Sad news dominated the Australian mathematical scene in recent months with the loss ofthree of its most illustrious members. Past AustMS president George Szekeres and his wife
Esther Szekeres–Klein passed away on August the 28th, and former ANZIAM (then Applied Division of the AustMS) chairman Ren Potts lost his battle with illness on the 9th ofAugust. Their respective obituaries, written by Michael Cowling and Ernie Tuck, may befound elsewhere in this Gazette.
We are pleased that the Hon. Brendan Nelson, MP has taken up our invitation to writea column in the Math matters series. The Minister notes that Australian primary andsecondary school students perform well against international standards, but expresses hisconcern about the gap between indigenous and non-indigenous students. The AustralianGovernment has introduced an initiative which aims to improve literacy and numeracy
standards in the crucial middle years of schooling, the Australian Schools Innovation inScience, Technology and Mathematics (ASISTM) Project. ASISTM is already achieving
unprecedented collaboration between Australia’s schools and universities. The Minister
further acknowledges that“If we are to be effective in our teaching of mathematics at all levels ofschooling we need to ensure that our universities are attracting and generating enough mathematical sciences graduates to meet our current andfuture needs for maths teachers and for other careers where maths skills areessential.”
The previous editorial already mentioned the Research Quality Framework (RQF) thatis heading for our shores. The Australian Government recently released a discussion paper
entitled “The RQF Preferred Model” for an upcoming research assessment. Given the profound impact the RQF will have on mathematics departments and many individual researchmathematicians, and given our less than enviable position on the bibliometric scoring board,
it is vital we all lobby for an RQF that serves the interests of mathematics and that provides
a healty environment for mathematics in Australian. A detailed analysis of the current stateof affairs, and a call to arms is made by Peter Hall later in this issue. Note that in his Mathmatters column, the Hon. Brendan Nelson remarks that lower publication and citation
rates in the mathematical sciences compared to other sciences will not be used as evidence
against the mathematics discipline.
For some time now we have been scratching our heads as to how we can sell mathematics tothe world. Perhaps we may find the answer in Andrew Conway’s brilliant career, offering
a rare concession to the benefits of the Dilbert dark side, and expressing a sympathy towards
good salespeople, marketeers, accountants, lawyers and administrators.
Playing with soap bubbles is an all-time favourite, and provides great entertainment in acourse on minimal surfaces. It allows lecturers and students alike to relive their childhood
years under the pretext of doing mathematics. The mathematics of minimal surfaces also

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offers some intriguing and deep mysteries. One such mystery, the Lawson Conjecture, ischosen by Paul Norbury as The 12th problem.
If you thought SUDOKU was addictive, then wait till Norman Do takes you on a guided
tour of SET in Mathellaneous. Set theory may be one of the less sexy areas of mathematics,
but Norman transforms what may first seem a damp blanket into a delectable dish.
Finally we thank Chris Harman for his time as local correspondent at the University ofSouthern Queensland and welcome his successor Sergey Suslov.