 |
MILTON: |
|
I'm
Graeme Milton, professor of Mathematics
and chairman of the the mathematics
department. |
|
|
ASPIRE: |
|
What
kind of science do you do? |
|
|
MILTON: |
|
I
work in applied mathematics and in particular,
the field of compulsive materials. Most
people wouldn't think of that as applied
mathematics but it's an example of mathematics,
the breath of mathematics these days
and in particular one can look at average
properties ror effective properties
of compulsive materials such as the
average elastic properties or the average
conductivities and the relationship
of those properties and the microstructure
or the geometry of compulsive materials.
In particular, getting the materials
which, for example, when you pull them,
they fatten where as a material like
rubber, when you pull it, it gets thinner
and how you design such things. |
|
|
ASPIRE: |
|
Is
it research, theory, or experimental? |
|
|
MILTON: |
|
This
is theory. I do work sometimes with
experimentalists but my work itself
is theoretical. |
|
|
ASPIRE: |
|
What
makes your science important? |
|
|
MILTON: |
|
I
think it's the cost displacement nature
in it that you're really laying the
ground works for it in the future. |
|
|
ASPIRE: |
|
What
made you decide to go into the field
you study? |
|
|
MILTON: |
|
Well
that was interesting. It was back when
I was in Australia as an undergraduate.
I was looking for research project.
The University of Sydney got a for studying
solar energy from Suadia Arabia. So
composite materials was one of the areas
and I started doing an undergraduate
honors project which turned out to be
very successful. And I went from there
to the area of statisticcal physics
but after that I switched back to composite
materials. |
|
|
ASPIRE: |
|
What
is your academic backround? |
|
|
MILTON: |
|
I
started my undergraduate degree as an
electrical engineer, knowing my family
has been to the University before, so
even going to the university was a little
bit unusual. I switched from there to
physics and got my undergraduate degree
and PhD degree in physics and my PhD
in statistical physics at Cornel University
then I went to Caltake as a postdoc
and there I was somewhere from the Cornel
Institute called me up and asked if
I would consider a job in New York and
so I went there and that's when I made
the switch from physics to mathematics
after doing the postdoc. |
|
|
ASPIRE: |
|
How
did you come to the U of U? |
|
|
MILTON: |
|
I visited the U of U on a leave of absence
from New York University, visited for
four months. I was really impressed
with the location and secondily with
the mathematics department here and
the number of people that had the same
expertise in the same area as mine.
|
|
|
ASPIRE: |
|
What
do you like most about your job? |
|
|
MILTON: |
|
I
like the research, actually I really
find that exciting and also being around
it and interacting with people that
are extremely welcoming. I find that
exciting and working with postdocs and
gradutate students and postdocs in particular
because I've been working with more
postdocs than graduate students and
they always bring new ideas. |
|
|
ASPIRE: |
|
What
do you like least about your job? |
|
|
MILTON: |
|
I
like the research, actually I really
find that exciting and also being around
it and interacting with people that
are extremely welcoming. I find that
exciting and working with postdocs and
gradutate students and postdocs in particular
because I've been working with more
postdocs than graduate students and
they always bring new ideas. |
|
|
ASPIRE: |
|
What
do you like least about your job? |
|
|
MILTON: |
|
I
like least about my job the fact that
it can chew too much of my time. |
|
|
ASPIRE: |
|
What
hobbies do you have outside of your
work? |
|
|
MILTON: |
|
So
I like the outdoors. I love bycycling,
skiing, hiking, swimming. |
|
|
ASPIRE: |
|
What
advice would you give to an aspiring
student? |
|
|
MILTON: |
|
My
advice would be to read aspiring articles
from other scientists, to read books
on science, to become involved in science
that way through the research and don't
be afraid to try, if your unsuccessful
at all at first don't worry about that
but don't be afraid to try and solve
unsolved problems, to try to ask the
right questions, if you ask the right
questions then that's often the key
to success in research and try to to
probe a little bit deeper then other
people have probed before. If you look
a little bit deeper there's always something
to to be discovered. |
|
|
ASPIRE: |
|
Alright,
thank you for your time. |
|
|
MILTON: |
|
Thank
you. |
