This project is establishing a scholarship program for graduate students in the mathematical sciences. It is providing support to 12 first- and second-year Ph.D. students during the first year of the project and 16 students per year during the remaining three years. In addition, the project is enhancing student support services and restructuring the first-year experience so that students obtain better foundational training and better training in teaching and communication skills. The scholarships and support mechanisms are designed to increase retention by partially freeing at-risk students from teaching obligations so that can focus more on their studies during the first two critical years.
The project's intellectual merit lies in the enhanced experience for graduate students in the first years of their studies, allowing more time and more support to master the crucial mathematics essential for research in the field and to make the transition to skilled educator and communicator of sophisticated mathematics.
The broader impact of this project is that it is reducing attrition and providing more opportunity for underrepresented and financially disadvantaged students to pursue advanced training in the mathematical sciences, thereby leading to an increase in the supply of highly trained mathematical scientists in the workforce.
