Mathematical Sciences - PhD

The Department of Mathematics and Statistics teaches advanced quantitative and analytic skills for professionals in education, industry and research. At the Ph.D. level this mission is realized through three doctoral specializations within the Mathematical Sciences PhD.

The Pure and Applied Mathematics specialization, a traditional doctoral program, provides training in the foundations of modern mathematics and specialized areas of mathematical research. Graduates are employed as tenured faculty at universities and colleges as well as governmental and industrial research centers. Students work with faculty researchers in differential geometry, computer-algebra and mathematical physics, dynamical systems, mathematical ecology, graph theory and low-dimensional topology. The dissertation should be a publishable, significant contribution to research in an area of mathematics or its applications. Students in this Pure and Applied Mathematics specialization must obtain a minimum grade of “B” or better in at least two of the 6000-level topic tracks listed below the specialization descriptions.

The Interdisciplinary Studies PhD specialization combines training in mathematics or statistics, significant interaction with other fields that use advanced methodology from mathematics or statistics, and training in an area of application outside math/statistics, with program direction by scholars in math/statistics and in an external discipline. The dissertation should constitute a body of work on significant application or relationship of mathematics or statistics to other disciplines, with the goal of publication in either mathematics, statistics or the field of impact.

The Interdisciplinary Studies Specialization requires at least 9 credits of coursework in the student’s chosen interdisciplinary area (outside both Mathematics and Statistics). Recent students have taken external courses in the College of Education, from the Departments of Biology and Physics, or as part of the Program in Climate Adaptation Science. The student’s PhD supervisory committee should include two persons in the student’s selected interdisciplinary area, and the comprehensive examination (see below) should have a significant interdisciplinary component.

Students in this Interdisciplinary Studies specialization must obtain a minimum grade of “B” or better in at least two of the 6000-level topic tracks listed below the specialization descriptions.

The College Teaching Ph.D. specialization is designed for students preparing for careers focused on teaching mathematics and statistics. Students in the College Teaching specialization receive broad training in pure and applied mathematics and statistics and complete six credits of College Teaching Internship under the guidance of their supervisory committee. The dissertation for this specialization is flexible and may include original research in mathematics, statistics or education as well as exposition of important mathematical and statistical theories and their historical relationships.