VIGRE: Undergraduate, Graduate, and Postdoctoral Education in Mathematics at the Courant Institute

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The Mathematics Department in the Courant Institute of New York Universitywill provide significant opportunities for research and graduate educationthrough its academic programs, under the support of the VIGRE program ofthe National Science Foundation. This support will be used to integratethe postdoctoral and Ph.D. programs at the Courant Institute, togetherwith research experiences for honors undergraduates in mathematics. Thisintegration will be founded upon focused research groups at the CourantInstitute, which exist in disciplinary mathematics -- such as differentialgeometry, symplectic geometry, geometric and topological analysis, theanalysis of partial differential equations, dynamical systems theory,probability theory and mathematical physics, computational science andnumerical analysis, and applied mathematics; as well as ininterdisciplinary science -- such as neural science, vision, biophysics,computational biology, plasma physics, multimedia technology, materialsscience, condensed matter physics, fluid mechanics, atmosphere/oceanscience, and financial mathematics. Each of these research groups usesadvanced graduate courses, seminars, working seminars, and workshops tofoster interactions and to exchange knowledge. Mathematicians fromneighboring academic institutions, industrial laboratories and from WallStreet, often interact with and contribute to these groups. Interactionsbetween members of the faculty, postdocs, Ph.D. students, and advancedundergraduates will be developed through active membership in theseresearch groups. Junior scientists will be trained and encouraged toadvance a view in which artificial boundaries between pure and appliedmathematics do not exist, and in which interdisciplinary research is thenorm.The Courant Institute's VIGRE Program will provide support for 9 postdoctoral scientists and 24 graduate students each year. Postdoctoral participants will gain breadth and depth through the Courant Institute's uniquely interdisciplinary environment. Each will be encouraged to develop his or her own scientific personality and vision over the course of a three-year appointment. In addition, each postdoc will gain classroom skill and experience by teaching one course per semester, with supervision by an expert in pedagogy as well as by a member of the faculty. Graduate students will be drawn quickly into the scientific life of the Institute through participation in various research groups. They will be encouraged to do internships in nonacademic environments such as industrial and government research labs, to gain added scope and perspective. They will learn communication skills through a variety of mechanisms, including supervised classroom experience. Undergraduate math majors will be encouraged to participate in an enriched honors program, featuring diverse research experience opportunities. The honors program will help drawtalented undergraduates into quantitative careers, by communicating themany opportunities and great excitement available in mathematics andinterdisciplinary science. Some specific developments associated with thisVIGRE project include: (i) the creation of undergraduate researchopportunities within research groups at the Courant Institute; (ii) theformalization of internship opportunities in industrial and governmentlaboratories and in nearby medical schools, for undergraduate and graduatestudents; (iii) systematic supervision of graduate student and postdocteaching, by professionals in pedagogy as well as by members of themathematics faculty; (iv) more active recruitment of US citizen andpermanent resident candidates for graduate and postdoctoral support, withspecial emphasis on women and other underrepresented groups.Funding for this award is provided by the Division of Mathematical Sciences and the MPS Directorate's Office of Multidisciplinary Activities.