The Department of Mathematics at the University of Buffalo offers rigorous graduate programs that combine study and research opportunities under the direction of an internationally known faculty. The Department offers two graduate degrees: the Master of Arts and the Doctor of Philosophy. On average, it takes one and one-half to two years to complete an M.A., and at least four years to complete a Ph.D. It is not necessary to have a master's degree to obtain a doctorate. Also, while an applicant must have a bachelor's degree with a strong mathematics background, it is not necessary that the bachelors degree be in Mathematics. The Department currently has 39 full-time faculty members and about 80 full time graduate students. Of these students, approximately 50 are supported on assistantships or by teaching courses. The research interests of the faculty cover a wide range of areas in pure and applied mathematics. There are especially strong groups in algebra, analysis, topology, and applied mathematics. With a faculty-student ratio which is high compared to many other universities, there is ample opportunity for students to benefit from close contact with their professors. The Department offers an active program of seminars and colloquia where students can become acquainted with a broad range of research areas. In fundamental mathematics, members of the department are engaged in active research in category theory, homological algebra, and algebraic K-theory, and arithmetic algebraic geometry in algebra. The analysts are working in operator algebras, complex differential geometry, synthetic differential geometry, harmonic analysis, and mathematical physics. The applied mathematicians are working on problems from ODE's, PDE's, asymptotic analysis, bifurcation theory, and modeling. The topologists work on problems in knot theory, low dimensional topology, and set-theoretic topology. There is also work in cryptography, number theory, and the Conley index. Members of the Department participate in many interdisciplinary activities. Such participation is, of course, most common among the applied mathematicians. Presently there are projects involving renal physiology, chemical oscillations, multiphase flow of geologic materials, electrical and magnetic effects in quantum mechanics, thin films, surface propagation of liquids, computer logic, stochastic pattern recognition, and magnetohydrodynamics. Graduate students are often involved in interdisciplinary activities and research with faculty in other departments and the Center for Computational Research (CCR, www.ccr.buffalo.edu), which provides state-of-the-art computing facilities for computationally intensive research. The CCR is just one example of the commitment the University has made to provide students and faculty with the the latest computational resources. The University's iconnect web page http://www.buffalo.edu/iconnect/ provides students with more information about technology access on campus. |
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