NSF Research Abroad for Graduate Students

The National Science Foundation has a fairly new "East Asia & Pacific Summer Institutes" (EAPSI) program, which pays expenses plus a stipend for science, engineering, and mathematics graduate students to spend a summer doing research in (where else?) East Asia and the Pacific (Australia, China, Japan, Korea, New Zealand, Singapore, and Taiwan).

You can get more information about the program at www.nsf.gov/eapsi or www.nsfsi.org.

NSF Graduate Research Fellowships

The National Science Foundation awards over 2,000 fellowships a year to outstanding graduate students in science, technology, engineering and mathematics.  These are excellent fellowships, and include 3 years of financial support: both a $30,000 annual stipend and a $10,500 annual cost-of-education allowance (for tuition, etc.).

These are awarded to students "at or near the beginning of graduate studies" in several science disciplines (including psychology and social sciences!). Application deadlines for 2010-2011 awards are in November.

More information can be found at the NSF's websites:
   www.nsf.gov/grfp  (for official information)

   www.nsfgrfp.org (for application assistance)

   www.fastlane.nsf.gov/grfp (to actually apply)

NYU Study Abroad Program for Math Majors

New York University sent a flyer highlighting their "Mathematics in London" program, which offers upper-level courses in mathematics (along with liberal arts and science courses).  You can get more information by going to http://www.nyu.edu/studyabroad.

DOE CSGF

This stands for "Department of Energy Computational Science Graduate Fellowship", a program administered by the Krell Institute for the Department of Energy.

Computational Science sits at the intersection of science, engineering, mathematics, and computer science.  The best way to describe it is through examples: look through the CSGF magazines --- Deixis and Compose --- for descriptions of research written for a non-technical audience. In general terms, the people working in this field are using high-performance computers --- think a 100,000 or more CPUs! --- to simulate real systems taken from many disciplines (biology, earth science, material science, physics, chemistry, etc.).  Researchers must understand the computer, the model (and so the real system), the solution algorithms, and the interactions between these three.

The CSGF is one of the most prestigious (and generous!) Federal programs for Ph.D. students in the sciences. Recipients of the Fellowship get the following benefits:

• $36,000 yearly stipend (money to live on!);
• Payment of all tuition and fees;
• Yearly conferences (they pay the travel and expenses);
• $5000 academic allowance the first year ($1000 each year after)
• 12-week research practicum at a DOE laboratory (again, travel and lodging are paid).

This is renewable for up to 4 years, depending on your progress toward the Ph.D.  Information about the benefits, requirements, and application process can be found at the Krell Institute website: http://www.krellinst.org/csfg.

Because of its generous benefits, the competition for a CSGF is tough, but not as tough as one might think: for one thing, it is open only to US citizens and permanent residents, and there is currently a dearth of US citizens applying to study highly technical fields at the Ph.D. level. Furthermore, because most recipients apply during their first or second year of graduate school ("exceptional seniors" may also apply), it requires a bit of pre-planning which many students don't undertake (I worked in computational science in graduate school, but only heard of the program after I was in my third year, and so was ineligible!).

I would advise anyone who may be interested in the program to see me (Dr. Andrews) about this in their Junior or Senior years.

Conference time in Houston

I have a good friend who is a math professor at the University of Houston Downtown (UHD).  He wrote me about some activities going on down there that might interest undergraduate students:

• The UHD Scholars Academy Graduate School and Internship Fair, which takes place from 9 a.m. to 1 p.m. on Friday, October 15th.  This is a place to meet graduate school reps (and internship companies) from all over.  See the following for more details: http://www.uhd.edu/academic/colleges/sciences/scholars/gsif.html.
• The First UBM South Regional Conference, happens the afternoon of October 15th.  UBM is the National Science Foundation code for their program "Interdisciplinary Training for Undergraduates in Biological and Mathematical Sciences".  There is no conference registration fee, and it's only that afternoon.  See the conference website http://cms.uhd.edu/faculty/Tecarroe/ubmSouth2010.htm. This is definitely aimed at Undergraduates, who may also present at 20 minute talk.
• Finally there is a conference on the research done at the W. M. Keck Center for Interdisciplinary Bioscience Training on October 15th and 16th. They do a lot of math at this place, so you should check out the web site for this conference: http://cohesion.rice.edu/centersandinst/gcc/keck_about.cfm
  

Summer Program for Graduate-School Bound Seniors

The University of Nebraska-Lincoln has a summer program for those graduating seniors that are heading off to graduate school called "Intensive Mathematics: a Mentoring, Education, and Research Summer Experience" (IMMERSE --- they worked hard on that one, didn't they?!). This will run from June 13th to July 22nd, 2011 in Lincoln, with two intensive courses (in algebra and analysis, of course!). You must apply, but if you are accepted, you will get room, board, a travel allowance and a $3400 stipend (not bad!). Applications are due March 15th. One last detail: it's NSF sponsored, so you must be a US citizen or permanent resident.

Information can be found at http://www.math.unl.edu/immerse and in the letter and flier they sent me.

Conference for Women in Mathematics

The University of Nebraska-Lincoln (UNL) is sponsoring their 13th annual "Nebraska Conference for Undergraduate Women in Mathematics" (NCUWM), which will take place January 28-30, 2011 in Lincoln. UNL will be able to cover all lodging and most meals, and can help with travel expenses (the UD math department might be able to help, too, so let us know if you're interested in participating).

The web-site for the conference is http://www.math.unl.edu/ncuwm/. I've also attached the letter and flier that UNL sent.