08 Experiences

In this chapter I wish to discuss a few work experiences, some of which may have happened if I had become AMT Executive Director, and some maybe not. However I feel they belong here rather than part of AMT history.

AMT Executive Director

In Chapters 8 and 9 of my parallel site AMT History I have described how I became the AMT Executive Director from 1994.

In any case here I am at my desk in 1996. At this stage, until 1997, our office was at what was known as the Cottage, the former caretaker's cottage near the University of Canberra entrance.

In 1998 we moved to larger premises, where we still were on my retirement. The new premises were formerly a factory for making Wang computers, on Haydon Drive opposite the UC campus. Under Vice Chancellor Don Aitkin the University of Canberra bought the property and reconfigured it as very good office accommodation. This is a 2009 photo of me in that office.

ICMI Study 16

Probably the most challenging and ultimately most satisfying part of my career was being appointed, in late 2002, as co-chair with Ed Barbeau, of the University of Toronto, of an ICMI Study. ICMI, the world professional body for mathematics education conducts studies, state of the art analyses of various aspects of mathematics education.

Ed was someone fortunately well known to me so it was easier to cut the ice on this project than it might have been. I was in Toronto the following June, and we used this time for some preliminary planning. In addition a 12-person International Program Committee (IPC), and 2 members of the ICMI Executive, were appointed to help administer the Study.

The Study, No. 16, was entitled Challenging Mathematics in and beyond the Classroom. It was clearly initially designed (we understand) to study the inter-relation between competitions and the normal education system, but it was given quite wider terms of reference to include any type of challenge, so it included for example exhibitions, mathematics days, maths camps, publications, etc.

Our first formal task was for the IPC to meet, which it did in the beautiful Italian city of Modena, in November 2003, and develop what is known as a discussion paper and call for papers. This led to a refereeing process, in which about 45 people were selected to participate in the main Study Conference, which was held in Trondheim in July 2006. From there the final outcome was planned and it was decided what the chapters would be, who would write them etc.

Ed and I supervised the writing process in the following years and the final outcome, a book published by Springer, appeared at the beginning of 2009. It was a very satisfying conclusion to see this book. Everything seemed daunting at the start, but we had a really effective outcome, good cooperation by all on the way, and finished certainly on schedule. In addition the Study has a permanent web site here, which contains many refereed publications written by the various academics involved.

When invited to co-chair this, the task seemed awesome. Only a handful of academics had done this before, including Kay Stacey, the only other Australian (whom I knew), the workload looked massive, and we had to ensure wide participation. As President of WFNMC I had access to potential participants from the world's best people at running competitions. Fortunately, in 2002 I had been invited by the group later to form MCG (Mathematical Creativity and Giftedness Group), to give a plenary at their Riga conference, and in 2003 I was invited again to give a plenary at their Rousse Conference, where I was able to introduce them to the Study, and as it happened this group provided more manpower to the Study than WFNMC itself.

I found the MCG group very interesting as they helped me see more clearly a link between competitions and education. As a WFNMC-only person I used to previously feel a little separated from the main group at ICME conferences. I also made a lot of new friends and colleagues in MCG and eventually got elected to their Executive committee as well as the one from WFNMC.

Australian Mathematical Sciences Institute (AMSI)

One of the most exciting concepts I got actively involved in was the establishment of the Australian Mathematical Sciences Institute. Modeled somewhat on the Fields Institute in Ontario, AMSI was designed to be a common voice of mathematics departments of universities, but also a central conduit helping to bring top quality mathematics to the public and to work with a common voice in education, including school education, and industry.

AMSI was formed during 2002, with mathematics departments of the more research-oriented and Victorian Universities full members given a starting grant from the Victorian government to ensure its base would be in Melbourne. Several other mathematics departments, and the AMT, Australian Bureau of Statistics and CSIRO Division of Mathematics and Statistics, started as Associate Members. A Board was formed and three Advisory Committees, one each for Science, Education and Industry.

Professor Tony Guttmann, of the University of Melbourne, had been in line to be the original Director, but he soon stood aside to be Director of a Centre of Excellence. So the first Director was Professor Garth Gaudry, and first Executive Officer was Jan Thomas. I was the foundation Chairman of the Education Advisory Committee.

So 2003 became a very interesting and challenging time. Garth, Jan and I gave a plenary address at the annual MAV conference to outline plans AMSI had, particularly in the education area.

As Chair of the Education Advisory Committee I was busy convening workshops around the country either on a plan to write text books, or on another project to identify the mathematics knowledge required for teaching. A number of AMT volunteers were among those who participated. Attending one of the workshops, held in Melbourne in October 2003 are from left Brenda Manlett, Michael Evans, Elizabeth Burns, Bill Pender, Cheryl Praeger and myself, with Annie Maurer and Jan Thomas obscured.

In July 2003 the Australian Government announced a plan to establish some International Centres of Excellence, including one in Mathematics Education (ICE-ME). There was a lot of money at stake, something like $6.5M. We worked very hard to build up a submission, which we finally lodged in August 2003. In January 2004 received the very exciting news that we were the successful bidders, which meant we had to unroll our plans formally.

One of the main things we needed to do now was to employ staff. The workshops had been successful in persuading people that this was going to be a very interesting project, and we were able to appoint Michael Evans and Janine McIntosh to the team who would lead the text writing project. The resulting texts (we changed the name of the centre to ICE-EM), proved to be outstanding by any national measure. First they were published directly by AMSI but later rights were transferred to Cambridge.

