Student Research

SUNY Geneseo has a tradition of supporting undergraduate research and internships, and the Department of Mathematics provides many opportunities for students who are interested in pursuing these paths.

Within the Department, we introduce students to the world of mathematical research in many ways.

We sponsor a weekend symposium every year, where we invite a mathematician of world-class renown to campus to give a series of lectures and to lead a "master class" in mathematics to a select group of students.

We have a Research Group in Combinatorics that has an ongoing interest in applications of mathematics to problems such as that of genetics.

We support individual research projects that they complete working with individual faculty members. Often these projects grow into theses that are submitted to earn Honors in Mathematics. Past projects have investigated questions in algebra, geometry, differential equations, linear algebra, and combinatorics. If you are interested in such projects, feel free to contact any member of the Department.

We have an Honors program in which research culminates in an honors thesis. Students who show outstanding promise are asked by faculty members to participate.

We encourage our students to apply for and participate in NSF-supported REUs , attend special summer programs at other institutions, or to study abroad at one of the many universities offering research programs each summer. If you are interested in such projects, feel free to contact any member of the department. Recently, our students have participated in programs at St. Olaf's College, UC Berkeley, Penn State, The Technical University of Budapest, and Arizona State University.

Geneseo Students have many internal and external forums in which to share their research. Here are a few examples of where our mathematics students have presented their research:

Hudson River Undergraduate Conference for undergraduate students interested in mathematics. It was started in 1994 by a group of schools, primarily in eastern New York and New England with the intent of providing undergraduates with the experience of attending and/or presenting at a professional mathematics meeting designed primarily with the student in mind. The focus is on student presentations with several faculty presentations, all aimed at a student audience. There is an invited speaker who is a prestigious mathematician. These have included Benoit Mandelbrot, John Koch, Joseph Gallian, and Peter Hilton.

Undergraduate Science and Mathematics Symposium of SUNY Geneseo, a forum for mathematics and science students at Geneseo to present results from projects, directed studies, or research. Each spring students have the option of presenting their results orally or in the form of a poster.

The Geneseo Fall Student Poster Session gives students yet another opportunity each fall to present projects, results from Directed/Independent Studies and Research Opportunities.