Nebraska IMMERSE

Intensive Mathematics: a Mentoring, Education and Research Summer Experience

Overview of the Program

Nebraska IMMERSE is the centerpiece of the Department's MCTP program. IMMERSE has two interweaving components: one that strengthens the preparation of students who are about to enter their first year of graduate study in mathematics (these students are referred to as "pre-grads"), and one that develops the teaching, research, and mentoring skills of graduate students and early-career faculty.

The dates for the 2008 IMMERSE Program are:

The IMMERSE participants can be grouped as follows:

• 16 pre-grads: These are students who will be starting graduate school in mathematics, either at UNL or elsewhere, the following fall. Pre-grad participants will receive room, board, a travel allowance, and a $3000 stipend.
• 6 UNL graduate students: Three of these students will have just finished their first year of graduate school while the other three will be beginning their final year of graduate study. These six students are the recipients of the MCTP Graduate Traineeships.
• 4 Early-career Faculty: These are young mathematics faculty who are employed at colleges or universities which do not have doctoral programs in mathematics. These participants will receive room, board, a travel allowance, and a $10,000 stipend. In addition, $7500 will be given to their home institutions for release time from teaching in the 2008 spring semester to work on research and to prepare for their IMMERSE courses.

IMMERSE 2007 Group

IMMERSE 2005 Group

Structure of IMMERSE

Mentoring at Nebraska IMMERSE will be very much vertically integrated: the early career faculty will be mentored by senior UNL faculty, the graduate students will be mentored by each other and the early-career faculty, and the pre-grads will be mentored by the early-career faculty and the graduate students.

For the pre-grads, the main component of the program consists of two intensive courses: one in algebra and one in analysis. The courses will be at the advanced undergraduate/beginning graduate level. However, rather than working through a textbook, the courses will be structured around the reading of research papers. The IMMERSE course coordinators (two UNL faculty) will select papers that use as tools some of the topics which typically appear in first-year graduate algebra and analysis courses, and then structure the IMMERSE courses around the material of the papers. Each course is team-taught by a pair of early-career faculty, with a mixed group of three first-year and advanced graduate students serving as teaching assistants. (Here are links to the web pages for the 2005 algebra and analysis courses. There will also be several special presentations/colloquiums/workshops throughout the six weeks, which will provide additional forums for exploring issues the pre-grads are likely to face as they begin graduate school. We will have at least three guest speakers, each of whom will give an overview of current research topics in his/her mathematical area.

As stated above, the program for the graduate students and early-career faculty will begin two weeks prior to the start of the IMMERSE courses. At the time of their arrival, the early-career faculty and graduate students will work with the course coordinators to finalize their plans for the six-week courses. (The early-career faculty and the course coordinators will have begun planning these courses during the Spring 2008 semester.) Additionally, each early-career faculty participant will have a research mentor in the form of a senior UNL faculty member. Over the course of the eight weeks, the early career faculty will work with their research mentors to identify and begin work on a joint research project. The collaboration is expected to carry over into the next academic year via email and research visits. (An additional travel allowance for this purpose is given to the early-career faculty partipants.)

Selection of IMMERSE participants

Pre-grads

Any U.S. citizen or permanent resident who intends to begin graduate study in mathematics in the U.S. in the fall of 2008 is eligible for the program. Selection will be based on transcripts, letters of recommendation, and a personal essay on what the applicant hopes to gain from the program. Applications for the 2008 program are due on March 1, 2008, with notification given by April 1, 2008.

Click here for an application form.

Click here to view poster.

Graduate student mentors

These UNL students are the recipients of the MCTP graduate traineeships. Click here for more information on these traineeships.

Early-career faculty

These participants will be selected based on the applicants' qualifications and potential to benefit from the program. In particular, preference will be given to applicants whose research interests lie in the research areas of one or more UNL faculty members. Candidates for the early-career faculty position must

• be U.S. citizens, nationals, or permanent residents;
• have earned a doctoral degree;
• be employed in a tenure-track (or equivalent) position as an assistant professor (or equivalent title) in a non-doctoral-granting mathematics department at an institution in the U.S., its territories, possessions, or the Commonwealth of Puerto Rico;
• be untenured.

To apply for the 2008 program, please send a copy of your CV, a cover letter indicating your research interests and how you expect to benefit from participation in the IMMERSE program, and a letter of support from your department chair describing what reduction(s) in teaching and/or service-related activities you will be granted in the Spring of 2008 for research and preparation for IMMERSE. The deadline for applications is October 15, 2007, with notification anticipated by November 1, 2007. Send application materials to: