Michael D. Weiss

Summary

In 1998, after 21 years with the Economic Research Service of the U.S. Department of Agriculture, I left government service to begin the next, and current, chapter of my mathematical career.

I look back with amazement at the fact that, although I was employed by an agency devoted to agricultural economics rather than mathematics, not once was I assigned a subject area in which I couldn't find interesting and enjoyable mathematical content. Federal government agencies seem to provide researchers more freedom than the private sector to choose projects or to steer assignments in a compatible direction. In this sense, federal government employment perhaps occupies a middle ground between academic and private-sector employment.

My experience over the years has convinced me that mathematics can be found wherever you look. For example, when I was working in a research group on food-safety economics, I noticed that a probability theoretic argument could be used to show that larger fast-food chains stand to lose not merely more revenue from foodborne disease incidents, but a higher percentage of their revenue. This finding was reported in the food industry press. In another study, I drew on generalized central limit theorems to evaluate safety data on heat-treated meat patties. My conclusions—in disguised form—actually found their way into the Congressional Record.