In the following year there would be no recruitment, in order to help with the absorption of the new recruits and, in the fifth year again a recruitment of a pair of mathematicians, in fields left undetermined at this time and likely to be influenced both by the history of recruitment to that point and the opinions of those newly hired. The dominant characteristic we would seek in all seven searches would be outstanding research quality, or potential for outstanding research quality. An absolute requirement is that candidates must provide evidence of adequate teaching and all aspects of the search must be consonant with the principles of nondiscrimination and affirmative action. The very best mathematicians frequently have multiple interests, are hard to categorize, and may change their focus from time to time. Finally, we note that apart from our general interest in hiring the best mathematicians available, there are good reasons that hiring into any of the fields described in our plan makes strategic sense.
Nothing is lost by searching broadly.
The former has grown some and now has significant hiring momentum. Topology has done no hiring for twelve years and could be a magnet for excellence into important contiguous areas. One coherent path toward excellence would be to build on these strong sectors. A view toward opening opportunity would argue for at least one more appointment in either Number Theory or Algebraic Geometry. Note also that an appointment in Algebraic Geometry would be particularly relevant to cooperation with the mathematical physics initiative being organized by David Gross in the Institute for Theoretical Physics.