Michael and Janine were outstanding appointments and became the backbone of the Education part of AMSI for many years. After the ICE-EM project finished they became involved in many other contracts, mainly for the Australian Government, which involved a range of activity such as professional development for teachers and further resources for teachers.

Garth Gaudry had become the first Executive Director of AMSI, but when ICE-EM came along he moved sideways to direct this major project. Phil Broadbridge came in as Executive Director. Phil commenced as such in August 2005. Eventually, when the main part of the project was completed in 2008, Garth retired. The above photo at his farewell includes many who were involved in the early days at AMSI generally.

From left are Jan Chantry, Simi Henderson, Dimetre Triadis, Tom Montague, unidentified, Peter Taylor, Anne Nuguid, unidentified, Edwena Dixon, Elizabeth Burns, Lindsay Thomas, Simon Pryor, Janine McIntosh, Grant Young, Jan Thomas, Patsy Gaudry, Michael Shaw, Raoul Callaghan, Cameron Mitchell, Garth Gaudry, Dick Barker, Phil Broadbridge, Michael Evans, Averil Newman, Bill Blyth, Frank Barrington.

When Garth retired the main task of writing the ICE-EM texts was complete, but he had become ill with a brain tumour, from which he eventually passed away in late 2013. The Education Advisory Committee continued to oversee an exciting new DEEWR project called TIMES, which resulted in a number of new resources for schools and teachers. Michael Evans and Janine McIntosh carried a large workload on this also. I retired as Chairman of the Committee at about the end of this project in mid 2011, to be replaced by CSIRO mathematician Bob Anderssen. In mid 2009 Phil Broadbridge moved on to a Dean appointment at La Trobe University, to be replaced by Professor Geoff Prince, of La Trobe University, as the new AMSI Director.

In Chapter 12 I describe the circumstances of my receiving a Distinguished Service Award in 2012 for my role in the early days of AMSI.

Head of School of Mathematics and Statistics, UC

In 1992 I was appointed Head of the Mathematics discipline at the University of Canberra, and in 1994 and 1995 (before appointment as Executive Director of the Australian Mathematics Trust) was also Head of the School of Mathematics and Statistics. The School was still significant, servicing a significantly strong Engineering Course as well as having a small mathematics degree in its own right, but had been larger in the 80s and became negligible later when the Engineering course was closed. There were about 12 full time academics.

There were significant academic challenges, undergoing a review, facing the engineering profession's wish to downgrade the amount of maths in favour of more on management, increasing focus on research and venturing into monitoring of teaching standards. However the most difficult aspect of the job was having to handle each year significantly reduced funding (which was to become worse after I left in 1996 with the Vanstone cuts). However I did learn a lot about managing an organisation with very tight resources, and this was to serve me in good stead in my next appointment.

2003: Honorary Doctorate at University of Rousse, Bulgaria

In 2003, while attending the third conference of the International Group for Mathematical Creativity and Giftedness, where I had been invited to give a plenary lecture, I was also awarded a Doctorate Honoris Causa by that University. It was a grand ceremony, integrated into the Opening Ceremony of the Conference. It started by me meeting the Rector (Vice Chancellor), Boris Tomov and made an entry into the Opening Ceremony with the Bishop of Rousse, and Faculty Dean Professor Svetoslav Bilchev. Several of us, including I, made speeches, to open the proceedings. We made an exit while a concert was performing and there was a break in the Rector’s office for the official robing. The robes were quite colourful. I took the less colourful of the two offered.

During the robing are Rector Boris Tomov, Peter Taylor, Bishop Neofit (whose formal title was Metropolitan of Rousse) and Professor Svetoslav Bilchev.

We then returned for the ceremony proper, after which I made what would normally be called an occasional address, in which I talked of friendship between Bulgarian and Australian mathematicians.

We then returned to the Rector's office where there were toasts and I was questioned by the media. Finally there was a lunch at a nice nearby outdoor restaurant. Those attending were the Rector, Professor Bilchev, Academician Blagovest Sendov, a mathematician, former president of the Bulgarian Parliament, and now appointed as Bulgarian Ambassador to Japan, who had travelled to Rousse for the ceremony, Academician Petar Kenderov, of the Bulgarian Academy of Science, who had driven me from Sofia to Rousse, and Professor Emilia Velikova, who was an active contributor to the World Federation of National Mathematics Competitions.

At the lunch, from left, Rector Tomov, Professor Bilchev, Academician Sendov, Professor Velikova, Academician Kenderov, Peter Taylor.

[2015 Note: I now realise that the Bishop was Simeon Nikolov Dimitrov, and using the name Neofit (sometimes written Neophyte) was entitled Metropolitan Neofit of Rousse. By 2015 he had become Patriarch, head of the whole Bulgarian Orthodox church. He has a Wikipedia page here. Apparently also people now prefer the direct translation Ruse for the name of the city.]

Superannuation

For many years I was a Trustee of the University of Canberra Staff Superannuation Scheme. This had been closed to new members in 1976 due to an actuarial deficit but the scheme recovered under the conservative leadership of Accounting Principal Lecturer Don Maund. After he retired I chaired the Trustee Board until 2003, when the scheme was closed, due to most of the members having retired. This was a very interesting and challenging experience with up to $62M under management. I learned a lot about investment, reporting and meeting regulatory requirements.