Applied Math Will Become College Field

A new field of concentration, Applied Mathematics, will be open to the class of 1967 next fall, the Committee on Applied Mathematics announced this week. Six upperclassmen, all candidates for Honors, have already been admitted to the field, although it was officially opened just this week.

The course requirements are flexible enough for students who want to apply mathematics to the geophysical sciences, linguistics, mathematical economics, fluid mechanics, or computer sciences, according to a Committee statement. The Committee hopes to couple this flexibility with unusually close counseling.

"The Applied Math program should bring more of the Faculty into advising math students," Garrett Birkhoff, professor of Pure and Applied Mathematics, explained. Birkhoff is a member of the Committee of Advisers in Applied Math. Other members of the Committee represent the Departments of Statistics, Economics, Physics, Astronomy, Engineering and Applied Physics, as well as the Computation Laboratory.

Problems, not proofs

"The main difference between the Mathematics and Applied Mathemathics programs," Birkhoff said, "is that students learn to prove theorems in math, but will learn to use them in Applied Math, will all due respect to rigor."

By admitting only upperclassmen who are candidates for Honors, by expecting advanced calculus to be completed by the sophomore year, and by requiring a thesis for a magna or a summa cum laude degree, the Committee hopes to avoid attracting unsuccessful math students "who want to sit back and take it easy," Birkhoff said.

The Committee on Applied Math, which formerly granted only graduate degrees, was empowered to grant the B.A. by the Faculty last Dec. 3. Harvey Brooks, Dean of Engineering and Applied Physics and chairman of the Committee, said that the new field was not made public until this week because the Committee wanted to work out further details of the program.

An introductory meeting for freshmen interested in Applied Math will be held tonight at 7:30 p.m. in the Grays Common Room.