School of Mathematics

Mathematical ethics - Dr Tom Leinster writes in New Scientist

The School of Mathematics' Dr Tom Leinster has had a full-page opinion piece published in New Scientist this week, about the ethics of mathematicians working for government agencies such as the UK's GCHQ and the US's NSA. Given that such agencies are accused of breaking international laws with their mass surveillance programmes, and given the integral part mathematics plays in such activities, should mathematicians continue to work for them?

This article has also been picked up by Slate, Slashdot, Boing Boing, Spiegel Online, Zeit Online, and Mediapart.

An original version of the article, written for the London Mathematical Society's newsletter, can be seen at the mathematics blog The n-Category Café.