UW Wins $3.9M VIGRE Award from the National Science Foundation

"It is now cool to major in mathematics!" says one UW undergraduate. A major reason is the multitude of activities funded by a grant from the National Science Foundation under their program called VIGRE (Vertical Integration Grants for Research and Education).

In 1999 the UW Mathematics Department, in collaboration with the Departments of Applied Mathematics and Statistics, was awarded one of the first six VIGRE awards. The results of this $2.5M grant have been impressive: the number of mathematical sciences majors has increased by nearly 100%, 24 undergraduate research projects were funded last year alone, and the departments sponsored five VIGRE postdoctoral fellows. Graduate students organized VIGRE forums to learn about job search strategies, how to get a paper published, and how to establish a successful career in their first job.

Undergraduates, graduate students, postdocs and faculty cooperated in VIGRE projects ranging from statistical aspects of weather forecasting to writing scheduling software for the Mathematics Study Center, doing in seconds what used to take days. Many students helped local middle and high school classes with mathematics tutoring. Intense student involvement in these VIGRE projects is transforming lives across all three departments.

As our first VIGRE grant drew to a close this past year, we worked together to develop ideas for a new VIGRE proposal. The competition was intense: 29 major research universities submitted proposals this year; nine of these universities were selected for comprehensive site visits by the NSF, including the UW. At our site visit, groups of undergraduates, graduate students, postdocs, and faculty all described the accomplishments of our first grant, and what exciting new things we wanted to do with continued funding. One new direction was to integrate our VIGRE activities with the Canadian universities making up the Pacific Institute of Mathematical Sciences. When the results came in, the UW was rated the top proposal! This resulted in a second five-year VIGRE award, this time for $3.9M, which will support even more undergraduate projects and graduate fellowships. The UW and the other UW (University of Wisconsin) are the only mathematics departments with consecutive VIGRE awards.

Our new VIGRE grant will help us attract top students to our graduate program, get more undergraduates actively involved in team-based projects, and provide travel funds for both undergraduates and graduate students to participate in workshops and conferences. Combined with other innovative educational directions, the Mathematics Department has become a national model for high quality student programs.

Doug Lind