The Mathematics Department at the University of Iowa is the 2008 recipient of the AMS Award for an Exemplary Program or Achievement in a Mathematics Department.
The award citation calls the Iowa department "a national leader in recruiting and developing underrepresented US minority doctoral students in mathematics." Starting in 1995, the department made a concerted effort to recruit minority students. But it didn't just recruit the students and let them sink or swim. The department listened to what the students had to say about their struggles and achievements, what was missing from their mathematical backgrounds, and how they fit in socially. Using this feedback, the department reoriented its graduate program to make student success the top priority. In the process, it created a welcoming, supportive environment that has raised the level of achievement of all students.
Over the past decade, the University of Iowa mathematics department produced about 1 percent of the total number of mathematics doctorates granted in the U.S., and about 4 percent of those granted to students who are members of underrepresented minorities. During that time, 12 minority students received PhD's at Iowa. The year 2002-2003 was especially noteworthy: That year, three minority students received their PhDs in the department, and this number represented roughly 10 percent of the math doctorates awarded nationally to US minority students during that year. (The United States produced about 1000 PhDs that year, and 29 of them were from minority groups.) Today about a quarter of the department's approximately 115 graduate students are minority, and about 40 percent are women. The retention rate to the PhD has risen greatly.
The department's recruitment effort is supported by a carefully designed program that includes an intensive summer institute, weekly help sessions, and extensive faculty and peer mentoring. Partnerships with other institutions in the United States and abroad have helped the department reach out to new groups of potential students and to bring their successful methods to other schools. The department has received several awards for its outstanding efforts, including the 2004 Presidential Award for Science and Engineering Mentoring.
"The mathematics community is fortunate to have the University of Iowa present such an outstanding example of an exemplary program in a mathematics department," the award citation concludes.
Presented annually by the American Mathematical Society, the AMS Award for an Exemplary Program or Achievement in a Mathematics Department spotlights college and university mathematics departments that have distinguished themselves by undertaking unusual or particularly effective programs of value to the mathematics community, internally or in relation to the rest of society. The award carries a cash prize of US $1,200.
Find out more about AMS prizes at http://www.ams.org/prizes-awards.
Founded in 1888 to further mathematical research and scholarship, the more than 30,000-member American Mathematical Society fulfills its mission through programs and services that promote mathematical research and its uses, strengthen mathematical education, and foster awareness and appreciation of mathematics and its connections to other disciplines and to everyday life.
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