. We need to
appeal more strongly to potential members who work outside the university sector. For example,
some mathematical societies provide more comprehensive professional accreditation options.
The IMA, based in the UK, is a good example of this and our Society could look to see what
aspects of their accreditation schemes may be applicable to our society.
The AustMS relies heavily on its volunteer office holders for its smooth running and operation. I
am very grateful for the support of our Secretary, Peter Stacey, and Treasurer, Algy Howe, for
the huge amount of time and effort they both volunteer to support the society. Their corporate
knowledge and experience is exceptional and I thank them both for their contribution. I would
also like to wish all our members success, in the remainder of 2015 and for the start of 2016.
Professor Tim Marchant, FAustMS
President
Page 3 of 48
Secretary's report to Council and AGM 2015
1. Statistics for the period 1/10/14 to 31/7/15
NEW MEMBERS:147
Ordinary Members (O) Early Career (EC) Reciprocal Members (Recip) Reduced-rate Members (RR)
Retired Members (Ret) Student Members (S) Education Members (Edu) Sustaining Members (Su)
ALHARBI Fahad M (S)
ANDERSON Judy Anne (Edu)
ANTIC Alex (O)
ARAUJO Robyn Patrice (O)
ARMSTRONG Lyneette Margaret (S)
AUCHETTL Rebecca Nicole (S)
BADER Philipp (EC)
BAKER Christopher (S)
BALLANGAN Cherry Galatia (RR)
BALLARD Peter (S)
BARAGILA David (O)
BENNETTS Like (O)
BERDINSKY Dmitry (RR)
BOROVKOV Konstantin (O)
BRADFORD Eilzabeth Valwyn (S)
BRAUNSTEINS Peter Timothy (S)
BUJEYA Brett Michael (O)
BULINSKI Kamil (S)
BUTTON Harrison Scott (S)
BYRNES James (Recip)
CARTER Benjamin Luke (S)
CATTLIN Joann (O)
CHAPMAN Clare Louise (O)
CHATTERJEE Tapas (EC)
CLANCY Kieran (S)
COSTA Alysson Machado (O)
CRAMER Andrew Dale (S)
DALE Trevor Ronald (O)
DAVIS Frank William (S)
DAVIS Paige Nicole (S)
DINI Saber (S)
DIRECTOR Monash College (Inst)
DRUMMOND Carson (S)
DYER Tom (S)
EVANS Barry Robert (S)
FABBRO Mark Anthony (S)
FLEGG Mark Bruce (O)
FOSTER Kylie (S)
FOXCROFT John Spencer Hugh (S)
FRANKLIN David (S)
GANJIARJENAKI Masoud (RR)
GILADI Ohad (EC)
GOMES Sean Patrick (S)
GRIFFITH Angus (S)
GRIFFITHS Rachael (S)
GUO Zihua (O)
GURNEY Lance Rory (S)
HAJDA Sandra (O)
HAMMERLINDL Andy (O)
HAN Jingya (S)
HANSON Stijn (S)
MARCHIORI Dean (O)
MARIA Clement (EC)
MCANDREW Stephen George (O)
McCULLOUGH Michael Hugh (S)
McLENNAN Liam Andrew (S)
McLURE Angus Timothy (S)
MILLS Stephanie Jane (S)
MISEREH Grace Omollo (S)
MONTILLET Jean-Philippe (O)
MUIR Ellen Victoria (S)
NCUBE Israel (Recip)
NGUYEN Huy The (O)
NGUYEN Trang Thi Thein (S)
NORDIN Syarifah Zyurina (Recip)
NUR Darfiana (O)
O CATHAIN Padraig (EC)
ORMEROD Carl (S)
OSBORNE James Mark (O)
OTTAZZI Alessandro (O)
PATCH Brendan (S)
PETRIE Stephen Michael (RR)
PFEIFER Robert Nick Chantler (EC)
PHAM Khanh Gia (S)
PUDNIKS Kurt Michael (O)
RAHMAN Md Habibur (S)
READ Nicholas (S)
REBULI Nicolas Peter (S)
REYNOLDS Katrina (S)
RIDGWAY Nevil Willoughby (Ret)
RODRIGO Marianito Rocha (O)
RUFFER Bjorn (O)
RYBA Christopher (S)
SAMSONOV Igor (O)
SAUNDERS Kate Robinson (S)
SHA Min (EC)
SHAH Nirav Arunkumar (S)
SHAH Shrupa Kantilal (S)
SHEARMAN Donald J (O)
SHI Meng (S)
SHIRAZI-MANESH Mojdeh ((S)
SHIRI Somayeh (S)
SIDHU Leesa Ann (O)
SIKORA Adam (O)
SIMMONS Alex Matthew (RR)
SKENE David Matthew (S)
SKERRITT Matthew Paul (S)
SMITH Olivia Jayne (EC)
STEPHEN Sharon Olivia (O)
SUN Jie (O)
TABET Paul John (S)
TARCA Silvic (S)
Page 4 of 48
HARRISON John Joseph L Weston (S)
HASSARD Patrick Charles (S)
HE Xinjiang (S)
HYNDMAN Timothy Luke (S)
ISMAIL Shahrina (S)
JOHANSEN Jonathan Frederick (O)
KAJIWARA Kenji (Recip)
KAMGARPOUR Masoud (O)
KAN Andrey (EC)
KARANTGIS Laura (S)
KESHTKARAN Mahsa (S)
KWOK Eric (S)
LAY Jeffery (S)
LEE Chul-hee (EC)
LEEMAQZ Sharon (EC)
LEUNG Tiffany N N (S)
LIU Chao (S)
LIU Yunxuan (S)
LO Mang Fung (O)
MA Guiyuan (S)
MACOURT Simon Thomas (S)
MAILLARDET Robert (O)
MAJCHROWSKI Alexander Benjamin (S)
TARTAGLIA Elena (S)
THIANG Guo Chuan (EC)
THOMAS Alise Regina (S)
THORNTON Lauren Kerry (S)
TOMSKOVA Anna (S)
TRAN Minh (S)
TRUONG Tuyen (EC)
VRBIK Paul (EC)
WALSH Adam (S)
WALSH Darragh M (O)
WATERS Edward Kyle (EC)
WERRY Jason Leonard (S)
WESSEN Kenneth Patrick (Edu)
WHEELER Michael Alan (EC)
WIEGAND Aaron Nathaniel (O))
WRIGHT Paul (RR)
XU Liangbin (S)
YAN Ada Wing Chi (S)
YAN Hongxuan (S)
YIEW Lucas (S)
ZAITOUNY Ayham (S)
ZHANG Lele (O)
MEMBERS WHO PASSED AWAY: 5
DEAKIN Michael A B
MACDONALD John A
PEARSON Ken R
SMRZ Paul K
STRZELECKI Emanuel
MEMBERS WHO CANCELLED THEIR MEMBERSHIP TOTAL: 19
BANDARA Menaka L
BOLAND Natashia
CHIRILUS-BRUCKNER Martina
COULHON Thierry
ENYANG John
FENTON Peter
FLIEGE Jorg
HILDER Tamsyna
LANINI Martina
LOHE Max A
NOLET Christopher M
MUELLER Samuel
RENTZ Matthew
SILVER Chad S
STAPLEDON Alan
STUART Robyn M
WAKE Graeme
WATSON Neil A
WOLFF Alison Louise
DEEMED RESIGNED MEMBERS TOTAL: 43
(Membership status can be resumed by payment of outstanding fees)
AJIEV Dr Sergey S
BARKER Dr Ewan J
MENDELSON Prof Shahar
BRANDER Dr David
O'BRIEN Dr Denis M
O'NEALE Dr Dion
ORMEROD Dr Christopher M
ORMEROD Dr John T
PETRAVIC Dr Janka
PROBERT Dr William J M
PULEMOTOV Dr Aetem
CLARK Dr Iain J
CROWDY Prof Darren
DEVI Mrs Aruna
EYLAND Dr Roger W
FLORIA Mr Brendan J
FISH Dr Alexander
NIVEN Dr Todd
Page 5 of 48
FU Dr Xiang
GAO Prof David Y
GOH Prof B S
HAQUE Dr Ejanul
HENZELL Mr Anthony L
HILL A/Prof Desmond L
IVERS Dr David J
KOTROS Mr Matthew J
LASSOUED Dhaou
LEOPARDI Dr Paul C
LIBRARY Auchmuty
LIU Dr Yangun
LU Dr Rongmin
SADER Prof John E
SAVKOVIC Dr Borislav
SCHAERF Dr Timothy M
SERDOZ Mr Stuart
SIERAKOWSKI Dr Adam
SUCK Joachim
TANNA Mr Dushyant
THALASSOUDIS Dr Kym
VIRCHENKO Prof Nina
WANG Dr Shuaian
WESTACOTT Mr Gareth A
WHITE Prof Lee R
DEEMED RESIGNED STUDENT MEMBERS TOTAL :81
ABD RAHMAN Ms Siti A
ADAMS Mr GILES D
AGBOOLA Mr Davids A
AHAMED Ms Sherin
AISBETT MS Natalie
ALSHAMMARI Mr Fehaid S L
BACK Mr Julian M
BARWICK Mr Michael J
BERICHON Mr Philippe E
BIRRELL Mr Andrew A
BUNTON Mr Joseph D
BURKE Mr Matthew W P
CANAGASABEY Mr M Nishan
CHALMERS Miss Kelsey
CHAN Mr Eugene Z
CHEN Dr Wen
CHEN Ms Zhenzhen
CHOPIN Mr Josh
CORR Mr Brian P
CRAWFORD Mr William
CUMMING Mr Robert
DAGROSA Eduardo
DEUTSCHER Miss Kathryn R
DUNN Ms Jessica M
FILLMORE Mr Christopher D
FLETCHER Mr James E
GAN Mr Han Liang
GAO Mr Xin
GARDINER Mr Bennett
GRACE Mr Adam
GUO Dr Ivan W H
HADI Mr Charkhgard
HARMAN Mr David B
HENDRIKSEN Mr Michael A
IOPPOLO Mr Mark
ISLAM Mr Md Hamidul
JACKSON Mr Daniel R
JEFFERSON Miss Grace F
JONES Miss Tiffany A M
KAPOOR Miss Reena
KAUR Miss Simranjit
KERR Mr Bryce D
KHAN Mr Muhammad S
KUYLAARS Miss Dominique I
LE Mrs Kim Ngan
LEE Mr David R
Li Mr Qi-Rui
LIEBIG Ms Jessica
LIM Ms Wei Xian
LIU Miss Qing
MAJEED Miss Saba
MCINERNEY Miss Carol
MINAS Dr James P
MITRY Mr John
MURRAY Ms Rosie
NAKHOUL Mr John
NAYMIE Ms Cassandra H
NG Mrs Chooi Fei
NGUYEN Mrs Thi T D
NITITHUMBUNDIT Mr Thanakorn
ORTIZ BRANCO Mr Omar E
PATRICK Mr Ellis
RAITHEL Mr David J
REISI Mr Mohsen
RICKETTS Mr Graham W A
RIZVI Mr Mohammed M
ROGERS Mr Cameron M
RUTHER Mr Sebastian
SANCHEZ Dr Stephen J
SCHRADER Mr Philip J
SCHULTZ Miss Lisa J
SHETTIGARA Ms Chaitanya
SUN Mr Yang
SUN Ms Yuxin
SUPASITI Mr Tharatorn
TANAKA Ms Emi
TIAN Mr Yu
VERA Mr Victor
WARE Mr Griffith
WATSON Mr Thomas M
WHITE Mr Gareth A
Page 6 of 48
NEW ACCREDITATIONS:
17 New Fellows (FAustMS):
CAREY Prof Alan L
DANCER Prof E Norman
DEWAR Prof Robert L
FARR Prof Graham E
GRIMSHAW Prof R H J
HUTCHINSON Prof John E
JOSHI Prof Nalin
LOXTON A/Prof Ryan C
MANTON Prof Jonathan H
MCCOY A/Prof James A
OWCZAREK Prof Aleksander L
SIMS Prof Aidan D
SMALL W/Prof Michael A
TEO Prof Kok Lay
THOMPSON Em/Prof Colin J
WARNAAR Prof S Ole
WELSH Prof Alan H
2 New Accredited Members (MAustMS):
KELLETT A/Prof Christopher M
LO Mr Man-Fung
1 New Graduate Member (GAustMS):
PUDNIKS Mr Kurt M
TOTAL ACCREDITATION LIST:
FELLOWS:
137
ACCREDITED: 42
GRADUATE:
17
FINANCIAL MEMBERS OF THE SOCIETY :
Membership Type
Ordinary
Reduced Rate
Student
Retired
Life
Honorary
Reciprocal
Education
Sustaining
Institutional
Free
Non-Financial
Early Career
TOTAL:
Year 2015
Year 2014
Change
510
16
133
84
63
27
36
9
5
4
57
35
89
522
18
162
84
62
27
35
6
5
3
49
35
98
-12
-2
-29
0
1
0
1
3
0
1
8
0
-9
1068
1106
-38
Sustaining members: Prof Robert BARTNIK, Prof Nalini JOSHI, Dr Benjamin E ODGERS,
Dr Todd A OLIYNYK, & Dr Ilknur TULUNAY
As at 31 July 2015, 335 members (including the listed 43 deemed resigned members and 81 deemed
resigned Student members) have not renewed their 2015 membership.
