SMS scnews item created by Martina Chirilus-Bruckner at Mon 12 May 2014 1117
Type: Seminar
Modified: Mon 12 May 2014 1123
Distribution: World
Expiry: 6 Jun 2014
Calendar1: 30 May 2014 1430-1530
CalLoc1: UNSW Red Centre 4082
CalTitle1: Joint Colloquium Sydney–UNSW: Karen Parshall -- "A New Era in the Development of Our Science": The American Mathematical Research Community, 1920-1950
Auth: martinac@pmartinac2.pc (assumed)
Joint Colloquium Sydney–UNSW
"A New Era in the Development of Our Science": The American Mathematical Research Community, 1920-1950
Karen Parshall (University of Virginia)
Date:
Fri, 30/05/2014 - 2:30pm
Location:
RC-4082, The Red Centre, UNSW
Speaker:
Karen Parshall
Title:
"A New Era in the Development of Our Science": The American
Mathematical Research Community, 1920-1950
Abstract:
The American mathematical research community experienced remarkable
changes over the course of the three decades from 1920 to 1950. The first ten years
witnessed the "corporatization" and "capitalization" of the American Mathematical
Society, as mathematicians like Oswald Veblen and George Birkhoff worked to raise
private, governmental, and foundation monies in support of research-level mathematics.
The next decade, marked by the stock market crash and Depression, almost paradoxically
witnessed the formation and building up of a number of strongly research-oriented
departments across the nation at the same time that noted mathematical refugees were
fleeing the ever-worsening political situation in Europe. Finally, the 1940s saw the
mobilization of American research mathematicians in the war effort and their subsequent
efforts to insure that pure mathematical research was supported as the Federal
government began to open its coffers in the immediately postwar period. Ultimately, the
story to be told here is a success story, but one of success in the face of many
obstacles. At numerous points along the way, things could have turned out dramatically
differently. This talk will explore those historical contingencies.