President's Column

摘要

The 59th annual meeting of the AustMS has recently been held at Flinders University in South Australia. At the opening ceremony a number of high profile invited guests spoke; the Honourable Christopher Pyne, Federal Minister for Industry, Innovation and Commerce, the Flinders University VC, Professor Colin Stirling, Ms Katrine Hildyard and Mrs Annabel Digance, members for the local SA electorates of Reynell and Elder respectively. All the speakers discussed the importance of mathematics and the other STEM disciplines, in terms of creating Australian jobs in new knowledge based industries and the vital role that technology transfer, between the university and industry sectors, will play in that development. The mathematical sciences community in Australia is already involved with some exciting industry schemes, such as AMSI Intern, The Mathematics in Industry Study Group and the ATN Industry Doctoral Training Centre in Mathematics and Statistics. However, the challenge is set for our members to increase their engagement with industry, in order to help achieve the government’s aims.