By David Bressoud @dbressoud As of 2024, new Launchings columns appear on the third Tuesday of the month. The 2025 CBMS Survey is currently underway. This survey of mathematics and statisticsdepartment in the United States has been conducted every five years starting in 1960 andprovides important information on practices and trends in undergraduate education in themathematical...

"In a hole in the ground there lived a hobbit." Tolkien's opening line has always resonated with me because it captures something essential about human nature: when the world outside gets overwhelming, we retreat to our hobbit-holes. We close the round door, light the fire, and tend to what we know. I suspect many of...