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$2.3 million NSF grant awarded for SMU Research Training Group

Dedman College News
Originally Posted: March 22, 2019

SMU Department of Mathematics builds expert teams that foster interdisciplinary research and strengthen mathematical career interest.

The SMU Department of Mathematics was awarded a $2.3 million grant from the National Science Foundation (NSF) to build the Southern Methodist University Research Training Group (SMU-RTG)—a collection of interdisciplinary teams made up of mathematicians, engineers, chemists, and neuroscientists that collaborate with junior scholars and provide training in modeling and computation.

The Department of Mathematics will utilize its core strengths in modeling and scientific computing and its ongoing success in placing graduates in a range of careers as they build SMU-RTG over the next five years.

“The SMU-RTG program supports efforts to improve research training by involving undergraduate students, graduate students, postdoctoral associates, and faculty members in structured research groups centered on a common research theme. Effectively, this will be a full departmental effort,” says Alejandro Aceves, SMU-RTG Principal Investigator, SMU Mathematics professor and department chair.

According to the NSF website, the research groups involved in the SMU-RTG will address problems in emerging scientific fields such as data-driven models in neuroscience, the nonlinear dynamics of the electric power grid and other large-scale networks, and the fabrication and modeling of nanoscale structures.

Aceves adds that the structure of the SMU-RTG research and training activities have been designed to respond to the key NSF objective which states, “The long-range goal of the RTG programs is to strengthen the nation’s scientific competitiveness by increasing the number of well-prepared U.S. citizens, nationals, and permanent residents who pursue careers in the mathematical sciences.”

Receiving this prestigious award is a recognition of SMU and its Mathematics Department’s prominence. The department is taking a leading role in addressing this important mission for the country.

“Our Department of Mathematics has long been unusually strong in interdisciplinary research. This grant will allow our top researchers to train budding mathematicians at all levels, from undergraduate through postdoctoral, in cutting-edge work that will grant them greater access to careers in industry, the nation’s laboratories, and the academy,” said Dedman College Dean Thomas DiPiero.

The Department of Mathematics, housed in Dedman College of Humanities and Sciences, will utilize its core strengths in modeling and scientific computing and its ongoing success in placing graduates in a range of careers as they build SMU-RTG over the next fiveyears.

If you would like more information about the SMU Department of Mathematics, CLICK HERE.

If you would like to read the NSF award CLICK HERE.