One force that tends to differentiate mathematical disciplines is research funding. In the United States, pure mathematics has been funded by the National Science Foundation (NSF) and carried out in universities as well as at a few industrial research and development facilities, such as IBM Research Labs and AT&T Bell Laboratories. Within the government, the National Security Agency (NSA) has been a big supporter of pure mathematics areas related to cryptography, such as algebra, graph theory, and number theory. Since the end of World War II in 1945, government laboratories have employed thousands of pure and applied mathematicians. These facilities include Los Alamos National Laboratory, Oak Ridge National Laboratory, Brookhaven National Laboratory, and Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory and Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory. The military, through the Office of Naval Research, the Air Force Office of Scientific Research, and the Army Research Office, has also supported both pure and applied mathematics in the United States. The applied mathematics community has received large amounts of research funding from the energy, computing, and communications industries. The distinction between pure and applied mathematics is not rigid, however. Many mathematicians receive their training in pure mathematics, then become interested in applying their expertise to other areas. Other mathematicians seek to build links between different areas of mathematics. Interdisciplinary mathematics, in which methods from more than one area of mathematics are used, is one of the fastest growing areas of mathematics. Trends also influence the direction of mathematics. A research area can become popular, as catastrophe theory did in the 1970s and 1980s, then virtually disappear. Mathematical research has traditionally been tied to individuals, schools, and even countries. In the 1800s new mathematical areas were started by individuals in the great schools of Europe and the United States. These universities included Göttingen (Germany), Moscow (Russia), Paris (France), Cambridge (Britain), and Princeton University and the University of Chicago in the United States. As pioneering researchers trained students in mathematics, their universities became associated with particular areas of mathematics. Because many of these universities were the leading institutions in their countries, the countries themselves became associated with different mathematical interests MBABIE MAC TONY
Posted on: Mon, 17 Jun 2013 23:29:17 +0000
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