FROM THE DEPARTMENT HEAD I will be stepping down as department head at the end of this academic year after eight years in that position. As I reflect on these years, I realize that they have been challenging and also very rewarding. I believe we have come a long way since I assumed the stewardship of the department, but the credit for all the positive changes belongs to my faculty colleagues and an outstanding staff. The spirit of cooperation that I enjoyed from all quarters makes me feel very humble and also very proud of the School of Mathematics. During this time, a large number of faculty members retired after years of highly distinguished service to the department and the University; a few also resigned their positions. Replacing many of these outstanding scholars will never be possible, but thanks to the extraordinary efforts of my colleagues, we have been able to attract some excellent faculty members in several areas of strength in the department. The establishment of the Digital Technology Center (DTC) at the University presented an opportunity for us to establish a program in mathematical biology with the hiring of Hans Othmer as a DTC Professor with tenure home in our department. This program has attracted a large number of graduate students and postdocs and has generated close collaboration with several departments in the biological sciences, most notably with the Department of Ecology, Environment & Behavior. It was also fortuitous for us that the director of DTC, Andrew Odlyzko, happens to be a prominent mathematician with our department as his tenure home. In spite of his very busy schedule as DTC director, Andrew finds time to be seriously involved in the activities of the department and has been making significant contributions to it. We are also very fortunate to have Douglas Arnold at the helm of the renowned NSF sponsored center, The Institute for Mathematics and Its Applications (IMA). We are looking forward to the twentieth anniversary celebration of the IMA in June, 2003. It was not too long ago that we were struggling to develop effective formats and techniques to improve our undergraduate programs. Again, due to the ceaseless efforts of many of my colleagues and financial support from the IT Dean, we now offer a new calculus curriculum to over 600 Institute of Technology students in a format that has made a real difference in the training, performance and retention rates of the students in these courses. We recently started a promising honors program in mathematics together with a ‘Junior Colloquium’ and a Math Club. We also provide opportunities for research experiences for undergraduates. This program is intended to provide year-round activities in an exciting environment for those undergraduates who wish to pursue graduate studies in mathematics. It is my hope that these initiatives will continue to flourish. It has been a great privilege to work with a number of very able fellow administrators, John Baxter, John Eagon, David Frank, Paul Garrett, Hillel Gershenson, Lawrence Gray, Donald Kahn, Charles McCarthy, Wei-Ming Ni and Karel Prikry. I am very grateful to them for their cooperation and valuable advice over this period. I would like to close by observing that when I decided to step down, I had imagined that with things running rather smoothly it was a good time to hand over the responsibility to someone else. My great regret is that my successor will have to deal with the very adverse consequences of the projected budget cuts. The late Eugene Fabes and I faced similar circumstances not too long ago. All of us together came through it quite well and I do hope that we will also be able to cope with the current situation. Naresh Jain