Graduate Program Development
The UT mathematics graduate program awarded 28 Graduate Teaching Assistantships (GTAs) to new students in fall 2022, bringing the total number of GTAs in the program to 88. Grants and fellowships supported an additional nine students. Including our self-supported students, we currently have over 100 graduate students in our program. Going forward, the department aims to increase the number of supported GTA lines to 100, which has already been approved by the college. This represents substantial growth over the last few years.
The department awarded 12 PhD, 19 MS, and 15 MM degrees in 2022-23. Our students accepted jobs in the academia, industry, and government offices, including the Department of Defense, ORNL, Eastman Chemical, Austin Peay State Univ, and various post-docs.
The Master of Mathematics (MM) program was established in the 1960’s by UT mathematics faculty to support teachers by expanding the breadth and depth of their mathematical training. In recent years the MM degree has moved to a fully online program and is seeing increased growth with enrollment of teachers from across the country. This past year, 15 students earned their Master of Mathematics degrees.
Our graduate students are involved with a variety of organizations. They hold positions within the Association of Women in Mathematics (AWM), Society for Advancement of Chicanos/Hispanics & Native Americans in Science (SACNAS), and Society for Industrial and Applied Mathematics (SIAM). These local chapters participate in a range of activities from organizing events, conferences, and workshops; giving presentations; and traveling to events sponsored by these organizations.
The graduate program is also proud of the diversity of students we have from around the world: we have recently welcomed students from Bangladesh, China, Columbia, Germany, Greece, India, Italy, Nigeria, Pakistan, Saudi Arabia, United Kingdom, and Vietnam. We are currently recruiting students for fall 2023. Four of our prospective students recently received endowed fellowships from the Graduate School, including Andrew Gannon, who has accepted a J. Wallace and Katie Dean Graduate Fellowship, and Sunday Bulus, who has accepted a Rowland Family Scholarship.
About nine years ago, the Math Graduate Student Council (MGSC) was created to represent all math graduate students and to help communicate with the department administration. This organization is composed of students elected by their peers from within the department. These students organize professional development events, graduate student group outings, and act as a liaison between the students and the departmental administration. They also host our annual apparel sale where a design, usually created by one of our students, is put on a shirt, hat, etc., and then offered for sale to the department.
Another positive development is that, thanks to the new budget model (i.e., BAM), the college has decided to give both incoming and existing graduate students a relatively large pay raises in FY2024, this will have a significant positive impact on the department’s graduate student recruiting and on student well-being and morale. The department appreciates the college’s continuing support for and investment in our graduate students.