Mathematical sciences in the nineties

Introduction

During the last decade of the twentieth century, the world underwent a number of significant changes. The Cold War, which had dominated so much of our political activities, was over. The Internet emerged from universities and national laboratories to become a dominant part of the business, home, and recreational infrastructure. We saw changes in the investment focus of governments and reprioritization of the use of funds by granting agencies. During this decade, the personal computer evolved from being a "smart" terminal to become a powerful platform for computing, communication, and network management. We saw the emergence of pervasive computing devices. The success of the Palm Pilot showed that people could even be taught a new method of printing, using "graffiti"-a symbolic method that was not unnatural, but which did have some definite rules on how letters were to be formed.