One of the primary goals of the American Mathematical Society is to enable mathematicians to conduct their research and disseminate it. Due to an increasingly tight job market, many research mathematicians are now located at universities and colleges which do not recognize their research. These mathematicians are subjected to high teaching loads, little opportunity for grant funding, decreasing access to increasingly expensive journals, and paper-counting deans that veto tenure. While mathscinet, the arxiv and regional AMS meetings have provided significant research assistance to these mathematicians, there is a serious need to adequately recognize their contribution to mathematics.
I propose a new AMS award for the top one thousand papers published each year consisting of a simple annotation next to the mathscinet review. Unlike the "featured reviews", these papers would be nominated by the editors of journals and reviewed by panels of experts in each field. Naturally, most papers in very selective journals would get such rewards and this would become a competition between journals, allowing new online journals the opportunity to rise in prestige.
If elected to the AMS Council, I would push for the implementation of this award and other AMS services which support mathematicians in all departments.
