Math Colloquium and Career Paths

I am organizing our Math Colloquium this year. Every other week (or so) we have a speaker give a talk of general interest to the math community. Much of the faculty usually attends, and quite a few upper level students.

Today was the first Colloquium of the semester, and we had a special guest. Someone from the graduate program in Electrical Engineering at Marquette University called us up and asked for an invitation. Actually, there were two people. One gave a short speil on why you should go to graduate school, in particular to Marquette, and in double particular in Electrical Engineering. Then the other gave a talk on his research.

I admit, I was a little nervous. It wasn't clear to me that he was going to have anything to say that was of interest to math majors. But it was really very interesting. He made a good case that someone with a strong background in math would be interested in his field. Once or twice, I caught him saying something like, "Of course, you know that..." and I didn't know it, and I doubted that any of the students knew it. But it was a good talk, and I know at least one student was interested.

I admit, I got caught up myself. I found myself thinking about how exciting it would be to be young and to still be able to make decisions about where to go and what to learn. When I was that age, I was a terrible purist, eschewing any math that had any application at all. But now I realize how interesting these applications can be. Of course, my brain has entirely fossilized, so I can't actually learn anything new, now.