Here is the version I have in my files of the draft letter for the scicomp grad minor proposal. It was filled out to have the computer science department info, but was changed appropriately for each department. -RB ------------------------------------------------------------------------------ Steve Johnson, Chairman Department of Computer Science Lindley 215 Indiana University Bloomington, IN 47405 Dear Dr. Johnson: Enclosed is a proposal for the creation of a graduate level minor program in scientific computation at Indiana University. For some time, research carried out in a number of our departments has come to depend more and more on computational tools and methods, and it is now an essential component of much of our work. We believe that our graduate educational system with a major in one field and a minor restricted to another traditional academic department is no longer adequate to train students to carry out research using these modern methods. The breadth of material that students need to learn in order to use computational methods extends beyond the current divisions into academic departments. At the same time, the area of scientific computing is now well developed enough to form a cohesive whole, and IU has enough first rank researchers in the field to create a minor in the program. We ask that you review the enclosed proposal, and agree to write a letter supporting the creation of this minor in the College. The proposal contains a description of a scientific computing program, the benefits of having one, a list of faculty currently involved, a partial listing of projects at IU that further research in scientific computation, and estimates of the number of graduate students involved. An appendix lists some of the existing courses that directly address scientific computing methods. If there is any more information that we can provide, please contact any member of the Scientific Computing Program Steering Committee. Sincerely, Peter Ortoleva (Scientific Computing Steering Committee) Randall Bramley (Computer Science) Richard Durisen (Astronomy) Dennis Gannon (Computer Science) Steve Gottlieb (Physics) Andy Hanson (Computer Science) Mike Jolly (Mathematics) Glenn Martyna (Chemistry) Greg Olyphant (Geological Sciences) Peter Ortoleva (Chemistry)