This article is not going to be a mathematical one. It’s about what sort of careers a mathematics degree can lead to. I want to explain to people the kinds of possibilities that can open up if you’re taking a degree in mathematics.

Mathematics graduates are very much in demand, and a math degree is about as good a non-vocational degree as you can find. I was a math tutor for several years a few years ago, and it strikes me that people don’t always realize that mathematics can open a lot of doors rather than closing doors. It’s clear that if you do an engineering degree, you’re going to become an engineer, but with a mathematics degree, it’s slightly unclear. People are always saying, “Well, I’m interested in mathematics, but my parents want me to study medicine because I think it can lead to a career.”

What I want to show people is mathematics can lead to a wide range of careers. Your phone wouldn’t work without mathematics, the electronic device that you are holding wouldn’t work, furthermore, your remote control wouldn’t work.

Let’s assume that you are interested in topology. So we can talk about the theoretic topology and the topological dynamics. If you are interested in the shape of space, which’s the topology side of things, and topological dynamics, you are interested in looking at the sorts of structures that can arise as you run a dynamical system. So topology is a system that explains the economy, population dynamics, and those sorts of things.

Even straightforward systems can result in ideas of chaos invariants’ assistance. I’m interested in working out the structure of those sorts of objects that can arise in those questions. My function somehow has run to ten to infinity.

Infinities are bad. Black holes… Center of a black hole. Physics breaks down.

We have gotten a singularity. We have problems. Our country needs mathematically literate people.

Mathematics is the language that underpins how we understand all sorts of processes. Those might be economic processes, or they might be physical processes, or they might be understanding how to analyze vast sets of data that arise from your nectar cards, and so on.

So we need mathematicians to be able to trawl through that data. We need mathematicians to model how a racing car goes around a racing track. We need mathematicians to work out where to place the mobile phone masts. My advice would be to choose a degree that you are going to enjoy. I would say you should treat mathematics as a fun subject. It’s exciting. It’s rewarding, but it’s a subject that probes profoundly into our understanding of the universe around us from the smallest quantum theoretic thing to the most significant relativity.