Page 7 of 48
2.
2015 Subscriptions and Journal Prices to Members
The 58th Annual General Meeting, held at the University of Melbourne, endorsed the decisions of Council and the Australian Mathematical Publishing Association Incorporated that the
subscriptions and journal prices to members for 2015 be as follows:
Ordinary Member – $134
Sustaining Member – $268
Reciprocal Member – $67
Reduced Rate Member – $34
Retired Member – $34
Education Member – $67
EC Member – $67
Life Membership at Retirement for Members over 55 years – $680
ANZIAM – $30, but Reduced Rate Member – $15
Subscription for an Institutional Member:
$1 714.
Note
1. Existing Ordinary Members who renewed their subscriptions before 1st January 2015 were
entitled to a rebate of $5.00, deducted from their payments.
2. Members were permitted to pay for up to three years in advance, at the current rate of
membership.
3. Free membership of the Society was available to any honours or graduate student in mathematics, statistics, computer science, physics or mathematical finance, enrolled at an Australian institution. Such membership was available for 6 years of study, subject to annual
confirmation of eligibility by the student.
4. Free membership of the Society was available to an undergraduate student of mathematics
enrolled at an Australian institution. Such membership was available for 4 years of study,
subject to annual confirmation of eligibility by the student
5. All new Ordinary Members were entitled to pay their first year’s subscription at the
concession rate of $67 (no rebate).
Ordinary, Sustaining,
Education &
Reciprocal Members
Reduced Rate,
Retired Members
& Life Members
J. Australian Mathematical Society
Resident in Australia
$107.80
Resident overseas
$98
$53.90
$49
ANZIAM Journal
Resident in Australia
Resident overseas
$92.40
$84
$46.20
$42
Bulletin
Resident in Australia
Resident overseas
$102.30
$93
$51.15
$46.50
Gazette
Free to members paying a subscription.
Page 8 of 48
3.
The Australian Mathematical Society Medal
In 2014 the Australian Mathematical Society Medal was awarded to Associate Professor J. Dick.
The 2015 AustMS Medal Committee consists of:
Professor N.C. Wormald (Chair);
Professor P.G. Bouwknegt (Incoming Chair);
4.
Professor K.A. Smith-Miles(Outgoing Chair);
Assoc. Prof. F. Larusson (1 year term).
The George Szekeres Medal
In 2014 the George Szekeres Medal, which is awarded in even years, was awarded to Professor
C.E. Praeger.
5.
The Gavin Brown Prize
In 2014 the Gavin Brown Prize was awarded to Professor Ben Andrews and Dr Julie Clutterbuck
for their paper Proof of the fundamental gap conjecture, J. Amer. Math. Soc. 24 (2011), 899-916.
The 2015 Gavin Brown Prize Committee consists of:
Professor J.M. Borwein (Chair);
Professor J.F. Grotowski (Incoming Chair);
6.
Professor N.S. Trudingerl(Outgoing Chair);
Professor K.A. Landman(Member, one yr.).
The B.H. Neumann Prize
The 2014 prize was awarded to Joshua Howie (University of Melbourne) for his talk A characterisation of alternating knots.
Also special commendations went to:
Kamil Bulinski (University of Sydney), Inna Lukyanenko (University of Queens- land), Calum
Robertson (Monash University), Cameron Rogers (University of Newcastle) , Kyle Talbot (Monash
University) and Elena Tartaglia (University of Melbourne).
7.
The Mahler Lecturer
The 2015 Mahler Lecturer is Professor Manjul Barghava of Princeton University.
The 2015 Mahler Lecturer Committee consists of:
Professor W. Zudilin (Chair);
Assoc. Prof. J. de Gier (Outgoing Chair);
Assoc. Prof. M.G. Jackson (Incoming Chair);
Professor S.O, Warnaar (Vice-President (Ann Conf ));
Assoc. Prof. V. Ejov (Director 2015 Annual Conference).
8.
The Alf van der Poorten Travelling Fellowship
In 2015 the Alf van der Poorten Travelling Fellowship was awarded to Dr TriThang Tran of the
University of Oregon.
The 2015 Selection Committee consisted of:
Assoc. Prof. L. Ward (Chair);
Dr N. Thamwattana (Outgoing Chair).
Assoc. Prof. D.A. Pask(Incoming Chair);
Page 9 of 48
9.
Lift-off Fellowships
The Australian Mathematical Society Lift-off Fellowships have been awarded in 2014-2015 to:
Dr
Dr
Dr
Dr
Ying Yap (University of Melbourne)
Naghmana Tehseen (La Trobe University)
Caley Finn (University of Melbourne)
Koen van den Dungen (Australian National University).
The 2014-15 Selection Committee consisted of:
Assoc. Prof. L. Ward (Chair);
Assoc. Prof. D.A. Pask(Incoming Chair);
Dr N. Thamwattana (Outgoing Chair).
10.
Sixtieth Annual Meeting
The sixtieth Annual Meeting of the Society will be held at the Australian National University,
from Monday 5th December to Thursday 8th December. The Director is Professor J.I.E. Urbas.
11.
Council Members for the session 2013/2014
The elected 1 Members of Council for this past session, 2014AGM – 2015 AGM, were:
President:
Immediate-past-President:
Elected Vice-President:
Secretary:
Treasurer:
T.R. Marchant
P.J. Forrester
A. Henderson
P.J. Stacey
A. Howe
Ordinary Members:
J.A. Filar (2015)
D.G. Mallet (2015)
J.G. Sumner (2016)
H.S. Sidhu (2017)
A.L. Glen (2015)
S. Morrison (2016)
J. de Gier (2017)
A. Sims (2017).
The ex officio members of Council for the 2014–15 session were:
Vice-President (Chair ANZIAM):
Vice-President (Annual Conferences):
Incoming Vice-President (Annual Conferences):
AustMS Member elected to Steering Committee:
Representative of ANZIAM:
Chair, Standing Committee on Maths Education:
Public Officer of both AustMS and AMPAI:
Editors:
Gazette
Journal of AustMS
ANZIAM Journal
Electronic Editor.
Bulletin
Lecture Series
Electronic Site
1
L.K. Forbes
S.O. Warnaar
V. Gaitsgory
N. Joshi
J. Piantadosi
B.I. Loch
P.J. Cossey
S.A. Morris/ D.T. Yost
J.M. Borwein/ G.A. Willis
A.P. Bassom/ G. Hocking
A.J. Roberts
J.H. Loxton
C.E. Praeger
R.R. Moore
The Secretary and Treasurer are appointed by Council for each session; see the Constitution, VII 34(iii).
Page 10 of 48
12.
Reciprocity Agreements
The Society currently operates reciprocity agreements with the following societies:
American Mathematical Society
Mathematical Society of Brunei Darussalam
Calcutta Mathematical Society
New Zealand Mathematical Society
Canadian Mathematical Society
Singapore Mathematical Society
Czech Mathematical Society (CMS) and Union of Czech Math’ns and Physicists (JCMF)
Deutsche Mathematiker Vereinigung
Sociedad Matemática Mexicana
Edinburgh Mathematical Society
Société Mathématique de Belgique
European Mathematical Society
Société Mathématique de France
Gesellschaft für Angewandte etc.
