Good Choices for Great Careers in the Mathematical Sciences

	Special Guest Lectures
	Good Choices for Great Careers in the Mathematical Sciences
	James (Mac) Hyman, Tulane University

	Johnston Hall 338 April 25, 2011 - 11:00 am
Abstract: The choices that students make early in their careers will impact them for a lifetime. I will use the experiences of scientists who have had great careers to identify universal distinguishing traits of good career choices that can guild decisions in education, choice of profession, and job opportunities to increase your chances of having a great career with long-term sustained accomplishments. I ran a student internship program at Los Alamos National Laboratory for over 20 years. For the last couple of years I have been tracking the careers past students and realized that the scientists with great careers weren't necessarily the top students, and that some of the most brilliant students now had some of the most oh-hum careers. I will describe how the choices made by the scientists with great careers were based on following their passion, building their talents into a strength supporting their profession, and how they identified a supportive engaging work environment. I will describe some simple guidelines that can help guide your choices, in school and in picking the right job that can lead to a rewarding career and more meaningful life. The topic is important because, so far as I can tell, life is not a trial run - we have one shot to get it right. The choices you are making right now to planning your career will impact your for a lifetime. Please join us for an engaging discussion on how to make the choices that will lead to a great career.

Speaker's Bio: Mac Hyman returned to Tulane University after leading the Mathematical Modeling and Analysis Group at Los Alamos National Laboratory for over twenty years. He is the past president of the Society for Industrial and Applied Mathematics (SIAM) and a Fellow of SIAM and the AAAS. He has has over 200 scientific publications and edited 9 books in topics ranging from mathematical biology, nonlinear dynamical systems, and the numerical solution of differential equations. When away from his day job, he creates ceramic sculptures, is a dancer, plays (at) the piano, and spends as much time as he can skiing off the top of mountains in northern New Mexico. My research interests include building a solid mathematical foundation for difference approximations to partial differential equations and using mathematical models to better understand and predict the spread of epidemics. Most of my publications are in mathematical modeling and I have passion for writing quality software for numerical differentiation, interface tracking, adaptive grid generation, and the iterative solutions of nonlinear systems.

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