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PRESS RELEASE
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
May 11,2009
MSRI and NSF Math Institutes partner to create new jobs
New mechanism for investing in postdoctoral associates in mathematics
brings their talent to new settings, supports career pipeline
BERKELEY, California – The Mathematical Sciences Research Institute
(MSRI), along with six other NSF-funded Mathematical Sciences Research
Institutes, announces the creation of 45 new one- and two-year positions
for young, highly-trained mathematical scientists across the country. In
addition to furthering research in all areas of the mathematical sciences,
these positions will allow recent Ph.D.s to teach at community colleges
and other higher-education institutions or to participate in projects tied
to business and industry. This new initiative is a result of a partnership
among the National Science Foundation-supported mathematics institutes.
MSRI, based in Berkeley, CA, has awarded ten of these 45 postdoctoral
positions — known as NSF Mathematical Sciences Institutes Postdoctoral
Fellowships — to the following exceptional, early-career mathematicians:
Vigleik Angeltveit, who is currently at the University of Chicago,
will go to the University of Chicago to work with his mentor, Peter May;
Tristram Bogart, from Queen’s University (Ontario, Canada), will be
a Fellow at San Francisco State University and mentored by Federico Ardila;
Scott Crofts, from the University of Utah, will go to UC Santa Cruz to
work with mentor Martin Weissman; Anton Dochtermann, who is at the
Technische Universität Berlin, will go to Stanford University and work with
Gunnar Carlsson; Christopher Hillar, currently at MSRI, will be a
Fellow at the University of California at Berkeley’s Redwood Center for
Theoretical Neuroscience working with Fritz Sommer; Eric Katz, from
the University of Texas, will continue his research in Austin with Sean Keel;
Karl Mahlburg, at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, will
become a Fellow at Princeton working with mentors Manjul Bhargava and Peter
Sarnak; Sikimeti Ma’u, also from the Massachusetts Institute of
Technology, will go to Barnard College and be mentored by Dusa McDuff;
Abraham Smith, from Duke University, will go to Quebec’s McGill
University and work with mentor Niky Karman; and Jared Speck, from
Princeton University, will use his Fellowship to continue working at
Princeton with both Sergiu Klainerman and Igor Rodnianksi. For profiles of each of MSRI’s
NSF Postdoctoral Fellows, go to www.msri.org/specials/nsfpostdocs.
ACADEMIA AT RISK
The impact of the economic downturn is being felt everywhere--including
academia, where this year has seen widespread hiring freezes and cancelled
job searches. For the mathematical community, this has meant almost 400
lost positions for recent Ph.D.s. The severity of the situation became
apparent earlier this year when many graduates, even of top-tier programs,
were facing unemployment. The NSF, through its seven Mathematics
Institutes (including MSRI), responded by creating these new postdoctoral
fellowships.
The training of these young scientists represents a long-term investment.
The postdocs typically spent five years in graduate education, often with
some level of support from state or federal funds.
"These new researchers are primed to make significant contributions to
their fields," said Peter March, Director of NSF's Division of
Mathematical Sciences.
"These positions not only refine the research skills of new Ph.D.s, but
provide them with opportunities to apply their training in other
settings," said Russ Caflisch, Director of the Institute for Pure and
Applied Mathematics (IPAM). "The role of research along with teaching or
industry mentors and professional development workshops reinforces the
Institutes' commitment to ensuring the continued success of these young
people in the work force."
SHORT TIMELINE
Exactly one month elapsed between the first meeting of the seven
Mathematics Institute directors and the close of applications. More than
750 applications were received for the 45 positions. Typically, academic
job searches begin in the fall and take several months to complete.
"The timing was perfect," said Eddie Herman, one of the newly hired
mathematicians. "Most academic positions are decided by the middle of
March, so the Institutes began advertising at exactly the time when many
of us were losing hope of finding a research position and were ready to
look for other jobs." Herman received his doctorate from UCLA this year.
PIPELINE ISSUES
Many U.S. graduate programs have reduced the size of their incoming class.
In fact, some programs will not be admitting any students in the next
academic year. This will have the effect of diminishing the size of our
next generation of scientists, those who would be graduating at a time
when our economy is recovering and in need of a highly trained workforce.
Currently, many workers are seeking re-training in response to the needs
of the changing economy--just as colleges and universities face cutbacks.
"There are problems all along the pipeline," said Marty Golubitsky,
Director of the Mathematical Biosciences Institute (MBI). "New Ph.D.s are
not finding jobs that make use of their extensive training, and
consequently graduate programs are admitting fewer students. This stifling
of scientific training in our next generation will make it more difficult
for the United States to remain competitive in the future."
HUGE RESPONSE
"We knew that the job market for young Ph.D.s in mathematics was extremely
tight this year, but we were astonished by the number and quality of the
applicants for these new positions," said Robert Bryant, Director of the
Mathematical Sciences Research Institute (MSRI) in Berkeley, California.
More than 750 applications were submitted for the Institutes' postdocs,
400 of which came from people who received their Ph.D. just this year.