Société Mathématique Suisse
Glasgow Mathematical Association
Southeast ASian Mathematical Society
Hong Kong Mathematical Society
Suomen Matemaattinen Yhdistys
Indian Mathematical Society
Svenska Matematikersamfundet
Indonesian Mathematical Society
Islenzka Staerdfraedafelagid
Unión Matemática Argentina
Korean Mathematical Society
Unione Matematica Italiana
London Mathematical Society
Wiskundig Genootschap
Malaysian Mathematical Society
Mathematical Society of Japan
Real Sociedad Matematica Española
Pakistan Mathematical Society
Slovak Mathematical Society
Society for Industrial and Applied Mathematics (SIAM)
(A list of contact addresses for each of these Societies is available from the Business Office.)
13.
Electronic mailing list
The email list is used to send messages likely to be of general interest to members. To request
that a message be sent to the list, please email [email protected].
If you are a member of AustMS, are not receiving any email announcements from the Society
and wish to do so, please send your email address to [email protected] .
14.
Honours to members and friends of the Society
During the last session it has been a pleasure to congratulate the following members or friends
of the Society.
Professor G.I. Lehrer on winning the 2015 Hannan Medal.
Professor A.G.R. McIntosh on winning the 2015 Hannan Medal,
Associate Professor C. Greenhill on winning the 2015 Christopher Heyde Medal,
Dr S. Morrison on winning the 2015 Christopher Heyde Medal,
Associate Professor J.Y.H. Yang on winning the 2015 Moran Medal,
Professor T.J. McDougall on winning the 2015 Jaeger Medal,
Mr H. Nguyen on being awarded the A.K. Head Travelling Fellowship,
Dr Y. Huang on being awarded the A.K. Head Travelling Fellowship,
Professor J.M. Borwein on being elected a Fellow of the American Mathematical Society,
Professor J.M. Borwein, Professor A. Straub, Dr J. Wan and Professoe W. Zudilin for winning
the 2014 G. de B. Robinson award Emeritus Professor P.G. Howlett and Dr P. Pudney on
winning the National Export Award for the Environmental Solutions category,
Professor J.S. Croucher on being made a member of the Order of Australia,
Professor C.E. Praeger on being inducted into the Western Australia Women’s Hall of Fame,
Professor P. Bartlett on being elected a Fellow of the Australian Academy of Science,
Professor G. McLachlan on being elected a Fellow of the Australian Academy of Science,
Professor M. Sambridge on being elected a Fellow of the Australian Academy of Science,
Emeritus Professor P. Taylor on being made an Officer of the Order of Australia,
Professor T.J. McDougall on being awarded an ARC Laureate Fellowship,
Page 11 of 48
Professor B. Andrews on being awarded an ARC Laureate Fellowship,
Professor K. Mengerson on being awarded an ARC Laureate Fellowship,
Associate Professor M. Myerscough for being named as a finalist this year for the Eureka Prize
for Scientific Research,
Associate Professor J.Y.H. Yang for being named as a finalist this year for the Eureka Prize for
Excellence in Interdisciplinary Scientific Research.
15.
Deaths of members and friends of the Society
It was with great regret that I informed members during the last session of the deaths of Dr J.
Drummond, Dr E. Strzelecki, Professor G.B. Preston and Professor K.R. Pearson.
16.
Constitutional changes approved
The changes to the Constitution, approved by members at a Special General Meeting of the
Society on 11th December, were approved by the ACT Office of Regulatory Services and are
therefore now in force.
17.
ANZAMP divisional status approved
In a ballot of all eligible members there were 217 votes cast, of which 212 were in favour
of ANZAMP becoming a Division and 5 against, thus easily meeting the required two thirds
majority of the votes cast.
18.
Acknowledgements and thanks
I am grateful for the help I have received throughout the year from the President, Tim Marchant,
the Treasurer, Algy Howe, the editor of the electronic site, Ross Moore, and all the other editors
and officers of the Society. The Secretary gets a chance to glimpse the huge amount of work
they all do for the Society, for which all members should be grateful.
I also thank May Truong and the other members of the Society’s Business Office for their help
throughout the year.
Peter Stacey
August 2015
Department of Mathematics and Statistics
La Trobe University
Vic 3086
EMAIL: [email protected]
Page 12 of 48
AUSTRALIAN MATHEMATICAL SOCIETY INC.
Department of Mathematics
John Dedman Mathematical Sciences Building
AUSTRALIAN NATIONAL UNIVERSITY
ACT 0200 AUSTRALIA
Email: [email protected]
Telephone: (02) 6125 8922
Fax:
(02) 6125 8923
Treasurer's Report for June 1st 2014 - May 31st 2015
In the past financial year the Society has provided:
$3,418 to STA
$1,293 to the Victoria Algebra Group
$7,796 for student travel grants to the 2014 AustMS AGM
$2,241 Aust. Math. Sciences Student Conference
$4,950 for EC Workshop in Melbourne
$1,000 for B H Neumann prize
$27,638 for 6 Lift Off fellowships
$26,400 for AMSI membership
$15,000 for AMSI Summer School 2014
$1,500 for Mathematics Olympiad Team
$10,000 for 2015 AustMS AGM seeding money at Flinders University
$25,000 for plenary speakers at 2014 AustMS AGM
$25,000 for plenary speakers at 2015 AustMS AGM
$13,677 to Special Interest Meetings
$3,386 for attendance of ICM 2014
Our accounts show that AustMS provided $161,358 in grants for the financial year.
Grant Moneys Returned: $56,160
At the end of December 2014, the JAustMS paid subscription numbers stood at 332, of
which 135 institutions paid via their parent consortium. In addition a further 2,675
institutions also got online access via consortia. The total profit to AustMS, for the
JAustMS, was £92,834, which is a decrease of 11.5% on the previous year.
At the end of December 2014, the Bulletin paid subscription numbers stood at 291, of
which 125 institutions paid via their parent consortium. In addition a further 2,680
institutions also got online access via consortia. The total profit to AustMS, for the
Bulletin, was £67,023, which is a decrease of 5.1% on the previous year.
At the end of December 2014, the ANZIAM J paid subscription numbers stood at 177,
of which 95 institutions paid via their parent consortium. In addition a further 2,713
institutions also got online access via consortia. The total profit to AustMS, for the
ANZIAM J was £38,150, which is a decrease of 7.7% on the previous year.
1
Page 13 of 48
According to Roger Astley of CUP, the combined 8.7% drop in revenue from our
journals, “was to be expected given the journals’ marketplace and the late running of
the ANZIAM J and JAustMS,” though both are now on schedule.
Over the years, there has been a steady annual decrease in direct subscriptions, ie those
in which one of our journals is specifically requested. However, this has been
countered by annual increases in indirect subscriptions, where our journals are
included in consortia.
I note that pricewise, approximately 41 indirect subscriptions equal one direct
subscription.
The Office has again been very well run by May Truong, and Michael Foo.
For the period June 1st 2014 - May 31st 2015 the audited financial statements show
that our total receipts were $118,107.36 and the total payouts were $160,040.13
giving an operating loss of ($41,932.77). The receipts include money collected for
ANZIAM but not for AMPAI
It is well known that AMPAI pays for much of the expenses of the Society. The full
production costs for the Gazette, paid by AMPAI, was $33,803.
This financial year AMPAI made a profit of $161,697.01. Taking into account the fact
that the Society made a loss of ($41,932.77), we see that the combined profit of the
Society and AMPAI, over this financial year, is $119,764.24.
The Society’s income was made up from:
Total subscriptions from Members
(including ANZIAM, ANZAMP, SIGs
and accreditations)
$104,920
Grant money returned
$56,160
Copyright royalties
$247
Interest income
$18,272
Counting Australia In
$125
2
Page 14 of 48
The payments were:
Officers expenses
$8,930
Grants
$115,479
AMSI membership
$26,400
ANZIAM
(subscriptions $9,258, subvention $11,838)
$21,096
ANZAMP
(subscriptions $938, subvention $2,297)
$3,235
Victorian Algebra Group
(subscriptions $84, subvention $209
+ $1,000 from 2014)
$1,293
WIMSIG (including Cheryl Praeger travel
awards)
$4,005
Bank, credit card and eway fees
$2,893
Storage of journals
$2,019
Miscellaneous insurance
$1,424
Total paid up membership at 30th June 2015 was 791 (non-financial members are not
included).
Fellows
Graduate Members
Accredited Members
Ordinary Members
Reduced rate Members
Student Members
Early Career Members
June
2015
June
2014
131
16
35
499
16
130
84
108
15
35
462
15
122
73
3
Page 15 of 48
Reciprocal Members
Education Members
Non-financial Members
(officials from other societies)
Honorary Members
Free Members
Life Members
Retired Members
Deceased Members
Resigned Members
Deemed Resigned Members
New Members
36
9
35
30
6
36
27
57
63
84
4
19
123
176
27
50
63
78
7
22
90
159
Institutional Member
: Mathematical Sciences Institute
Australian National University,
Department of Mathematics
La Trobe University,
AMSI
Monash University
Sustaining Member
: Prof Nalini Joshi
Prof Robert Bartnik
Dr Todd Oliynyk
Dr Benjamin Odgers
Dr Llknur Tulinay
Algy Howe
Treasurer
12th August 2015
4
Page 16 of 48
Australian Mathematical Society
ABN 80 494 677 202
Financial Statements
For the year ended 31 May 2015
Page 17 of 48
Australian Mathematical Society
ABN 80 494 677 202
Contents
Committee's Report
3
Income and Expenditure Statement
5
Detailed Balance Sheet
6
Notes to the Financial Statements
8
Statement by Members of the Committee
9
Independent Auditor's Report to the Members
10
Page 18 of 48
Page 3
Australian Mathematical Society
ABN 80 494 677 202
Committee's Report
For the year ended 31 May 2015
Your committee members submit the financial accounts of the Australian Mathematical Society for
the financial year ended 31 May 2015.
Committee Members
The names of committee members at the date of this report are:
Tim R Marchant, FAustMS
Algy Howe, FAustMS
Peter J Forrester, FAustMS
Anthony Henderson, FAustMS
Peter J Stacey, FAustMS
Scott Morrison
Jeremy G Sumner
Jerzy Filar, FAustMS
Amy Glen
Daniel Mallet
Jan De Gier
Harvinder S Sidhu
Aidan Sims
Lawrence K Forbes
Vladimir Gaitsgory
Birgit I Loch
S Ole Warnaar
Julia Piantadosi
P John Cossey
Joshi Nalini
Sidney A Morris, FAustMS
David T Yost
Jonathan M Borwein, FAustMS
George A Willis
Andrew P Bassom
Graeme Hocking
Anthony J Roberts
John H Loxton
Cheryl E Praeger, FAustMS
Ross R Moore
Principal Activities
The principal activities of the association during the financial year were: fostering communication
among its members; organising and supporting mathematical conferences in Australasia; giving
grants; awarding prizes and making the community aware of mathematics.
The accompanying notes form part of these financial statements.
Page 19 of 48
Page 4
Australian Mathematical Society
ABN 80 494 677 202
Committee's Report
For the year ended 31 May 2015
Significant Changes
No significant change in the nature of these activities occurred during the year.
Operating Result
The deficit from ordinary activities after providing for income tax amounted to
Year ended
Year ended
31 May 2015
31 May 2014
$
$
(41,932.77)
(10,372.13)
Signed in accordance with a resolution of the Members of the Committee on:
_________________________________________________
Tim R Marchant, FAustMS
_________________________________________________
Algy Howe, FAustMS
The accompanying notes form part of these financial statements.
Page 20 of 48
Page 5
Australian Mathematical Society
ABN 80 494 677 202
Income and Expenditure Statement
For the year ended 31 May 2015
2015
$
2014
$
Income
Subscriptions
96,956.87
88,315.67
Interest received
18,272.69
36,017.00
Other income
2,877.80
3,308.28
Total income
118,107.36
127,640.95
8,930.46
10,624.63
115,479.21
89,018.96
26,400.00
26,400.00
Expenses
Officers Expenses
Total Grants
AMSI payment
Bank Fees And Charges
Commission
60.00
1,958.54
1,840.49
39.38
112.20
875.00
230.50
1,424.50
2,863.22
Pitman bequest interest
77.12
87.46
Purchase of surplus journals AMPAI
41.14
46.20
1,839.15
2,455.97
659.68
775.13
2,019.01
2,934.78
236.94
623.54
160,040.13
138,013.08
(41,932.77)
(10,372.13)
Net profit (loss) attributable to the
association
(41,932.77)
(10,372.13)
Total changes in equity of the association
(41,932.77)
(10,372.13)
Opening retained profits
389,747.96
400,120.09
Net profit (loss) attributable to the association
(41,932.77)
(10,372.13)
Depreciation - Surplus journals
Fees & charges
Insurance
Postage
Repairs & maintenance
Storage
Sundry expenses
Total expenses
Profit (loss) from ordinary activities before
income tax
Income tax revenue relating to ordinary activities
Closing retained profits
347,815.19
389,747.96
The accompanying notes form part of these financial statements.
Page 21 of 48
Page 6
Australian Mathematical Society
ABN 80 494 677 202
Detailed Balance Sheet as at 31 May 2015
Note
2015
$
2014
$
58,009.47
13,540.91
CBA Security Investment A/C
209,679.77
53,006.22
Term Deposit #2476
445,040.02
436,699.68
Term Deposit #2484
208,057.76
400,640.53
Current Assets
Cash Assets
Cash At Bank - CBA Current A/C
Term Deposit #5645
54,158.43
920,787.02
958,045.77
18,444.00
16,738.00
18,444.00
16,738.00
15,400.00
16,039.01
40.04
79.42
15,440.04
16,118.43
Receivables
Accounts Receivable
Other
Prepayments
Journals On Hand
Total Current Assets
954,671.06
990,902.20
Total Assets
954,671.06
990,902.20
Current Liabilities
Other
Subscriptions in advance
65,331.37
59,629.74
65,331.37
59,629.74
Total Current Liabilities
65,331.37
59,629.74
Total Liabilities
65,331.37
59,629.74
889,339.69
931,272.46
Net Assets
The accompanying notes form part of these financial statements.
Page 22 of 48
Page 7
Australian Mathematical Society
ABN 80 494 677 202
Detailed Balance Sheet as at 31 May 2015
Note
2015
$
2014
$
Members' Funds
Reserves
Net Assets
541,524.50
541,524.50
Accumulated surplus (deficit)
347,815.19
389,747.96
Total Members' Funds
889,339.69
931,272.46
The accompanying notes form part of these financial statements.
Page 23 of 48
Page 8
Australian Mathematical Society
ABN 80 494 677 202
Notes to the Financial Statements
For the year ended 31 May 2015
Note 1: Summary of Significant Accounting Policies
This financial report is a special purpose financial report prepared in order to satisfy the financial
reporting requirements of the Associations Incorporations Act of the Australian Capital Territory. The
committee has determined that the association is not a reporting entity.
The financial report has been prepared on an accruals basis and is based on historical costs and does
not take into account changing money values or, except where specifically stated, current valuations
of non-current assets.
The following significant accounting policies, which are consistent with the previous period unless
otherwise stated, have been adopted in the preparation of this financial report.
(a)
Cash and Cash Equivalents
Cash and cash equivalents include cash on hand, deposits held at call with banks, and other
short-term highly liquid investments with original maturities of three months or less.
(b)
Revenue and Other Income
Revenue is measured at the fair value of the consideration received or receivable after taking
into account any trade discounts and volume rebates allowed. For this purpose, deferred
consideration is not discounted to present values when recognising revenue.
Interest revenue is recognised using the effective interest rate method, which for floating rate
financial assets is the rate inherent in the instrument. Dividend revenue is recognised when the
right to receive a dividend has been established.
Grant and donation income is recognised when the entity obtains control over the funds, which is
generally at the time of receipt.
All revenue is stated net of the amount of goods and services tax (GST).
(c)
Goods and Services Tax (GST)
Revenues, expenses and assets are recognised net of the amount of GST, except where the
amount of GST incurred is not recoverable from the Tax Office. In these circumstances, the
GST is recognised as part of the cost of acquisition of the asset or as part of an item of the
expense. Receivables and payables in the assets and liabilities statement are shown inclusive of
GST.
Page 24 of 48
Page 9
Australian Mathematical Society
ABN 80 494 677 202
Statement by Members of the Committee
For the year ended 31 May 2015
The Committee has determined that the association is not a reporting entity and that this special
purpose financial report should be prepared in accordance with the accounting policies outlined in
Note 1 to the financial statements.
In the opinion of the Committee the Income and Expenditure Statement, Statement of Financial
Position, and Notes to the Financial Statements:
1.
Presents fairly the financial position of Australian Mathematical Society as at 31 May 2015 and
its performance for the year ended on that date.
2.
At the date of this statement, there are reasonable grounds to believe that the association will be
able to pay its debts as and when they fall due.
This statement is made in accordance with a resolution of the Committee and is signed for and on
behalf of the Committee by:
_________________________________________________
Tim R Marchant, FAustMS
President
_________________________________________________
Algy Howe, FAustMS
Treasurer
The accompanying notes form part of these financial statements.
Page 25 of 48
Page 10
Australian Mathematical Society
ABN 80 494 677 202
Independent Auditor's Report to the Members
We have audited the accompanying financial report, being a special purpose financial report, of
Australian Mathematical Society (the association), which comprises the Statement by Members of
the Committee, Income and Expenditure Statement, Balance Sheet, notes comprising a summary
of significant accounting policies and other explanatory notes for the financial year ended 31 May
2015.
Committee's Responsibility for the Financial Report
The committee of Australian Mathematical Society is responsible for the preparation and fair
presentation of the financial report, and have determined that the basis of preparation described in
Note 1 is appropriate to meet the requirements of the Associations Incorporation Act of the
Australian Capital Territory 1991 and is appropriate to meet the needs of the members. The
committee’s responsibilities also includes such internal control as the committee determine is
necessary to enable the preparation and fair presentation of a financial report that is free from
material misstatement, whether due to fraud or error.
Auditor's Responsibility
Our responsibility is to express an opinion on the financial report based on our audit. We have
conducted our audit in accordance with Australian Auditing Standards. Those Standards require
that we comply with relevant ethical requirements relating to audit engagements and plan and
perform the audit to obtain reasonable assurance whether the financial report is free from material
misstatement.
An audit involves performing procedures to obtain audit evidence about the amounts and
disclosures in the financial report. The procedures selected depend on the auditor’s judgement,
including the assessment of the risks of material misstatement of the financial report, whether due
to fraud or error. In making those risk assessments, the auditor considers internal control relevant
to the association's preparation and fair presentation of the financial report in order to design audit
procedures that are appropriate in the circumstances, but not for the purpose of expressing an
opinion on the effectiveness of the association's internal control. An audit also includes evaluating
the appropriateness of accounting policies used and the reasonableness of accounting estimates
made by the committee, as well as evaluating the overall presentation of the financial report.
We believe that the audit evidence we have obtained is sufficient and appropriate to provide a
basis for our audit opinion.
Opinion
In our opinion, the financial report presents fairly, in all material respects, the financial position of
Australian Mathematical Society as at 31 May 2015 and its financial performance for the year
then ended in accordance with the accounting policies described in Note 1 to the financial
statements, and the requirements of the Associations Incorporation Act of the Australian Capital
Territory 1991.
Page 26 of 48
Page 11
Australian Mathematical Society
ABN 80 494 677 202
Independent Auditor's Report to the Members
Basis of Accounting and Restriction on Distribution
Without modifying our opinion, we draw attention to Note 1 to the financial statements, which
describes the basis of accounting. The financial report has been prepared to assist Australian
Mathematical Society to meet the requirements of the Associations Incorporation Act of the
Australian Capital Territory 1991. As a result, the financial report may not be suitable for another
purpose.
Signed on 3 August, 2015:
___________________________________________________
James Daniels,
Federation Tax & Accounting
116 Crawford Street Queanbeyan NSW
Page 27 of 48
JOURNAL of the AUSTRALIAN MATHEMATICAL SOCIETY
2014–2015 EDITORS’ REPORT to COUNCIL
(Prepared with the assistance of JD Borwein)
Summary: Borwein and Willis have now been editors for approximately three
years. The issues of the Journal are appearing in hard copy on or before schedule.
Our median time for online presence has been reduced to three months. While
conventional subscriptions continue to slide, for mow this is more that made up
for by the number being purchased as part of a bundle.
I. Editorial arrangements
Jonathan Borwein and George Willis (University of Newcastle) have been editors since July 2012, and while some legacy issues remain they are now few in
number. The current report covers the period of July 2014 up to 30 June 2015
– in accord with the financial year. The editorial team has been supplemented
during the reporting year and is as follows:
B. Alspach
A. M. Hassell
C. Meaney
V. T. Stefanov
L. M. Batten
A. Henderson
W. Moors
T. Tao
F. Calegari
M. G. Jackson M. K. Murray
W. Zudilin
D. Chan
V. Jeyakumar A. J. Pryde
P. C. Fenton (Retiring) F. Larusson
I. E. Shparlinski
B. J. Gardner
B. Martin
A. Sims
The team of Special Volume Editors for the issue honouring Laci Kovács
(that should appear in the next six months) is as follows:
Stephen Glasby Cheryl Praeger Dane Flannery Ralph Stohr
Attrition and the need to better cover the maths being sent to our journal
have necessitated these changes. The rate of success with referees seems to be
good as the papers are being returned with careful reports in timely fashion.
