Help Save Math in the UK!

EPSRC, the research council that claims to fund mathematics, announced a policy that postdoctoral fellowships in mathematics will henceforth only be given in the fields of statistics and applied probability. Seriously, what the fuck? That's completely asinine---even by EPSRC standards. This will cripple UK mathematics and turn its slow decline into irrelevance into a rapid one. And do you know why? Because most of the best worldwide talent in all but 2 specific fields will go somewhere else, and most of the best UK talent in all but 2 specific fields will leave. Hello? Anybody home? And the UK might want to check what happens to countries who let basic science go by the wayside---the whole country tends to go to Hell with it. Where do you think the technical workforce comes from?

In response, graduate students and postdocs from University of Warwick have started a petition to be sent to the Prime Minister. As you can see from the links on this site, famous mathematicians (and mathematical scientists in related fields) have already started the call to arms. Thus: To arms! If you are a UK grad student or a postdoc, please sign this protest. And if you care about UK mathematics, please pass this protest along.

Thanks.

(Tip of the cap to Mariano Beguerisse Díaz for informing me about the petition.)