292 BELL SYSTEM TECHNICAL JOURNAL 



(1) Because of its general significance as the language of natural science, 

 mathematics already pervades the whole of industrial research. 



(2) Its field of usefulness is nevertheless growing, partly through the 

 development of new industries such as the aircraft business, and partly 

 through the incorporation of new scientific developments into industrial 

 research, as in the application of quantum physics in chemical manufac- 

 turing and statistical theory in the control of manufacturing processes. 



(3) The need for professional mathematicians in industry will grow 

 as the complexity of industrial research increases, though their number 

 will never be comparable to that of physicists or chemists. 



(4) There is a serious lack of university courses for the graduate training 

 of industrial mathematicians. 



(5) Management, which is already keenly alive to the importance of 

 mathematics, is also rapidly awakening to the value of mathematicians 

 and the peculiar relationship which they bear to other scientific personnel. 



This last observation is not trivial. There was a day when, in engi- 

 neering circles, mathematicians were rather contemptuously characterized 

 as queer and incompetent. That day is about over. Just now, an attitude 

 more commonly met is one of amazed pride in pointing to some employee 

 who "isn't like most mathematicians; he gives you an answer you can use, 

 and isn't afraid to make approximations." As the proper function of the 

 industrial mathematician becomes better understood, these proud remarks 

 will no doubt cease. Those who are adapted to the job will be taken for 

 granted; the others will be recognized as personnel errors and not mistaken 

 for the professional type. Perhaps the present report may speed this day. 

 If so, it will have been a service to the profession and to industry. _ 