Thanks are due to our Associate Editors past and present for their unstinting
efforts.
Cambridge University Press manages the publishing in the UK, and Sunrise
Setting of Devon handles the typesetting and printing. The quality of the product we think excellent. We are continuing to experience more editorial problems
than anticipated with ScholarOne and are working with CUP to improve things.
II. General comments
The Editorial Assistant for the Journal of the AustMS is Judith Borwein who
can be contacted at [email protected].
1
Page 28 of 48
JOURNAL of the AUSTRALIAN MATHEMATICAL SOCIETY
(a) Cambridge University Press continues to handle the production and distribution of the Journal.
(b) All those involved in the process of producing the Journal deserve our
thanks for furthering the dissemination of mathematics. Without assistance with the many levels in the editorial process little would be accomplished. Our Associate Editors deserve special thanks as much effort goes
into the grooming of papers that come into their hands.
(c) The Co-Editors have a mode of assessment that has them culling the submissions each week. Papers rejected without refereeing presently represent 41.1% of our submissions. This category includes those papers which
should have been sent to a more specialist journal and those which are just
not up to the standards of the Journal of the Australian Mathematical Society. Since 1 July 2014, 58.9% of submissions have gone to an Associate
Editor and of these 43.4% have been accepted for publication: yielding a
20.5% current acceptance rate for submissions.
(d) In the period from 1 July 2014 to 30 June 2015, out of 258 papers received,
the number rejected without refereeing was 106. These 258 papers came
from 55 countries. The authors accepted for publication from 1 July 2014
to 30 June 2015 are illustrated by the countries with the most publications;
China (6), Australia (5), Italy(4), United Kingdom (4), USA (4), Brazil
(3), Canada (3), Ireland (3), Japan (3), and Spain (3).
(e) As of June 2013, we has been accepting the copyright forms electronically. This simple change has dramatically improved the waiting time
from acceptance to being sent to Cambridge. Since this change the average elapsed time is one month with the outliers being from 1 day to 2
months.
III. General publication data
The Journal continues to be published in three parts per volume with two volumes per year. Normally there are 440 pages plus 2 index pages in each volume.
For example, from July 2014 we published Volume 97 (1 to 3) and in 2015 up
to the end of June we published Volume 98 (1 to 3). We could if needed expand
any given issue.
2
Page 29 of 48
JOURNAL of the AUSTRALIAN MATHEMATICAL SOCIETY
IV. Mean and median publication delay:
Vol. &
Issue
by #
97:1
97:2
97:3
98:1
98:2
98:3
Vol. &
Issue
by #
97:1
97:2
97:3
98:1
98:2
98:3
Month Journal
is in Hard Copy
August 2014
October 2014
December 2014
February 2015
April 2015
June 2015
Month Journal
is in Hard Copy
August 2014
October 2014
December 2014
February 2015
April 2015
June 2015
Mean:
Submission
→ Print
18.6
17.2
17.2
19
14.8
14.75
Median:
Submission
→ Print
18.6
17.2
17.2
14
14
12
Mean:
Submission
→ Accept
12.6
10.7
10.7
6.4
7
5.4
Median:
Submission
→ Accept
12.6
10.7
10.7
6.5
7
5
Mean:
Accept
→ Online
5.4
3.8
3.8
6.5
2
4.5
Median:
Accept
→ Online
5.4
3.8
3.8
2
2
3
Mean:
Accept
→ Print
7.9
6.5
6.5
16.75
7.8
8.6
Median:
Accept
→ Print
7.9
6.5
6.5
7
7
9
V. Online access of the Journal
Year
2010
2011
2012
2013
2014
→ Oct.
Tax Years:
July → Dec.
2014
Jan. → June
2015
Abstract Views
107,675
169,144
294,930
166,869
191,863
ToC Views
67,943
82,924
92,483
44,144
56,008
PDF Views
66,033
87,263
110,961
76,806
117,032
Homepage views
33,871
34,419
24,532
17,691
12,772
269,504
71,127
161,062
10,131
115,864
54,962
72,170
9,439
VI. Backlog
The backlog of accepted papers waiting to be processed for publication by Cambridge University Press stands at 45 and will make up volumes starting from
December 2015, Volume 99.3. This should suffice for a year as we estimate
about 8 articles per issue.
3
Page 30 of 48
JOURNAL of the AUSTRALIAN MATHEMATICAL SOCIETY
VII. Present status of papers submitted to JAustMS
In the period from 1 July 2014 to 30 June 2015 out of 258 papers received, the
number rejected without refereeing was 106. These 258 papers came from 55
countries. The countries with the most published papers are in order: China
(6), Australia (5), Italy(4), United Kingdom (4), USA (4), Brazil (3), Canada
(3), Ireland (3), Japan (3), and Spain (3).
Countries
of Authors
Argentina
Australia
Austria
Azerbaijan
Belgium
Bosnia Hertzegovina
Brazil
Cameroon
Canada
Chile
China
Colombia
Croatia
Egypt
Eritrea
France
Germany
Ghana
Greece
Hong Kong
Hungary
India
Indonesia
Iran
Iraq
Ireland
Israel
Italy
Japan
Jordan
Korea
Rejections No
Referee
Rejections
with Referee
Accepted or
Published
3
7
2
5
2
1
In
Review
2
2
1
1
1
1
2
27
4
3
2
1
18
1
3
1
6
3
1
1
2
9
1
2
1
2
1
1
1
12
2
3
9
1
4
3
3
2
4
3
1
2
2
1
1
2
1
4
1
2
1
1
1
1
12
1
11
1
1
4
1
4
Page 31 of 48
JOURNAL of the AUSTRALIAN MATHEMATICAL SOCIETY
Countries
of Authors
Malaysia
Montenegro
Morocco
New Zealand
Nigeria
North Sumatra
Norway
Pakistan
Poland
Portugal
Romania
Russian Federation
Saudi Arabia
Serbia
Singapore
Slovenia
South Africa
Spain
Sweden
Tunisia
Turkey
Ukraine
United Kingdom
USA
Vietnam
Rejections No
Referee
1
1
1
Rejections
with Referee
Accepted or
Published
1
In
Review
1
1
2
1
1
2
3
1
1
1
2
1
1
1
2
2
5
1
2
1
1
2
2
2
1
1
1
1
1
2
1
1
3
3
1
2
3
1
4
4
1
5
1
1
2
4
1
1
1
1
Submitted Papers
5/2009
–4/2010
5/2010
–4/2011
5/2011
–4/2012
Unassigned
In Review (with AE)
Archived: Rejected
Archived: Declined
(no Referee)
Withdrawn
Total Rejected
Total Accepted
Total papers processed
5
54
148
41
12
58
132
34
unknown
unknown
unknown
unknown
2
189
40
231
1
166
44
211
unknown
unknown
unknown
unknown
5
Page 32 of 48
JOURNAL of the AUSTRALIAN MATHEMATICAL SOCIETY
Submitted Papers
Unassigned
In Review (with AE)
Archived: Rejected
Archived: Declined
(no Referee)
Withdrawn
Total Rejected
Total Accepted
Total papers processed
◦
6/2012
–8/2013◦
6
53
118
139
9/2013
–1/10/2014
0
52
56
124
7/2014
–30/06/2015
0
53
83
106
4
257
101
358
1
180
42
278
8
189
58
258
Handled by the new Editors
Total 07-08
Total 08-09
Total 09-10
Total 10-11
Total 12-13
Total13-14
Total14-15
Accepted
Rejected
Withdrawn
Received
37
22
40
44
101∗
42
53
167
242
189
164
257
180
189
1
2
2
1
3
1
8
272
323
231
211
358
278
258
Accepted
%
13.6%
6.8%
17.3%
20.8%
28%
15%
20.5%
∗The 2012 acceptance rate was higher than usual because we were lenient with
‘legacy’ papers that the Journal had not handled in a timely fashion.
6
Page 33 of 48
Report on ANZIAM journal – Aust. MS. 2015
The ANZIAM Journal is now running on time and has a steady stream of submissions of reasonable
quality.
In the year 2014 there were around 130 submissions to the e- and paper journal (compared to 290 in
2012, 190 in 2013) and 40 made it to peer review – the others were rejected immediately as being
unsuitable or of insufficient standard by the Editors (or in some cases the AEs). Of those reviewed,
around 38% were accepted – a rate that matches almost exactly that of 2012 and 2013. Numbers for
2014 are still preliminary and many submitted papers are still in review but there has been an increase
in submissions (around 115 already) while the review rate numbers remain similar. We should
encourage our community to support the journal.
The series of papers by the ANZIAM medallists is continuing although our esteemed colleagues have
fallen off the pace a bit and we are still expecting several papers from more recent recipients.
The impact factor has increased to 1.025 after a slight drop in the 2013 value. The jump in 2012, when
it rose from 0.25 in 2011 to 1.043 in 2012 was based on a small number of publications, one of which
was highly cited. Its ranking has also improved to 83/247. The 5-year IF is 0.896 (rank 124/255), but
this should rise as the consistently higher annual IF kicks in.
The special issue on Nanotechnology is finally due to make an appearance in the next issue, July, 2015.
This issue is on an important new area in applied mathematics and will hopefully give the journal a
boost in international attention.
Marketing within the ANZIAM community appears to be bearing fruit with a continuing rise in local
authorship.
We would like to thank Nandita Rath for her great efforts as the copy-editor and all-round helper,
without whose help we would not be able to keep the journal running. Also thanks to the Associate
Editors for their time and efforts and the many reviewers who have contributed.
Robert McKibbin has resigned from the panel of Associate Editors after many years of sterling service
and we thank him for his efforts. Bronwyn Bradshaw-Hajek and Winston Sweatman have agreed to
join the panel as replacements.
Our relationship with CUP continues to be strong. Samira Ceccarella has been doing an excellent job
of keeping in touch and keeping us on top of our game. We would also like to express our thanks to the
Associate Editors, the Copy-editors, CUP and all of the reviewers who have contributed this year.
Editor Hocking will be visiting CUP in August and will report any developments at the meeting.
