I am a rocket engineer with a Ph.D. I'm the most applied kind of scientist possible. What they are proposing is appalling. As an engineer I can confidently state: "there's nothing more practical than a good theory"
E
Eric Grist
5 years ago
This is a proof that the Executive Board at the University of Leicester have not moved beyond Galileo.
E
Eric Grist
5 years ago
Proof that the hierarchy have not moved beyond Galileo
M
Mikhail Cherdantsev
5 years ago
Leicester VC probably does not understand that Pure Maths / Analysis is the basis for all applied research involving maths. So he/she plans to pull out the foundation stones of the building to build up a couple of more storeys. Well, good luck with that.
Btw, the quality of your maths degree program will fall below any acceptable standard with just teaching-focussed staff. Just saying.
R
Rudolf Tange
5 years ago
Pure and applied maths are tied to each other and killing pure maths research will damage maths as a whole.
M
Mentore Siesto
5 years ago
It is simply absurd to think that pure math can be discarded.
R
Roland Duduchava
5 years ago
Such drastic reduction of fundamental research capacity will harm not only science, but also education and even computational modelling, digitalisation and data science. Without high mathematical education and support by fundamental research nothing in science can prosper.
D
David Hewett
5 years ago
This is an extremely short-sighted proposal that will not only damage the department but the university as a whole. Students care about the quality of teaching and the expertise of their teachers and will go elsewhere if the university is seen to be watering down its provision.
B
Bernd Schroers
5 years ago
This seems a particularly perverse decision at a time when the importance of pure mathematics is explicitly acknowledged in the UKRI additional funding for the mathematical sciences.
R
Rodney Sharp
5 years ago
Very recently, the Government announced a £60m a year uplift in funding for UK maths. This is an unprecedented increase, which demonstrates that the Government has a deep grasp of what is needed in order for the UK to be one of the most prosperous countries in the 21st century. This funding is expected to boost the economy via the application of new fundamental maths to many areas such as coding and cryptography, financial markets, banking systems, traffic flow control, quantum computing, defence, cybersecurity, transmitting internet data, weather forecasting, machine learning, artificial intelligence, and decision-making under uncertainty. Surely this suggests that the proposal for the University of Leicester to cease research in pure mathematics is unwise and ill-advised.
D
David Elworthy
5 years ago
There is Mathematics and there is the applications of Mathematics. They live together, feed on, and nurture each other. This is especially true in fast moving times such as the present when what might be considered esoteric parts of Mathematics are used in advanced techniques for practical problems. A University without "Pure" Mathematics cannot be considered as relevant to modern Science & Technology, nor to Finance & Economics.
E
Elia Vincenzi
5 years ago
Halmos said:
"Applied mathematics will always need pure mathematics just as ant-eaters will always need ants."
W
Wong Wang Lap
5 years ago
The value of pure maths still remains, specical as the fundamental of applied maths or data science
C
Christian Boehning
5 years ago
Ceasing research in pure mathematics to ensure a future research identity in AI, computational modelling etc. sounds a bit like a state deciding to cease growing crops so that more farmers can open up bakeries.
L
Luigi Martina
5 years ago
Pure abstract Algebra (and generally Math) enormously pushed Our understanding of the surrounding Universe, and the applications: not the opposite, as it was the medioeval attitudine!
R
Ronald Brown
5 years ago
G-C Rota in "Indiscrete Thoughts" p.48 Birkhauser. 1997, wote: "Disclosing new worlds is as wothwhile a mathemticakl enterprise as proving old conjectures."
O
Olapade Funmilayo
5 years ago
Without pure mathematics there is nothing to apply
I
Ian Stewart
5 years ago
This proposal is the height of ignorance. ALL mathematics is vital to the UK's future. Many major applications have emerged from pure mathematics. An institution with inadequate pure OR applied maths provision is not a University.
D
Damian Fogarty
5 years ago
Applied mathematics is a core subject for me in clinical practice used in calculating individual patient results and prediction of future events. Aggregate data from research, models and comparative benchmarking is also key. Some recent developments in modelling & quasi randomisation approaches are now being used to speed up the science and this all started with pure mathematics departments.
P
Professor Frank Smith
5 years ago
Pure mathematics is a vital subject in itself and in its many connections with other subjects.
I am a rocket engineer with a Ph.D. I'm the most applied kind of scientist possible. What they are proposing is appalling. As an engineer I can confidently state: "there's nothing more practical than a good theory"
This is a proof that the Executive Board at the University of Leicester have not moved beyond Galileo.
Proof that the hierarchy have not moved beyond Galileo
Leicester VC probably does not understand that Pure Maths / Analysis is the basis for all applied research involving maths. So he/she plans to pull out the foundation stones of the building to build up a couple of more storeys. Well, good luck with that. Btw, the quality of your maths degree program will fall below any acceptable standard with just teaching-focussed staff. Just saying.
Pure and applied maths are tied to each other and killing pure maths research will damage maths as a whole.
It is simply absurd to think that pure math can be discarded.
Such drastic reduction of fundamental research capacity will harm not only science, but also education and even computational modelling, digitalisation and data science. Without high mathematical education and support by fundamental research nothing in science can prosper.
This is an extremely short-sighted proposal that will not only damage the department but the university as a whole. Students care about the quality of teaching and the expertise of their teachers and will go elsewhere if the university is seen to be watering down its provision.
This seems a particularly perverse decision at a time when the importance of pure mathematics is explicitly acknowledged in the UKRI additional funding for the mathematical sciences.
Very recently, the Government announced a £60m a year uplift in funding for UK maths. This is an unprecedented increase, which demonstrates that the Government has a deep grasp of what is needed in order for the UK to be one of the most prosperous countries in the 21st century. This funding is expected to boost the economy via the application of new fundamental maths to many areas such as coding and cryptography, financial markets, banking systems, traffic flow control, quantum computing, defence, cybersecurity, transmitting internet data, weather forecasting, machine learning, artificial intelligence, and decision-making under uncertainty. Surely this suggests that the proposal for the University of Leicester to cease research in pure mathematics is unwise and ill-advised.
There is Mathematics and there is the applications of Mathematics. They live together, feed on, and nurture each other. This is especially true in fast moving times such as the present when what might be considered esoteric parts of Mathematics are used in advanced techniques for practical problems. A University without "Pure" Mathematics cannot be considered as relevant to modern Science & Technology, nor to Finance & Economics.
Halmos said: "Applied mathematics will always need pure mathematics just as ant-eaters will always need ants."
The value of pure maths still remains, specical as the fundamental of applied maths or data science
Ceasing research in pure mathematics to ensure a future research identity in AI, computational modelling etc. sounds a bit like a state deciding to cease growing crops so that more farmers can open up bakeries.
Pure abstract Algebra (and generally Math) enormously pushed Our understanding of the surrounding Universe, and the applications: not the opposite, as it was the medioeval attitudine!
G-C Rota in "Indiscrete Thoughts" p.48 Birkhauser. 1997, wote: "Disclosing new worlds is as wothwhile a mathemticakl enterprise as proving old conjectures."
Without pure mathematics there is nothing to apply
This proposal is the height of ignorance. ALL mathematics is vital to the UK's future. Many major applications have emerged from pure mathematics. An institution with inadequate pure OR applied maths provision is not a University.
Applied mathematics is a core subject for me in clinical practice used in calculating individual patient results and prediction of future events. Aggregate data from research, models and comparative benchmarking is also key. Some recent developments in modelling & quasi randomisation approaches are now being used to speed up the science and this all started with pure mathematics departments.
Pure mathematics is a vital subject in itself and in its many connections with other subjects.