Laying the Foundation for a New NSF-Funded Mathematics Institute

This project lays the groundwork for creating a Mathematics Institute at UW-Madison that will serve both the mathematics department and the campus physical, natural and computational sciences community. Mathematics Institutes are the engines of research in Math today, reaching a large number of researchers, supporting emerging branches of research, and reacting to innovation in a timely fashion.

The UW-Madison Mathematics Department is planning to submit a proposal to an upcoming call from the National Science Foundation (NSF) regarding the formation of new Mathematics Institutes.  This project supports the necessary “scoping out” of what an NSF-sponsored Mathematics Institute would look like at UW-Madison, and how its governance structure would be shaped. This project calls for creating a scientific Advisory Board and Board of Trustees, and hosting a sample conferences sequence to assess their effectiveness and to trouble-shoot their structure (The theme for the pilot will be “Dynamics of Kinetic Equations derived from Physics, Biology and Engineering)”.

Although competition for Institutes is fierce, a Mathematics Institute would elevate the stature and recognition of the UW-Mathematics Department nationally and internationally — attracting scholars not only in mathematics, but also in fields of a number of sciences allied with mathematics. The institute would not be about bringing math to other disciplines as it is about bringing other disciplines’ needs to math, creating new and exciting mathematics inspired by them. If successful, it would be of significant impact to students, post-docs, and faculty not only in mathematics, but also in other departments across campus. This project helps forge the next generation of leaders that will secure UW-Madison’s place among top research institutions.

Principal Investigator

• Gloria Mari Beffa
  Professor of Mathematics
  

Co-Principal Investigators

• Nigel Boston
  Professor of Mathematics and Electrical and Computer Engineering
• Gheorghe Craciun
  Professor of Mathematics and Biomolecular Chemistry
  

Co-Investigators

• David Anderson
  Professor of Mathematics
• Shi Jin
  Professor of Mathematics
• Julie Mitchell
  Professor of Mathematics and Biochemistry
• Sebastian Roch
  Professor of Mathematics
• Andreas Seeger
  Professor of Mathematics
• Angenent Sigurd
  Professor of Mathematics
• Leslie Smith
  Professor of Mathematics and Engineering Physics
• Sam Stechmann
  Associate Professor of Mathematics