Department Information

Students and faculty have mailboxes in the mail room (1654). Various important notices are distributed by a mailing list to students’ departmental email accounts. Students should make sure to check these accounts regularly, or to have the mail forwarded to an account which they do check regularly. The bulletin boards in the mail room (including one for graduate student information) should be consulted regularly for notices of colloquia and seminars, sign-up sheets for qualifying exams, etc.

The department’s Web site: www.umass.edu/mathematics-statistics/ contains updated information about courses and other activities in the department, as well as links to many sites of interest to students and faculty. There is online access to the AMS employment listing and the Chronicle of Higher Education. Students should be on the lookout for notices of internships or summer positions in government or industry. The Campus Career Network can also be consulted.

Seminars and Colloquia

Not everything is learned in regular courses. The Department has several distinguished lectures and colloquia each semester on Thursday afternoons at 4:00. Our location makes it possible to invite a wide variety of well-known mathematicians and statisticians to visit and speak. Graduate students are strongly encouraged to attend these lectures, and to go to some which are distant from their area of specialization.

Each semester a number of seminars are organized by faculty and graduate students, usually meeting once a week. There are regular research seminars covering all of the main areas that our faculty do research in. In addition, there are frequent reading/learning seminars on topics of current interest, where a group of faculty, postdocs and graduate students works together to learn a new topic. Many of the talks in these seminars are given by graduate students, under the guidance of the faculty organizers. It is highly recommended that all PhD students participate in at least one reading seminar before they graduate. The reading seminars that are offered are based partly on student demand; if there is a topic you would like to see, try to find some other students, and propose it!

In recent years graduate students have organized the Graduate Student Seminar (GRASS) and “The what is...? Graduate Seminar” (TWIGS), featuring talks by students and faculty, respectively, about basic notions of current mathematical research at a level suitable for non-specialist graduate students.

Students often have an opportunity to talk in other seminars. Students should consult the Department Calendar to view ongoing seminars and activities. There is usually a Teaching Seminar in the Fall semester required for students preparing to teach their own discussions.

Centers and Special Facilities

Center for Applied Mathematics and Computation

The Center for Applied Mathematics and Computation involves faculty members and graduate students in the Department of Mathematics and Statistics who are interested in research and instruction in applied mathematics and scientific computation. The Center supports a research seminar series: Applied Analysis and Computation Seminar.

Statistical Consultation and Collaboration Services

Statistical Consultation and Collaboration Services (SCCS) provides statistical consulting and collaboration to researchers at UMass, the Five Colleges, and elsewhere, through individual meetings and support for interdisciplinary research projects. Among other things, the center provides an opportunity for graduate students to complement traditional studies with exposure to real world problems involving the statistical analysis of data.

Research Computing Facility (RCF)

The Research Computing Facility (RCF) provides computing facilities for the department. These facilities may be used by faculty and students as a tool for research and academic purposes. The facility is mainly UNIX and Linux based. All of the systems are networked, and support connections to the campus network and the Internet. A full-time staff and several graduate students provide support and consulting services to the community.