"Being able to offer these positions allows us to keep these highly
trained people in the workforce and is a great boon for mathematics and
for our society," said Bryant.
DIVERSE IMPACT
The impact of this program is widespread, with postdocs working in a dozen
states nationwide, and in all areas of the mathematical sciences. While
continuing their research, a number of Institute postdocs will also apply
their training through teaching or industrial partnerships. Among the
Fellowships awarded through MSRI, the postdoctoral positions' work will
range in fields from pure mathematics to applications to neurobiology.
One of MSRI’s ten Fellows is Sikimeti Ma’u, originally from Tonga and now
a permanent U.S. resident. Sikimeti will pursue research in geometry and
topology as a Postdoctoral Fellow at MSRI in 2009-10, and then her NSF
Fellowship award will take her to Barnard, which has an historic legacy as
a college for women, to be mentored by the distinguished topologist Dusa
McDuff. “It’s a really exciting opportunity,” remarked Sikimeti, “to be at
the MSRI while so many leading mathematicians in the field will be there
and to be mentored by one of them. I’m very grateful to the NSF and MSRI.”
Sikimeti Ma'u has been a role model for other math-oriented students and
she has taught math at a variety of levels--from teaching under-achieving
high school students on the small South Pacific Island of her homeland to
instructing MIT's high-achievers. While an undergraduate at the University
of Auckland, she worked with the small group of Maori and Pacific
Islanders in the mathematics department to set up a mentoring program for
Maori/Pacific Island undergraduate mathematics majors. During her Ph.D.
studies at Rutgers, she was also a volunteer mentor to collegiate honor
students.
Christopher Hillar is another of MSRI’s new Postdoctoral Fellows, and he
will use his NSF award to continue his research at the University of
California, Berkeley’s Redwood Center for Theoretical Neuroscience. As a
Fellow at the Center, which is an interdisciplinary group of researchers
working to develop mathematical and computational models for the
underlying neurobiological mechanisms in the brain, Hillar will work with
his research mentor Fritz Sommer through spring 2011. “I am honored to
receive a Mathematical Sciences Research Institutes NSF Postdoctoral
Fellowship,” said Hillar, who, by training is an algebraic geometer. “This
award will allow me to explore foundational problems in mathematical
neuroscience, and I hope to use this opportunity to engage other
mathematicians in this pursuit.”
It was during a summer math program for talented high school students that
Hillar was first introduced to the world of mathematics. The following
summer, he returned to Southwest Texas State University as a counselor and
teacher for other honors students who shared a common interest in
mathematics. While Hillar was in college at Yale, he was selected to
participate in an intensive research experience for undergraduates at the
College of William and Mary. The NSF-funded summer program involved
one-on-one interaction with research faculty to solve open problems. This
highly productive encounter with deep mathematics resulted in his first
four journal publications and in a collaboration with his REU advisor,
Charles Johnson, which continues to today. A few years later, he returned
to that program as a graduate mentor and advisor to new group of
undergraduate researchers.
Christopher Hillar expects that his NSF Fellowship will provide him a rich
cross-disciplinary research interaction within the Berkeley mathematical
community--between MSRI, UC Berkeley Neuroscience, the Redwood Center, and
UCB Mathematics--where the numerous Berkeley colloquia and seminars and
proximity to MSRI's activities will afford an outstanding opportunity to
collaborate with colleagues across a range of fields. "I am very excited
about continuing my mathematical research in such a wonderful and
stimulating environment as MSRI," said Hillar.
The seven NSF-funded mathematical sciences institutes, from throughout
the United States, that are leading this initiative to create and employ
postdoctoral positions include: the Mathematical Sciences Research Institute
(MSRI, Berkeley, CA), American Institute of Mathematics (AIM, Palo Alto, CA),
Institute for Advanced Study (IAS, Princeton, NJ), Institute for Mathematics
and its Applications (IMA, Minneapolis, MN), Institute for Pure and Applied
Mathematics (IPAM, Los Angeles, CA), Mathematical Biosciences Institute
(MBI, Columbus, OH), and the Statistical and Applied Mathematical Sciences
Institute (SAMSI, Research Triangle Park, NC).
For more information about MSRI's NSF Mathematical Sciences Institutes
Postdoctoral Fellowships, go to www.msri.org/specials/nsfpostdocs.
CONTACTS: Hélène Barcelo, MSRI Deputy Director, (510) 643-6040,
hbarcelo@msri.org
Anne Brooks Pfister, MSRI Press Officer, (510) 642-0448 , annepf@msri.org;
MSRI main phone, (510) 642-0143
ABOUT MSRI: The Mathematical Sciences Research Institute (MSRI,
www.msri.org), based in Berkeley, CA, is one of the world's preeminent
centers for research in the mathematical sciences and has been advancing
mathematical research through workshops and conferences since its founding
as an independent institute in 1982. More than 2,000 mathematicians visit
the MSRI each year, and the Institute hosts about 80 researchers - each
a leader in their fields - in residence each semester, many for stays
of up to one academic year. The Institute has been funded primarily by
the National Science Foundation with additional support from other
government agencies, private foundations, academic and corporate sponsors,
and individual donors.
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