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National Resources Planning Board 



translate the abstract language of science into terms 

 more suital)le for concrete exploitation. 



In other words, the mathematician in industry, to 

 the extent to which he functions as a mathematician, 

 is a consultant, not a project man. 



Qualifications Necessary for Success 

 as an Industrial Mathematician 



The successful industrial mathematician must not 

 only be competent as a mathematician; he must also 

 have the other qualities which a consultant requires : 



First, though his major interests will necessarily be 

 abstract, he must have sufficient interest in practical 

 affairs to provide stimuli for usefid work and to recon- 

 cile him to the compromises and approximations which 

 are necessary even in the theoretical treatment of 

 practical problems. This usually means that the type 

 of mathematician who coidd not do a good engineering 

 job if he turned his hand to it will not get on very well 

 in an industrial career. 



Second, he must be gregarious and sympathetic. 

 If he shuts himself off from his associates, much of his 

 thinking will have no bearing on their needs and that 

 which does Avill exert less influence than it might. If 

 he docs not translate his thoughts into their language, 

 they will miss the significance of much of his work and 

 he will have but a limited clientele. 



Third, he must be cooperative and imselfish. A man 

 cannot be at once consultant and competitor to his 

 associates. Self-seeking attempts to gain credit for 

 his contributions to the industry will inevitably alienate 

 his clientele. There are two reasons for this: In the 

 first place a mathematician's appraisal of mathematical 

 work, even if made from a detached point of view, is 

 heavily weighted on the side of its fundamental scien- 

 tific significance, whereas its industrial value should be 

 judged on very different grounds and can best be 

 appraised by the engineer. In the second place, the 

 engineer in charge of a project can give credit without 

 embarassment for help received; it is to his credit to 

 have known where help was to be had. The same 

 story told by another, and particularly by the consult- 

 ant himself, has an entirely different flavor. 



Fourth, he must be versatile. Jobs change, and 

 even the same job may give rise to questions which 

 require very different mathematical techniques. 



Fifth, he must be a man of outstanding ability. No 

 one wants the advice of mediocrity. Among industrial 

 mathematicians there is no place for the average man. 



Employment and Supervision 



Perhaps the greatest hazard in hiring mathematicians 

 for industry arises from the fact that the employment 

 officer is not often a judge of mathematical ability. 



Paradoxically, however, his mistakes are not usually 

 made in judging mathematical aptitude, since general 

 scholastic rating is an unusually trustworthy index of 

 mathematical ability. But because of a feeling of 

 incompetence bred by liis lack of mathematical lore, 

 he spreads the mantle of charity over other character- 

 istics with regard to which he should trust his own 

 judgment. If, for example, the applicant gives an 

 incoherent account of the problems on which he has 

 been working, the interviewer excuses it on the groimd 

 of his own lack of mathematical training, an excuse 

 which would be quite adequate if the circumstances 

 demanded that he meet the applicant on the applicant's 

 ground. Wliat he overlooks is that the applicant has 

 failed to meet him on his own ground; has failed, in 

 other words, to display the essential ability to translate 

 his thoughts into the language of his hearer. Or per- 

 haps a personality defect is excused on the ground 

 that "after all, he will be working by himself and won't 

 have to meet people," whereas in fact the real value of 

 a consultant comes not in what he does at his desk, 

 but in how much of it gets tlirough to his associates. 

 The applicant who is boastful or pushing or querulous 

 should not be hired on the general theory that "all 

 mathematicians are queer." 



High standards in all such matters, and an interest 

 in practical things as well, are as important as technical 

 mathematical ability. These are stiff specifications, 

 and the men to fill them are not to be found in every 

 market place. They are, however, the requirements 

 implicit in the nature of the job and no good can come 

 from failing to recognize them. 



After the right man is hired, he is not a difficult person 

 to supervise if his function as a consultant to the rest 

 of the staff is kept clearly in mind. The broad ob- 

 jectives must be to avoid barriers which would tend to 

 deter his associates from seeking his services, and to 

 assure that his work is justly appraised and fairly 

 compensated. 



The three barriers most likely to arise between him 

 and his associates are jealousy, red tape, and un- 

 availability. 



Jealousy is unavoidable if the man himself is self- 

 seeking; once such a man is hired trouble is inevitable. 

 But the man is not always to blame. A generous and 

 cooperative recruit will be spoiled by an atmosphere 

 too highly charged with progress reports, or by a salary 

 policy which bases revisions upon the dollar value of 

 the last year's work. Actually the "progress" which is 

 significant to management will be far more accurately 

 appraised by his colleagues than by himself, hence his 

 reports have little value except as they give him an 

 opportunity to review and criticise his own activities. 

 If too much emphasis is placed upon them, even tliis 

 value will be lost and they will be written in the spirit 



