The Dietrich School of Arts & Sciences Department of Mathematics and the University Library System have launched a new peer-reviewed open-access journal, the Pittsburgh Interdisciplinary Mathematics Review (PIMR).
In the first issue’s introduction, founding editors Neil MacLachlan and Lark Song, undergraduates in mathematics and in the Frederick Honors College, write that the PIMR is “dedicated to dissolving three types of boundaries: the traditional divide between pure and applied mathematics, the siloed nature of academic disciplines, and the wall of inaccessible terminology obscuring the joy of mathematics from non-mathematicians.”
The editors go on to thank former and current department chairs Jonathan Rubin and Dehua Wang, along with several other members of the mathematics faculty.
This inaugural issue of PIMR features a variety of articles, including:
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A book review of Alfred North Whitehead’s classic “Introduction to Mathematics” by Andrew Mellon Professor Tom Hales
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An interview with former chair of the math department, Professor Jon Rubin
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An article by Professor Jason DeBlois on undergraduate research in mathematics
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Professor Paul Gartside contributes two proofs without words, available here;
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Graduate student Edison Hauptman discusses why there isn't an inverse quotient rule.
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Past Painter Research Fellow Riley Debski explains how math is used to encode and decode messages
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MacLachlan writes about graduate school applications and the history of mathematics in Pittsburgh here;
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Student editors Stephen Arndt and Ryder Pham bring you Beach Math puzzles and solutions
The editors are continuing to recruit new editorial board members. The journal is a great place for interested undergraduate students to gain editorial experience in STEM. They are especially interested in recruiting students from outside the mathematics department to contribute as editors or authors since the journal is interdisciplinary in nature.
Those interested in getting involved as an editor, author or both, fill out this form and you will be contacted.
Faculty from related disciplines also are invited to write expository articles for an undergraduate audience, and graduate students can join the journal's referee board. Reach out to the editors at pimr.editors@pitt.edu.