I offer a very warm welcome to delegates at the
5th International Congress on Industrial and Applied Mathematics.
Australia is proud to host this prestigious event.
I offer a very warm welcome to delegates at the
5th International Congress on Industrial and Applied Mathematics.
Australia is proud to host this prestigious event.
I am writing as Chief Scientist of Australia, but my message is also informed by my work for Rio Tinto, a major international resources company.
I am fully aware -- as will be all delegates at ICIAM 2003 -- of the beauty of mathematics and its richness as a fundamental science. In this message, however, let me focus on the industrial dimensions of mathematics. It was for many years the area of my own research; the modelling of processes as a means of better understanding and hence improving performance.
Mathematical modelling is a topic that I hold dear. It is an absolute fact, even if not universally recognised, that mathematical technology plays an essential role in every industry sector. Moreover, within industry sectors, mathematical technology is required at every stage.
A good (Australian) example of the requirement for mathematics comes from Rio Tinto's industry -- resources. The mathematical sciences are essential -- from exploration through to mineral processing and metal production. To give examples from a long list, necessary mathematical technology includes inverse problems, geostatistics, optimisation, computational fluid dynamics (with chemistry and thermodynamics) and control. At the practical level, some of the recent developments such as the HIsmelt process have been highly dependant on leading edge computational fluid dynamics.
From this example and many others [1,2], it is clear that mathematics is one of the core disciplines that underpins so much of our knowledge economy, our research and the benefits that flow from it.
There are both challenges and opportunities here. Among the challenges are to sustain the flow of mathematical inventions, to capture the benefits of this research for society, and to ensure that mathematics gets the recognition it deserves. The opportunities are great: use the 'unreasonable effectiveness' of mathematics in collaboration with scientists and technologists in many fields of research, form teams to capture benefits of your research for our society, and successfully promote the discipline so that it continues to have a productive and healthy existence.
I am confident these important themes, and many more, will be fully evident at ICIAM 2003. I wish all delegates a successful Congress, and I look forward with keen anticipation to the never-ending flow of mathematical technology that enriches our economy and society.
Dr Robin Batterham
Chief Scientist