CoACT Managerial Statements
HISTORY
Since 1971, the focal point of our Centre has been an active
Seminar. A Seminar is not an appropriate structure to define
our group nor to support its activities. Our activities go
beyond the usual functioning of a single department in the
University. This is clear from the fact that Street is in
the Mathematics Department, Johnson is in the Computing Department,
and other senior members are from the University of Sydney.
In the main, funding for the Centre comes to Macquarie to
administer, so it is appropriate that it should be a Macquarie
University Research Centre. All members at Macquarie are in
the Division of Information and Communication Sciences, so
the Centre should be housed in that Division. Recognition
as a Centre will be a strong sign to the international community
and funding bodies that the University supports our operations.
It will also allow researchers who wish to interact with us
to negotiate better with their institutions for funding and
research travel leave.
As a Centre we will have new obligations to view our activities
corporately and to publicise them, report on them, and seek
to develop them in the interests of the Centre's objectives
rather than merely our own personal preferences. The existence
of the Centre, its reports, and its publicity, will aid in
attracting external participants to its work, whether they
be students from other parts of Australia or the world, potential
staff, or industrial partners for our more applied researches.
All of this is particularly important since the individual
workers of the Centre, members and associates, come from such
diverse backgrounds. Similarly, as a Centre we will be able
to formalise links that at present are ad hoc and often administered
by individual members, although usually for the benefit of
the (albeit not presently clearly defined) group. Furthermore,
as a Centre we will be able to manage and plan the expenditure
of the income from the Scott Johnson memorial donation in
the pursuit of commonly agreed scientific goals.
OBJECTIVES
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To advance significant research into Category Theory
itself.
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To advance significant applications to other branches
of mathematics, physics and computer science.
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To attract as Research Fellows the top recent PhDs in
Category Theory and in perceived areas of application.
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To hold an active weekly Australian Category Seminar
in conjunction with other Sydney universities.
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To collaborate productively with Category Theorists
at the University of Sydney.
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To actively interact with the international mathematical
community by accepting invitations to speak and join the
scientific organizing committees of conferences, communicating
electronically, refereeing and reviewing articles for
international journals, travelling, and hosting Visiting
Scholars at Macquarie.
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To train high quality graduate students.
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To interact with industry.
PERFORMANCE INDICATORS AND BENCHMARKS
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Activity of the Australian Category Seminar.
Benchmark At least 40 three-hour seminars per annum.
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Scholarly publication in international refereed journals.
Benchmark 15 journal articles per annum.
[By way of comparison, the Macquarie Mathematics Department
produced 13 journal articles in 1996.]
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Editing of papers submitted to scholarly journals and
to special issue volumes.
Benchmark 1 special issue volume per annum.
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International plenary addresses and membership of conference
scientific steering committees.
Benchmark One international plenary address or one conference
steering committee per annum.
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EFTSU attracted and completion rates, especially for
postgraduate students.
Benchmark 10 postgraduate EFTSU and 2 PhD completions
per annum.
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Funding attracted through grant applications and other
sources.
Benchmark $300000 in external funding per annum.
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Visibility in the scientific review literature.
Benchmark 20 reviews written by CoACT members appearing
in Mathematical Reviews, Zentralblatt für Mathematik,
or other influential mathematical and computing reviewing
journals.
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