Jawaan

IN 2003, Government College University, Lahore, supported by the Government of Punjab and the Higher Education Commission (HEC), set up a centre of excellence in mathematics. This centre was known as School of Mathematical Sciences (SMS) and now it has been given a new name — Abdus Salam School of Mathematical Sciences (ASSMS) — in honour of Pakistan’s Nobel Laureate.

There is a wealth of evidence about the peoples of the Indian subcontinent possessing an innate mathematical ability. For over 5,000 years they have made fundamental and far-reaching contributions. They introduced a decimal counting system in antiquity, thereby laying a key foundation stone for scientific discovery. Their contributions continued through the Golden Age into mediaeval times, with significant developments spreading from Asia to the Middle East, Europe and beyond. The early years of the last century witnessed the prodigious talents of Ramanujan, who surprised the English mathematical community with his insights, only to die in his early thirties.

And even in my own lifetime another genius emerged, the Nobel laureate Dr Abdus Salam. He wrote his first paper as a student in 1943, interestingly on a problem of Ramanujan. He stunned the world scientific community with his vision and versatility. Abdus Salam served as a professor of mathematics at Government College, Lahore. He received the Nobel Prize in 1979 and finally established the world famous International Centre for Theoretical Physics (ICTP), the centre which is indeed serving the Third World community.

Increasingly, mathematicians found patterns, and developed general theories within which it was easier to think. The result has been continuous development, culminating in the solutions of major problems, largely unknown to the general public. In the last few decades another major factor has emerged, namely the spectacular development of computing. The stage has already been reached where computing provides a major investigative tool in geometry and algebra, the two great pillars of classical mathematics. The kinds of computations that occupied the lives of some of the greatest mathematicians can now be completed by a student in an afternoon using freely available software on a home computer. The combination of high-level mathematical understanding with computing is an astonishingly effective tool in understanding a wide spectrum of physical phenomena such as earthquake prediction, climate change, equity markets, radio communication, computer vision, genetics, robotics, speech recognition, medical scanning and a host of other fields.

The guiding hand behind ASSMS is its director-general Dr A.D.R.Choudary. His extensive mathematical experience in Europe and the USA has led to the appointments of internationally established mathematicians, to teach high level courses and supervise research: currently there are 36 in the faculty, mostly European.

In its four-year existence, the institute has a remarkable record. It already has the largest full-time doctoral programme in South Asia, with 93 PhD scholars, many of whom are already publishing in highly reputed international journals.

The programme has attracted a number of overseas post-doctoral fellows to pursue their studies in ASSMS, thereby reversing the traditional flow of graduate students away from Pakistan. On the international scene, the school has initiated two new journals (one for research and the other specifically for graduate students), hosted a number of international conferences, workshops, seminars, international schools and introduced exchange programmes with numerous universities in Asia, Europe, Russia and the USA.

There is a nationwide serious shortage of PhDs in mathematics. ASSMS has already started producing high quality PhDs. The graduates of ASSMS are well versatile young mathematicians and the quality of their research is definitely comparable to the respectable institutions in the world. During the present academic year, at least 25 scholars at ASSMS will finish their PhD degrees. This is already a large number when compared to the big universities of the world. This means if Pakistan’s government through its HEC programmes continues the support, ASSMS will be able to make a very significant contribution in this time of severe shortage of scientists in Pakistan in the field of mathematical sciences.

ASSMS recognises the needs of the national mathematics community, and has taken robust measures to improve matters. Intensive courses in core areas have been introduced to train the faculty nationwide along with a series of workshops initiated to address questions of professional development.

The institute has done much to promote mathematics at the school level too. One long-term objective is to identify pupils with a high mathematical ability and mentor their development. Two effective, practical steps have been taken so far. In 2005, a Pakistani team entered the International Mathematical Olympiad for the first time, presenting top-ranked solutions amongst more than 90 other countries, a performance that will undoubtedly improve with experience. Pakistan has also been admitted to the largest international mathematics event, namely the annual International Kangaroo Mathematics Contest for schoolchildren of all ages. It is an effective way of promoting and popularising mathematics, with over four million participating pupils worldwide. Pakistan is the first (and currently the only) South Asian country to be admitted to this event. In 2007, over 30,000 young Pakistanis took part, representing a fivefold increase. Enthusiasm for mathematics at the school level is clearly on the rise, a very encouraging sign.

The ASSMS staff is already coaching gifted school children on a regular basis. The coaching is provided by world famous experts and it is free of cost. ASSMS is now extending its work in remoter areas of the nation too such as Skardu and Balochistan. In the past two years, more than 65,000 school children directly benefitted from the events and training camps organised at ASSMS.

Worldwide, governments are aware that in the present global economy, prosperity depends largely on science and engineering. However, the theoretical foundations of these subjects require high-level modern mathematics. That is the underlying reason for the importance of the subject in any developed (or developing) country. It is no coincidence that all of the world’s most successful economies have historical strength in mathematics.

Maintaining a strong mathematics base should be an accepted part of good government but is hindered by the fact that the role of mathematics in its applications is largely hidden. A good example is the use of biometric information, such as fingerprints and iris scans in the security industry. What you see is a result on a computer screen within a fraction of a second. But the technology arose from extensive mathematical research. A mathematical result has given rise to an algorithm, which has been programmed by computer scientists, to then be embedded in a chip. Industries buy electronic hardware: they do not see, nor need to be aware of, the underlying mathematics. Thus the perception of technology end-users is the overwhelming importance of hardware — for them the mathematics is invisible.

Cutting edge technological development requires mathematical applications at the highest contemporary levels, substantially beyond those of previous decades. ASSMS provides a focus within Pakistan for top-level mathematics training. It will enable promising young mathematicians to reach international standards of competence in their subject, and to make their own contribution to Pakistan’s development.

The faculty represents a national resource in mathematical modelling, ready to collaborate with the government, commerce, business and industry. The government of Punjab and the HEC deserve all credit for having the courage and foresight to support long-term investment in an academic area of crucial importance for the future.