Information on summer research experiences and conferences for undergraduate and graduate students.

What is an REU?

Research Experience for Undergraduate (REU) programs are paid eight (some are six or ten) week summer programs designed to provide students with a research opportunities. Students usually work as a group on a research project under the direction of a faculty. Some programs hire graduate student mentors as well. Click here for the rest of Professor Greenberg's slides. Dr. Andrew Greenberg is the director for REU's in Chemistry and Nanotechnology at the University of Wisconsin - Madison.

How do I request a letter of recommendation?

Thank you to Dr. Herbert Medina for a great list of tips for your REU application, click here for a pdf of his tips.
And thank you to Dr. Lozano-Robledo for his Field Guide to Mathematics.

Why should I give talks and attend conferences?

Modern mathematics is very much a collaborative activity rather than an individual one. Don't you want to know what's going on elsewhere in mathematics, and what other mathematicians find interesting? Don't expect to understand 100% of any given talk, especially if it is in a field you are not familiar with; as long as you learn something, the effort is not wasted. Click here for the rest of Professor Tao's blog. Dr. Terence Tao is full professor of mathematics at UCLA, the youngest person ever appointed to that rank at UCLA as well as co-recipient of the 2006 Fields Medal.

Blogs on Math Blogs

The American Mathematical Society has a variety of blogs for students and academics, by professors and graduate students in STEM, click here for a complete list. Some of my favorites are "e-Mentoring Network'', "On Teaching and Learning'' and "Graduate Student Blog''.

A few years ago I helped Dr. Edray Goins with a presentation on "Applying to Summer Programs, Fellowships, and Graduate School in the Mathematical Sciences", click here for a pdf of the slides.

Here are some conferences some of your classmates have attended.

• Graduate Research Opportunities for Women
• Midwest Women in Mathematics Symposium
• Illinois Number Theory Conference
• 2015 Bloomington Geometry Workshop
• Graduate Student Topology and Geometry Conference
• Annual Conference on the Teaching of Mathematics
• EIU Geometry, Dynamics, and Topology Day
• Illlinois Section of the Mathematical Association of America
• Joint Mathematics Meetings
• Nebraska Conference for Undergraduate Women in Mathematics
• REU Mini-Conference at Yale
• Rose-Hulman Undergraduate Mathematics Conference
• SACNAS National Conference

Here are some REU's our students have attended. Most REU's hire graduate student assistants.

• Purdue Research in Mathematics Experience
• Mathematics, Applied Mathematics, and Statistics REU
• Pacific Undergraduate Research Experience in Mathematics
• Summer Undergraduate Mathematical Sciences Research Institute
• Undergraduate Research in Consumer Networking Technologies

Here are more summer programs.

• List of undergraduate REU math programs
• American Mathematical Society list of summer REU programs
• National Science Foundation list in the mathematical sciences
• Research Experiences for Pre-Service and In-Service Secondary Math Undergrads
• CSU Channel Islands Mathematics REU
• Mathematical and Theoretical Biology Institute

Here are more links to conferences.

• AMS/SIAM Midwest Graduate Student Mathematics Symposium
• Algebraic Topology Conferences
• Algebraic Geometry Conferences
• Low Dimensional Topology Conferences
• Number Theory Conference