KEY POINTS:
Name: James Sneyd.
Age: 44.
Role: Professor of Applied Mathematics at University of Auckland.
Working hours: No idea, really. Usually start at 7am in my home office. Never work after 10pm. Sometimes take a day off. Other times work all week and weekend.
Average salary: $100,000 - $150,000.
Qualifications: Bachelor degree in maths, chemistry and classics from Otago University. PhD in applied mathematics from New York University.
Describe what you do.
I research and teach at the University of Auckland. I teach applied maths from first year up to PhD students. First-year teaching is about trying to stop students thinking that maths is boring. So I go into a lecture to entertain, inspire, tell interesting stories and along the way do some maths equations. At third and fourth-year level, I'm teaching difficult stuff that has to be well prepared.
I also supervise five graduate students, a post-doc researcher and mentor other students.
My specialist research area is mathematical physiology - studying how body parts work. Research isn't something that can be fitted in 15 minutes before a lecture or a couple of hours here and there. You need time to think when you're researching.
What is applied maths?
Applied maths is all the stuff that doesn't look like maths to a lay person. It is about us using maths to solve real problems, such as designing better traffic flow systems or working out how much an electricity company should charge.
Why did you choose this line of work?
Because I love doing it. Always have. I didn't even know that mathematicians could get jobs when I started out.
Your history?
I did my undergraduate degree at Otago University, a PhD at New York University, then post-doctoral research, became an assistant professor and finally a professor. I've always worked in universities. I worked 12 years in the United States and one year in England, before choosing to live in New Zealand seven years ago.
Who do you work with?
I work with PhD students and post-doctoral researchers. I do consulting work with industrial companies and I work with experimental collaborators in the US doing the maths for their experiments.
Can you give examples?
One project we're working on in the States is the way muscles contract to cause asthma. I'm working on mathematical models that model the patterns that calcium makes as it moves about the muscle. After making a model, I can use the equations to investigate what happens in asthma or heart malfunction.
This is funded by grants from the States which pays for part of my salary and for a graduate student and post-doctoral researcher.
With consulting work, I'm one of the principal supervisors of a student working with NZ Steel and the university to try and improve the way they use their annealing furnace, which is one-fifth of a kilometre long and three storeys high. When it stops it loses huge amounts of money, so we're looking at new mathematical models to work out how to avoid wasted productivity.
What sort of training or experience do you need?
A PhD in mathematics, post-doctoral research and research work experience.
What skills or qualities do you need?
You need to have no fashion sense. You have to appear weird, forgetful, highly eccentric and not give a damn what anybody else thinks. The last is the most important.
And you need to love maths and have the ability to drive yourself to do it the best you can.
There is no structured routine so you have to be very self-motivated.
Best part of the job?
I like it all, but particularly the research. It is really good when mathematical theories pay dividends and tell us something we didn't know about practical stuff, like how asthma works.
Most challenging part?
Again, the research. With research you may not see a way through something for months. Then you have a breakthrough and work really hard for a week or two and then you get stuck for another month.
How would you define success in this job?
Getting grant money, being published in good journals, invites to give high-profile talks and getting good PhD students.
Advice to someone wanting to do same thing?
Never comb your hair. Try to wear non-matching socks.
Seriously, fields such as finance, banking and biotechnology require high-powered maths.
To get jobs in these areas, you usually need a PhD, because a PhD in maths or theoretical engineering demonstrates you're pretty clever and have motivation and willpower to work at problems for three to four years.
University opportunities are limited; around three or four New Zealand jobs come up a year.
We recently advertised a lecturer position and received more than 100 applications from around the world.
Where would you like to be in five years?
Where I am now. At my age, things only get worse.
- Angela McCarthy, angelamc@powerlink.co.nz