Andrew Bassom and Graeme Hocking
Co-Editors (ANZIAM Journal)
1 September, 2015
Page 34 of 48
BULLETIN OF THE AUSTRALIAN MATHEMATICAL SOCIETY
ANNUAL REPORT, 2015
This report covers the period from 1 June 2014 to 31 May 2015.
All editorial work for the Bulletin is now handled electronically. The stability of the system has
been excellent since the upgrade in early 2015. Papers are received through the Open Journal
System (OJS). Subsequent emailing between authors, Sunrise Setting Ltd (typesetters for
Cambridge University Press) and me and Brian Ackerman, Editorial Assistant, is mostly carried
out using the Bulletin’s Gmail account, [email protected]. Files are maintained
using Dropbox cloud storage. It is Brian’s job to look after all the folders stored on Dropbox, to
track papers through the system (including reminding me of tardy referees) and to update
statistics in preparation for the annual reports. Brian also has the major responsibility for
checking the return of copyright transfer agreements and maintaining those agreements. This
too is handled electronically, with scanned signed agreements received as pdf files.
The editorial work of the Bulletin is assisted in a major way by the advice of the panel of 19
associate editors and others who are called on to referee papers. The current associate editors
are: Bob Anderssen, John Cossey, Brian Davey, Andrew Francis, Joseph Grotowski, George
Ivanov, Owen Jones, Gus Lehrer, Richard Loy, Kevin McAvaney, Michael Murray, Patrick Tuen
Wai Ng, Hyam Rubinstein, Jamie Simpson, Aidan Sims, Brailey Sims, Don Taylor, David Yost and
Wadim Zudilin. I am grateful to them all for their support.
Total submissions
Declines
Withdrawn
Rejected
Accepted
Resubmitted
Being refereed
1 June 2011 –
31 May 2012
No
%
575
308
53.6
6
1.0
147
25.6
134
23.3
0
0
34
5.9
1 June 2012–
30 May 2013
No
%
760
555
72.8
9
1.2
99
13.0
116
15.2
0
0
20
2.6
1 June 2013 –
30 May 2014
No
%
663
406
61.2
16
2.4
140
21.1
89
13.4
0
0
42
6.3
Table 1: Submission data for this and the previous three years
1 June 2014 –
30 May 2015
No
%
781
479
61.3
12
1.5
170
21.8
139
17.8
0
0
23
2.9
Table 1 shows an increase of almost 18% in the number of papers received this year (781) over
the previous year (663), and just above the previous record (760) in the year before that. The
proportion of papers declined and rejected is essentially the same as last year, but acceptances
are up. Around 60% of papers received are now being declined, which means that they are
returned to authors following an initial culling by the Editor and with the suggestion that they be
sent to another journal. Previous editors have suggested that we should aim to reach a steady
state of having sufficient papers in the system for just two future issues at any time. We
currently have material for around four issues in the system which is consistent with a 12 month
waiting time from receipt of a paper to publication in an issue of the Bulletin. Papers are only
accepted where referees rate them above average, so the higher acceptance rate may signal a
rise in quality. Coincidentally, the impact factor has risen from 0.483 in 2013 to 0.536 in 2014.
The Bulletin publishes two volumes a year, with each volume consisting of three issues, each of
176 pages, amounting to about 115 papers a year. For each paper, the Bulletin now includes the
date of acceptance, the date of receipt and the date of publication online. These have been used
to calculate processing times for the papers published in 2013 (volumes 87 and 88, 108 papers)
Page 35 of 48
and 2014 (volumes 89 and 90, 117 papers).
Median time (months)
Mean time (months)
Published 2013 (Volumes 87, 88)
R to A
A to O
O to P
R to P
1.3
2.6
8.4
12.3
2.3
2.65
7.45
12.4
Published 2014 (Volumes 89, 90)
R to A
A to O
O to P
R to P
1.05
2.7
6.8
10.55
1.9
2.8
6.5
11.2
Table 2: Lag times (R = receipt, A = acceptance, O = online publication, P = paper publication)
The refereeing times in the first column in fact range from one day to just over a year (in 2013)
and just over 7 months (in 2014). The average time from receipt of a paper to publication online
of around 5 months would be the envy of many journals. Only a small number (10) of specialist
journals do better (Backlog of Mathematical Research Journals, Notices of the American
Mathematical Society 61 (2014), 1268-1273). This is consistent with the original aim of the
Bulletin for rapid processing of papers; but the average time to publication in paper of around
12 months, although still good compared to other journals, would horrify Bernhard Neumann.
Region
Australasia
PhD Abstract
Oceania
Asia
Middle East
Europe
Africa
Americas
TOTALS
Jun 2011 – May 2012
Rec
Acc
%
27
12
44.4
3
3
298
113
91
11
32
575
49
18
35
4
13
134
16.4
15.9
38.5
36.4
40.6
23.3
Jun 2012 – May 2013
Rec
Acc
%
20
10
50
1
1
1
1
100
360
41
11.4
141
17
12.1
148
25
16.9
35
2
5.7
54
19
35.2
760
116
15.3
Jun 2013 – May 2014
Rec
Acc
%
22
10
45.5
9
8
Jun 2014 – May 2015
Rec
Acc
%
14
6
42.9
19
20
352
115
109
22
33
662
391
129
135
42
51
781
36
6
13
4
12
89
10.2
5.2
11.9
18.2
36.4
13.4
Table 3: Acceptance data by region, 2011–2014
52
9
38
4
10
139
13.3
7.0
28.1
9.5
19.6
17.8
Table 3 contains acceptance data by region. Note that the percentages of papers accepted to
those received reflect the fact that papers accepted may in fact have been received in the
preceding year. So the percentages are a guide only.
The increase in PhD abstracts is pleasing. I contact the supervisors when the success of their
students is reported in the Gazette. Around a quarter of those contacted rapidly lead to
submissions. I think the supervisors for passing on my requests.
Considerable time at the beginning of the year was spent on investigating open access, updating
instructions to authors on copyright transfer and revising forms. The Bulletin began to offer the
Open Access option to authors from 1 June 2015. To date, no authors have taken up this option.
I would like to thank Graeme Cohen for encouraging me to take on the role of Editor and for his
guidance, Brian Ackerman for his patience and attention to detail, the associate editors and all
referees for their expert assessments and the Executive and Officers of the Society for support
and encouragement.
John Loxton
Editor
10 August 2015
Page 36 of 48
Gazette Annual Report 2015
Sid Morris and David Yost have now almost completed their first three year term as joint Editors of
the Gazette of the Australian Mathematical Society. They continue to be ably supported by the
highly professional Production Editor, Eileen Dallwitz.
Given the relatively small number of non-solicited articles, we see no advantage in adopting an
online submission system. Files are maintained using Dropbox cloud storage, to which all three
members of the editorial team have access. Our organisation of the folders stored on Dropbox
makes it easy to track papers through the system. Copyright transfer agreements are handled
electronically, in the form of standardised email messages from the authors.
So far all issues have appeared online and been sent to the printer within the month for which they
are intended. There is no backlog, and we see no matters of concern in the near future.
1. Publication Arrangements
The Gazette of the AustMS is published five times per year, in March, May, July, September and
November. An electronic copy of each issue is freely available online, while institutional
subscribers receive a printed copy. Fee-paying embers may also receive a printed copy, at no extra
charge, by indicating this preference at their membership renewal. There is a small but significant
number of members, mostly retired, who still rely on receiving a printed copy in a timely manner.
The print run is currently 400, which is down from 450 a couple of years ago.
2. Content
The most important point to be made is that the Gazette receives an adequate amount of material to
maintain 5 issues per year of up to 80 pages.
•
In principle, we are willing to publish unsolicited technical articles, but they need to be
well written and of widespread interest; the Gazette is not a suitable repository for minor research.
Nothing submitted in the last year has been considered suitable.
•
Unsolicited educational articles are often suitable for publication, either as ‘‘Classroom
Notes”, or for a general discussion of educational topics. The most recent example was an article
on participation rates in year 12 mathematics, in volume 40, number 4.
•
The Gazette occasionally publishes invited technical papers. These are to provide brief
introductions for non-specialists in particular areas of mathematics or to update members on recent
developments in a subject area.
•
The Gazette performs an important task for members by publicizing honours and awards
won. Depending on our time constraints, these may be simple announcements, or short articles with
extended background details.
•
An unhappy but important task is to record the deaths of members. These appear in the
News section, with longer obituaries in some cases. Since our last report, the Gazette has published
obituaries of Gordon Preston, Ken Smith and Ken Pearson.
Page 37 of 48
•
Regular communications from the President, the Secretary, the AMSI Director and the
Chair on the National Committee for the Mathematical Sciences, in their respective Columns, keep
members abreast of a range of developments. We would be happy to publish news items
from ANZIAM, ANZAMP and Special Interest Groups.
•
The General News (including upcoming Conferences and Visitors), focusses on
developments in individual departments and relies heavily on the enthusiasm of our local
correspondents.
•
Reports by Lift-off Fellows continue to be published regularly.
•
The Gazette publishes reports from conferences funded or organised by the Society or
AMSI. Student prize-winners at conferences are welcome to submit extended abstracts of their
talks, up to two pages.
•
We cannot underestimate the effort put by Ivan Guo into the Puzzle Corner, which remains
popular and attracts several submissions each issue. Ivan has indicated that he would like to step
down from this role from the end of 2015. Accordingly, we are seeking expressions of interest from
anyone interested in preparing Puzzle Corner from 2016.
•
We continue the agreement to swap advertisements with the American Mathematical
Society. The Australian Mathematical Society places one full page ad in the Notices of the
American Mathematical Society and the American Mathematical Society places two full page ads
in the Gazette. Given the relative circulations, this is a fair arrangement.
•
The Gazette publishes book reviews. Steady promotion of newly received books by local
correspondents continues to attract members to volunteer to write book reviews. So far, 12 have
appeared in the first 3 issues this year.
Sid Morris and David Yost, Editors
August 2015
Page 38 of 48
Annual Report of Electronic Editor
Prof Tony Roberts
August 21, 2015
• JAustMS appears to operate almost totally with ScholarOne.
• ojs continues to serve article management for anziam and the
Bulletin. Currently we have over 9,900 submissions, rejections
and publications tracked in the ojs database.
• Electronic supplement continues to publish articles for emac,
ctac, misg and general e-articles.
• No further progress in publishing articles in epub format.
• We have started trying to get authors to use an orcid.
