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School of Mathematics

Undergraduate Research in Mathematics

The School of Mathematics offers a variety of ways for undergraduate math majors and students to be involved in research in mathematics. Faculty sponsors for research projects are listed at the end of the page.

Research areas covered by faculty sponsors span the full range of mathematics — from number theory to algebra to combinatorics to geometry to differential equations to image processing to mathematical biology to climate modeling and everything in between.

Interested students are encourgaed to contact one or more of the faculty sponsors listed at the bottom of the page, and so find a good fit for their interests and expertise. Some of the sponsored projects require formal applications, so pay attention to deadlines and requirements.

Research Experiences for Undergraduates (REU)

Several faculty members of the School of Mathematics, University of Minnesota, will sponsor REU programs for students majoring in mathematics. The REU program offers financial support to the participating students, either over the summer or during the school year. REU projects are funded by existing grants, typically from the National Science Foundation.

The Duluth campus of the University of Minnesota has a long running summer REU program in discrete mathematics.

Undergraduate Research Opportunities Program (UROP)

UROP projects are funded by the University of Minnesota, and involve pursuing mathematics research under the guidance of one or more faculty members. Possible projects range all over mathematics. You and your faculty mentor will need to apply for support of your project.

Undergraduate Research Scholarship (URS)

Undergraduate Research Scholarships are designed for freshman and sophomore students to work on a faculty sponsored research project.
  • Detailed description of the University of Minnesota URS program

Honors Thesis

Mathematics honors students are required to write an honors thesis with a faculty mentor. The subject of the thesis, including any research, is worked out between the student and the sponsoring faculty.

Senior Projects

CLA math majors must complete a senior project. Projects can involve some research, or learning and writing about an existing area of mathematics.

Undergraduate Math Club

The Undergraduate Math Club does not sponsor undergraduate research. However, it is a great way to meet other undergraduate math majors, find out about their research experiences, and hear talks by leading mathematicians, both from the department and internationally renowned visitors. A great way to find out more about research opportunities in mathematics.

Faculty Mentors

Click on the faculty's name to access their home page and futher details about their areas of research.
Name Research Area REU UROP URS Honors Thesis Senior Project
Carme Calderer Materials sciences and partial differential equations • • • • •
Dennis Hejhal Analysis, number theory, supercomputers   • • • •
Mark Iwen Analytic number theory, algorithms, signal processing   • • • •
Dihua Jiang Number theory, automorphic forms, L-functions, harmonic analysis, representation theory   • • • •
Gilad Lerman Bio-informatics, analysis of large data sets and computational harmonic analysis • • • • •
Marta Lewicka Research area: partial differential equations, calculus of variations, applied math   • • •
Richard McGehee Dynamical systems, data analysis, climate modeling   • • • •
William Messing algebraic geometry, cohomology, arithmetic geometry, p-adic methods in arithmetic, categorical aspects of mathematics   • • • •
Willard Miller Signal processing, compressive sensing, wavelets, superintegrable systems   •   •
Peter Olver Image processing, mathematical physics, Lie groups, differential equations, numerical methods, geometry • • • • •
Hans Othmer Applied mathematics, mathematical biology, dynamical systems • • • • •
Vic Reiner Combinatorics • • • • •
Arnd Scheel Dynamical systems, partial differential equations, applied math • • • • •
Peter Webb Representation theory of groups and algebras, algebraic topology, combinatorics, category theory   • • • •

Institute of Technology
math.umn.edu/ugrad_research/
Last Modified October 01, 2009
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