Cornell's Department of Mathematics has received a three-year, $1.45 million award from the National Science Foundation (NSF) to broaden the training of undergraduates, graduate students and postdoctoral fellows.
The agency program, known as VIGRE (for Vertically Integrated Grant for Research and Education) will enable a broad range of improvements for the department, from involvement of undergraduates in meaningful research experiences to the greater inclusion of women and underrepresented groups in department programs.
The award also will fund department outreach activity, including the inauguration of a Math Explorer's Club for high school students, under the supervision of Robert Strichartz, professor of mathematics. The club will hold its first meeting, an open house, Sept. 16 at Malott Hall (5th floor).
The NSF established the VIGRE program with the hope of reinvigorating math departments across the country.
The Cornell VIGRE program will be under the direction of department chair John Smillie and mathematics professors John Guckenheimer, Jose Escobar and Louis Billera. The director of the program is Richard Durrett, professor of statistical sciences. All were part of an 18-member departmental effort organized last year by Smillie to prepare a proposal to the NSF. "I think that this is an impressive degree of departmental involvement," Smillie said.
The agency grant, which was funded at an unusually high level of 99 per cent of the requested amount, will enable significant new support for undergraduate research on pure and applied topics during the summer and the academic year. It also will allow new three-year research postdoctoral fellows and several years of research support for graduate students.
One objective of the grant, said Smillie, is to encourage contact between students and faculty in the department and with other Cornell researchers who use mathematics. "This will be done by means of a math department seminar for users of mathematics, and support for math graduate students to spend semesters working with labs on campus," he said. "It is our belief that these contacts will help all of our graduate students, whatever their future career directions may be."