• An outstanding issue is that the society as a whole should
use doi but needs a small amount of funds.
• A new category of ‘journal publication’ is the so-called Original Software Publication. For example, Elsevier comments
We believe Software is scientific method executed by
a machine, and therefore should be an integral part
of the scientific communication ecosystem. Even
though some journals have been experimenting, we
feel software itself is currently not systematically
treated as a full and equal academic citizen. Elsevier
intends take open science to a next level and make
software itself a fully-fledged academic publication
by making code, pieces of software or complete
tools as findable, indexable, archivable, searchable,
citable, referable as the trusted papers we’re used
to.
Because of the ongoing updating and evolution of software,
the Electronic Supplement is admirably placed to also join
this development—depending upon discussion.
Page 39 of 48
AUSTRALIAN MATHEMATICAL SOCIETY
LECTURE SERIES
Report to Council 2015
1. Editorial Board
Professor Cheryl Praeger
Editor-in-Chief, University of Western Australia
Professor Phil Broadbridge LaTrobe University
Professor Gary Froyland
University of New South Wales
Professor Michael Murray
University of Adelaide
Professor Jacqui Ramagge University of Wollongong
Terms of members of the Editorial Board are to 31 Dec. 2016. I plan to step down as
Editor-in-Chief at the end of 2016.
Expertise on the Editorial Board has been strengthened in the area of Applied Mathematics
with the appointment last year of Gary Froyland, so now we have both Phil Broadbridge
and Gary in Applied. We especially encourage submissions from our applied mathematical
colleagues for the series.
2. New publications in and submissions to the Lecture Series.
(a) Timothy Burness and Michael Giudici have dealt with the proofs for their monograph
entitled ‘Classical groups, derangements and primes’; we hope to see the published book before
the end of the year.
(b) We expect that the final draft of Peter Cameron’s book entitled ‘Notes on counting: an
introduction to enumerative combinatorics’, accepted for the series, will be completed before
the end of the year.
(c) We are still hoping that the following monographs, which are under consideration, will
be published in the future:
• Peter Nikolas, from the University of Wollongong, for a proposed book entitled ‘Wavelets’.
• D. Baowan, B.J. Cox, T.A. Hilder, N. Thamwattana and J.M. Hill of the Universities
of Wollongong and Adelaide for a proposed book entitled ‘Nanomathematics: Geometry
and Mechanics of Carbon Nanstructures’; a conditional contract has been signed; authors
are liaising with CUP on revisions.
The editors enthusiastically welcome further submissions, and are happy to discuss possibilities with potential authors.
3. The Series:
The first book published in the Series appeared in 1985, and there have been 23 books
published to date. The most recent volume was:
No. 23. Neverending fractions
Jonathan Borwein, Alf van der Poorten, Jeffrey Shallit and Wadim Zudilin
Published August 2014
This monograph has received an excellent review in Zentralblatt MATH. The editors of Zentralblatt have generously given permission for a copy of the review to be re-published in the
AustMS Gazette. Meanwhile a copy of the review may be viewed at:
https://carma.newcastle.edu.au/Neverending/zmath-NEF.pdf
Professor Cheryl E. Praeger
1 August 2015
1
Page 40 of 48
Web-editor’s Report to the AustMS Council
Ross Moore
September 3, 2015
This report describes some of the activities which have been taking place, involving the AustMS
Wiki-based website, during late 2014 and 2015. For the most part it has been “business as usual”
in regard to the Society’s website. That is, the ongoing tasks such as ‘Calendar entries’, ‘News’
items and the occasional ‘Jobs’ advertisement have been posted as they occur.
What is different this year is that there are now more members of the society actively producing
content to be made available there. This is due, primarily, to the establishment of sub-sites for the
new Special Interest Groups (WIMSIG, SIGME, VAG) with the latter having basically just a short
page pointing to their own site hosted elsewhere. Also Lesley Ward, as chair of various awards
committees, has put in significant work to revamp the ‘Awards’ page to now list all the awards
offered by the Society, Anziam and SIGs. Each listed award is linked to elsewhere on either the
AustMS website, or Anziam website, where more specific information can be found.
Each year updates are required to the pages listing Office Bearers, Council members, prize
winners, etc. and to various email addresses (e.g., for Gazette/Journal editors) as the responsible
personnel changes. Quite a few obituary notices were posted in the ‘News’ section, along with links
to ‘in memoriam’ pages, elsewhere on the net.
What follows covers much of what has been happening throughout the past (more than a) year,
since the previous AustMS annual meeting, roughly in chronological order. No items are specifically
‘starred’ for further discussion, as I will not be in attendance at the Council meeting.
A.
B.
C.
D.
E.
F.
G.
New Awards pages;
AustMS on FaceBook;
Online Membership Application site;
ALTC Professional Development unit;
Changes to the ‘Fellows’ page;
email voting for the ANZAMP resolution;
Use of Society logos for Conferences.
Each of these items is discussed in some detail within the following sections, ordered roughly
sequentially in date/time-order of the required work either being identified or having been done.
A. New Awards pages New pages have been added to the site, associated with the establishment of awards associated with the WIMSIG Special Interest Group.
1. AustMS WIMSIG Cheryl E. Praeger Travel Awards
2. AustMS WIMSIG Anne Penfold Street Award
These awards pages, as well as appearing under the ‘Resources’ menu are also sub-linked from
the ‘Awards’ page under the ‘About us’ menu. As mentioned above, the ‘Awards’ page itself has
received a significant rewrite, due to work by Lesley Ward and myself, to now advertise all of the
Society’s awards and prizes. Many of these awards had revised sets of rules, uploaded and linked-to
since the beginning of the year.
1
Page 41 of 48
B. AustMS on FaceBook Murray Smith and Norman Do have setup an AustMS account
on FaceBook: https://www.facebook.com/AustMS . This account is supposed to be coordinated
with the existing Twitter account https://twitter.com/austms, which had largely fallen into
disuse.
C. Committee email recipients Jerome Droniou’s ‘membership Application’ site went online
in December 2014. It has become the main method to handle new member applications, especially
of student members. As of writing their have been ≈ 100 Recommendations for new members,
with barely a week going by without 1 or 2 more.
D. ALTC Professional Development unit Each year this part of the website needs updating, for the upcoming years Unit. Mostly this is done now by Katherine Seaton, but usually there
are some things cropping up that Katherine is unable to do, such as changing access privileges on
some pages or File Galleries.
E. Changes to the ‘Fellows’ page Some changes have been made to the Fellows webpage.
Firstly, there is now a separate list for Fellows of the Society who have regrettably passed away.
Previously all Fellows, whether living or not, were listed together; those having passed-on being
indicated with a footnote marker. It was deemed more appropriate to use a separate listing, with
suitable wording attached.
Secondly, Tim Marchant prepared a document listing the benefits of becoming accredited as a
Fellow of the Society. This document has been put online as the page ‘Fellowship Benefits’.
F. email voting for the ANZAMP resolution To enable online voting on the recent resolution concerning the status of ANZAMP, some special trickery was done to enable all of: (i) automatic response to the receipt of a vote (whether ‘yes’ or ‘no’); (ii) collection of votes in a way that
allows easy recognition of multiples from the same person; (iii) SPAM filtering; (iv) non-swamping
of the returning officer’s ordinary email account; (v) low cost, using existing accounts or free ones,
rather than spending money with a specialised provider. This was achieved by having two email
accounts hosted in the AustMS domain, each forwarding to separate free accounts with ‘Google
Groups’. The returning officer was given access to those free accounts, to be able to process the
received votes for verifying their validity prior to counting, at a time of his/her own choosing.
Due to the success of this technique, in this specific case, it has been suggested to try a similar
setup for other situations. These will need to be looked at individually, to determine whether a
similar 2-step process is really needed.
G. Use of Society logos for Conferences When the Society has supplied sponsorship funds
for a conference, it is normal for our logo to be displayed on publicity materials. Most conference
organisers ‘do the right thing’ and contact me requesting a high-resolution logo for printed materials; I then supply also lower-resolution images suitable for use on web-pages, usually adapted
slightly for the location where the conference or meeting is to be held.
Nevertheless, some conference organisers just pick a logo image off a previous conference’s website, thus reusing one that was designed for a different location. This results in a conference/meeting
in Hobart, say, displaying a logo indicating somewhere quite different (e.g., Cairns or Ballarat).
Ross Moore,
web-editor for AustMS
2
Page 42 of 48
ANZIAM Report to the AustMS Council 2014/2015
Office Bearers:
Larry Forbes, Chair.
Mary Myerscough, Deputy Chair.
Julia Piantadosi, Secretary.
Peter Johnston, Treasurer.
2015 ANZIAM Conference
The 2015 ANZIAM Conference was held at Outrigger’s in Surfers’ Paradise, Queensland,
over the period 1 – 5 February 2015. Assoc. Professors Scott McCue and Matt Simpson were
the Directors, and they and their team did a very professional job of running a successful
conference. There were 229 delegates registered for the Conference, and the talks consisted
of 78 student and 107 non-student presentations. There were nine plenary talks, which
included a presentation from the 2014 ANZIAM Medallist, Prof Kerry Landman from the
University of Melbourne, and from the 2014 J.H. Michell Medal winner, Dr Natalie
Thamwattana from the University of Wollongong. The Conference Dinner was held on the
77th floor (!) of the Q1 Building at Surfers’ Paradise, which presented an aircraft-like
perspective on the entire region.
At the dinner, The 2015 E.O. Tuck Medal was awarded to Assoc. Professor Troy Farrell from
the Queensland University of Technology, recognizing his sustained contribution to
ANZIAM activities across the board, as an outstanding mid-career academic. In addition, the
2015 J.H. Michell Medal was awarded to Dr Barry Cox, from the University of Adelaide,
acknowledging his achievements as an early-career contributor and researcher. The winner
of the T.M. Cherry Prize for the best student talk at the Conference was Mr Hayden
Tronnolone, also from the University of Adelaide, and the A.F. Pillow Ph.D. top-up
Scholarship was awarded to Mr. Pouya Baniasadi from Flinders University. In recent years,
the students have awarded a “Cherry Ripe” prize to the best non-student talk at the
Conference, although this did not occur this year, unfortunately. Professor Peter Taylor from
Melbourne University also spoke movingly at the Conference Dinner in memory of Geoff
Mercer, and the many contributions he made to our society. ANZIAM expresses a debt of
gratitude to CSIRO for its generous sponsorship of students to attend the Conference, under
the Student Support Scheme.
