VIGRE Fellowships

VIGRE Post-Doctoral Fellowships

All VIGRE post-doctoral positions have been filled at this time.

VIGRE Graduate Fellowships

VIGRE Graduate Fellows will be selected each year from the graduate students and new applicants in the Departments of Applied Mathematics, Mathematics, and Statistics. A student need not apply for these fellowships. The fellowships will be awarded on the basis of excellence of academic record and preparation for graduate study, area of research interest and the potential to fit into and benefit from an integrated research group experience. Distribution of fellowships between the three departments will also be done to maintain horizontal integration between the research groups.

VIGRE Graduate Fellowships are awarded on a year-by-year basis, emphasizing the critical transitions graduate students encounter (start of studies, transition to reserach, completion of thesis). Funding is typically one to two quarters during the academic year, and two months of summer support. This allows students to concentrate on their academics, as well as providing time for VIGRE activities to enrich their professional development. In addition to the usual requirements of the Ph.D. program, a VIGRE graduate trainee will be encouraged to participate in the following:

• The graduate students funded by the VIGRE program would be encouraged mentor two or more undergraduate students. Our vision is that a mentoring group would consist of two graduate students from two of the participating departments and about 4-6 undergraduates. The groups would be formed based on similar interests. For example, undergraduates in a particular ACMS Pathway could be grouped with two graduate students with related interests from different departments. This gives both horizontal and vertical integration.
• All VIGRE Fellows will participate in cross-departmental committees which are involved in aspects of the program, for example organizing the Undergraduate Mathematical Sciences Seminar, encouraging undergraduates to particpate in research projects, and organizing visits by VIGRE Distringuished Lecturers.
• All VIGRE Fellows will go through TA training and be mentored during their teaching phase.
• Students who are involved in K-12 outreach activities will participate in seminar/workshop preparatory activities and may lead activities in classrooms and participate in teacher workshops.

Mathematics has a well-developed TA training program for all incoming graduate students who will be employed as TAs. The new TAs are mentored by both a lead TA and a faculty TA Coordinator throughout the entire quarter they are teaching. This mentoring includes classroom visits and one-on-one discussions about teaching performance and techniques for improvement. The program also contains in-class videotaped sessions, which are discussed in groups with teaching professionals from the University Center for Instructional Development and Research (CIDR). We expect these programs to be appropriate for VIGRE students. Statistics has a similar program and Applied Mathematics uses the Mathematics program.

Regular brown bag lunches devoted to discussion of teaching issues is a regular feature in the MathematicsDepartment, attended by roughly equal numbers of graduate students and faculty, including many from other departments. Recent discussions have convered a wide variety of topics, e.g., innovative approaches to teaching, designing good quizes, calculus reform, teaching assessment, etc. Guests from other departments and elsewhere are often invited to share their views on the teaching of mathematics.