West Virginia University

Anthony Hilton, my former colleague at Queen Mary, spent some time as an Eberly Professor at West Virginia University. Now he has passed on to me the news that the University has decided to close down Pure Mathematics research and put the money into “computer related activities”, whatever that means.

One of the last mathematicians standing, John Goldwasser, who has been there since 1988, is organising a small conference (I suppose I could say a wake) to mark the demise of pure mathematics at the university. As I expected, when I looked at the web page of the School of Mathematics and Data Sciences (slogan: The Revolution Starts Here), I found no mention of this conference, or indeed of the closure.

I am afraid I do not have the address of anyone you could write to if you want to express an opinion on this (which in any case seems to be a done deal). If you have such an address, please let us know.