MISG Workshops
ANZIAM is grateful to Assoc. Professor Troy Farrell and his team at Queensland University
of Technology, for having run very successful MISG workshops over the three-year period
2013 – 2015. This is a substantial undertaking, and has been of great benefit to all who have
been able to participate, and a brief summary is available from the website
http://mathsinindustry.com/ .
Over the three-year period 2016 – 2018, the University of South Australia has generously
volunteered to host the MISG meetings in February, with Dr Peter Pudney as Director.
ANZIAM is again extremely grateful for this, and we look forward to those meetings. There
are some details available at the site http://mathsinindustry.com/about/misg-2016-3/ .
Page 43 of 48
There has also been an offer from Monash University to host MISG in the following three
years, 2019 – 2021, under the Directorship of Professor Kate Smith-Miles. This was
discussed at the AGM at the 2015 Conference and was warmly endorsed. I wrote to Prof
Smith-Miles on 4 February and accepted their generous offer on behalf of ANZIAM. Again,
we are very grateful to the Monash group for ensuring the continuity of this important
workshop.
At the AGM of the 2015 Conference, Professor Graeme Wake also spoke with conviction on
the desire of the New Zealand branch to hold an MISG in New Zealand. This was discussed
at the AGM and likewise warmly supported. The aim is to hold the NZ meeting in the
middle of the year, so that there is no clash with the February meetings. A meeting has been
held for the first time in June-July 2015 under the Directorship of Professor Graeme Wake,
and the website for that meeting is available at http://www.minz.org.nz/ . This was a
successful meeting with over 100 attendees and 6 problems from Industry.
Future ANZIAM Conferences
The 2016 ANZIAM Conference is being held at the QT Canberra Hotel, over the period 7 –
11 February 2016. The Director is Assoc. Professor Harvi Sidhu. There are currently 8
Plenary Speakers. In addition, there will be an early-career workshop associated with that
meeting, for which funds are requested, as detailed elsewhere. There is a website for the
Conference under construction, at the address http://anziam2016.com/ .
The 2017 ANZIAM Conference will be held in South Australia, and its Director will be
Assoc. Professor Yvonne Stokes. The likely location is Hahndorf, in the Adelaide hills. The
ANZIAM Conference in 2018 will be held in Hobart at the Grand Chancellor Hotel, over the
period 4 – 8 February. Its director will be Professor Larry Forbes.
AMSI/ANZIAM Speaker and AMSI/ANZIAM Workshops
The AMSI/ANZIAM Speaker for 2015 is Professor Michael Shelley, from New York
University. He has been giving a series of lectures in the major population centres over the
period 27 July – 12 August 2015, and his visit is sponsored jointly by AMSI and ANZIAM.
The Early Career workshop in Canberra in February 2016, associated with the 2016
ANZIAM Conference, is jointly sponsored by AMSI, AustMS and ANZIAM.
In 2014, ANZIAM co-sponsored The Australian and New Zealand Applied Probability
Workshop help in Adelaide, under the Directorship of Professor Nigel Bean and Assoc.
Professor Giang Nguyen. This was held in April 2015, and was a successful meeting,
although one Plenary Speaker had visa problems and was unable to attend.
Page 44 of 48
Two workshops will be held in 2015, with joint sponsorship from AMSI and ANZIAM.
These are:
International Workshops on Complex Systems and Networks , 6 – 10 October 2015
University of Western Australia. The Director is Professor Michael Small, and there is some
information on the web site: http://amsi.org.au/events/event/international-workshopscomplex-systems-networks/
KOZWaves 2015: The second international Australasian conference on wave science,
6 – 9 December 2015 University of Adelaide. (There is concern that this is held in the same
location and at the same time as the EMAC meeting, and a policy on mutual attendance is
required). The Director is Assoc. Professor Michael Meylan.
ANZIAM has also just agreed to provide some support for the two up-coming meetings:
Mathematical and Algorithmic Problems in Data Assimilation and Filtering for the
Atmosphere and Ocean, held at the University of Sydney, 29 February – 4 March 2016. The
Director is Professor Georg Gottwald.
Mathematical Methods for Applications: ANZIAM – ZAMA Joint Meeting: Location:
Hangzhou, Zhejiang Province, PRC. 11 – 14 November 2016. The Director is Professor Phil
Broadbridge, and this meeting has been discussed with ANZIAM members in some detail
already.
ANZIAM Financial Situation
The financial situation for ANZIAM has not been strong over the past few years. To address
this problem, the previous Chair, Professor Phil Broadbridge, caused the annual membership
fee to be raised to $30. In addition, he ensured that future ANZIAM Conferences should
budget for a $30 return to ANZIAM for each attending delegate. This leadership from the
previous Chair will certainly help alleviate some of the more pressing concerns with available
funding.
In addition, the 2014 Steering Committee of the AustMS generously moved that ANZIAM
could keep 50% of the “profits” from the ANZIAM Journal, and in 2015 this amounted to
about $17,000. I was very much heartened by the strong support and kind words about
ANZIAM, expressed by a number of members of the Steering Committee, and delighted that
the feeling was that ANZIAM is giving good value to AustMS. I acknowledge with gratitude
the support and cooperation of the previous President Professor Peter Forrester and the
current President Professor Tim Marchant.
On the negative side, CSIRO is almost certain not to be able to continue to fund the Student
Support Scheme, for students to attend and give talks at the ANZIAM Conference
(primarily), as it has so generously in the past. The ANZIAM Executive is of the strong
opinion that supporting students in this way is one of the core missions of our Society, and so
alternative funding has to be sourced, most probably through ANZIAM itself. ANZIAM is
enormously grateful to CSIRO and to Dr Frank de Hoog, and I wrote to Frank on 9 June,
thanking him and CSIRO for all their support, and outlining in detail how that support has
been used over the past 12 months.
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Miscellaneous
Special Interest Groups of ANZIAM. With the exception of the Women in Mathematics
SIG, such groups that form as part of AustMS are able to charge a membership fee and also
to receive some funding from AustMS. This is not really available to SIGs of ANZIAM,
since ANZIAM is a Division of AustMS. As a result, Special Interest Groups of ANZIAM
are not financially autonomous to the extent that SIGs of AustMS are, and this has caused
some concern within ANZIAM. At the moment, this remains unresolved.
Relative success rates in ARC funding. At the 2015 ANZIAM Conference, there was a
presentation at the AGM, comparing success rates for funded ARC Discovery Grants across
the 4-digit Mathematics codes (0101 Pure; 0102 Applied; 0103 Numerical; 0104 Statistics;
0105 Mathematical Physics). It became clear that the Applied code 0102 has a lower success
rate than might be expected, and this is particularly true of the 0103 Numerical code.
Reasons for this are not at all obvious, and it was resolved at the AGM that I should follow
this up with the ARC. They have now been made aware of our concerns within ANZIAM,
and the flow-through effect this under-funding has on retention of high-quality postdoctoral
appointments within Australia. It remains unclear how this may be addressed.
Honours. It is a pleasure to acknowledge the achievements of ANZIAM members in this
past year. These include:
Professor Phil Howlett and Dr Peter Pudney from UniSA have won the National Export
Award in the Environmental Solutions Category for “Energymiser”.
Professor Jon Borwein was announced to be one of the 2015 Class of Fellows of the
American Mathematical Society.
Professor Nalini Joshi has been appointed to the prime minister’s Commonwealth Science
Council announced on 14 October 2014. She has also been chosen as the Special London
Mathematical Society Hardy Fellow for 2015.
Associate Professor Mary Myerscough is a finalist in the University of New South Wales
Eureka Prize for Scientific Research.
Acknowledgement. I am extremely grateful for the guidance of Julia Piantadosi, Peter
Johnston and the ANZIAM Executive, and I value their advice and support.
Larry Forbes
Chair, ANZIAM
20 August 2015.
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ANZAMP: Report for 2014/2015
to the Australian Mathematical Society
Annual meeting
ANZAMP's third annual meeting was held during 8-12 December 2014 as part of the joint
AustMS/NZMS Convention in Melbourne, Victoria,
http://www.anzamp.austms.org.au/meetings/2014/. The A.J. Guttmann Prize ($500) for the best talk
by a student or recent PhD graduate at the ANZAMP annual meeting went to Calum Robertson
from the Monash University.
The 2015 annual meeting will take place during 9-11 December 2015 in Newcastle. ANZAMP
makes every effort to list an international line-up with gender balance. Keynote speakers for 2015
are:
Mireille Bousquet-Mélou
Denis Evans
Daniel Jafferis
Rod Gover
Kentaro Hori
Sarah Post
University of Bordeaux
Australian National
University
Harvard University
The University of Auckland
IPMU, The University of
Tokyo
University of Hawaii
With the move of the AustMS meeting to the December timeslot, ANZAMP is currently considering
a new time for its annual meeting.
Membership
ANZAMP currently has 208 members listed on its website, http://www.anzamp.austms.org.au/. Of
these, 65 are fully paid-up Ordinary Member of AustMS + ANZAMP, 3 Sustaining, 1 Honorary and
1 Life Member. There are a further 11 fully-paid up ECR Members of AustMS.
Sponsorship
ANZAMP (Australian and New Zealand Association of Mathematical Physics) was formed as a
Special Interest group of the AustMS at its annual meeting in September 2011, with a view to
becoming a Division. ANZAMP has received broad support from the community, and has received
generous contributions from the AustMS, MASCOS, AMSI, ACEMS as well from
mathematical/physics departments/schools at ANU, Melbourne, Monash, UWA, Queensland and
LaTrobe, with some of these contributions coming from individuals.
Currently ANZAMP's main achievable goal over the next five years is the organisation of an annual
meeting in mathematical physics.
Activities
In 2015 year ANZAMP members at the ANU have been especially active with the organisation of
the MSI special year in Geometry and Physics with several workshops and the organisation of the
AMSI/UQ/ANU Winter School. This year also marks the birthdays of very distinguished ANZAMP
members Rodney Baxter (75) and Tony Guttmann (70), both of whom have celebratory meetings
organised in their name during 2015.
Moving towards a Division
ANZAMP has now been approved as a Division and in 2015 will hold its first election for office
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bearers. At the time of this writing there is a candidate nominated for each of the electable office
positions. The election will be organised in October 2015 and the new office bearers will be
installed during the fourth ANZAM annual meeting in Newcastle.
Jan de Gier
Chair Australia and New Zealand Association of Mathematical Physics
July 2015
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