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By Phil Williams
phil@franklin.uga.edu
The National Science Foundation has awarded a five-year, $2.45 million grant to UGA’s  department of mathematics as part of a national program to strengthen university math departments. Officials in the math department call the grant the single most significant event there in the past two decades.
“This grant is a tribute to the increased momentum of both the research and instructional missions of the mathematics department,” says Kevin Clancey, head of the department. “This project adds to the department’s momentum and will propel it into the top tier of mathematics departments in the country.”
Some 26 other top schools in the country have been awarded grants through the program, which is called “Grants for Vertical Integration of Research and Education in the Mathematical Science,” or VIGRE. The money will primarily fund more research time for graduate students, increased research opportunities for undergraduates and more postdoctoral fellowships for the department. The funds are for U.S. citizens only.
Virtually the entire mathematics department will be involved with the new program. There are 42 faculty positions in mathematics; 38 are now filled, with searches for four positions now under way.
“This funding is a wonderful way to revitalize math grad programs in the United States, which for years have been underfunded,” says Andrew Granville, professor of mathematics and principal investigator for the VIGRE grant. “In some sense, this is a reward for the job we have been doing. We have one of the lowest dropout rates from our grad program in the country.” Some 70 percent of those who begin either a master’s or doctoral program in math at UGA graduate.
The NSF program was started in response to a dramatic national decline in the number of U.S. students studying mathematics at the undergraduate and graduate levels. Between 1992 and 1999, there was a 27 percent drop in American graduate students in math and a 23 percent decrease in American undergraduate math majors. Though the number of students in the math department at UGA has held fairly steady over the years, the problem is seen as a serious threat to the position of the United States in mathematics internationally. Each year, for example, fewer than 600 U.S. students receive doctoral degrees in any area of mathematics. (The total number in U.S. universities is fewer than 1,200.)
“Very few schools on our level have won these awards, and we have the faculty enthusiasm and drive to make this work,” says Granville.
Specifically, the UGA grant will be used to fund 10 graduate students at $18,000 each per year, although the amount students receive over time could vary, based on how they perform and teach. The funding will also support 20 graduate students during the summer and be used to support four or more new postdoctoral researchers. Another key component will be an expansion of the research experience for selected undergraduates as well.
“One of the components of this is a summer research program for undergraduates that will encourage more talented freshmen and sophomores to major in mathematics,” says Research Professor Dave Benson. “The SAT scores of our entering classes have leapt up, and we are now attracting much better students, so that we have a resurgence of exceptional math majors.”
The grant also has important implications for the department’s faculty.
“Being able to hire postdocs means, among other things, that our research groups can be more productive,” says associate professor Dino Lorenzini. “It also makes our department more attractive when we are hiring new permanent faculty.” |
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