SECOND ANNUAL VIGRE REPORT

THE UNIVERSITY OF CHICAGO

Sin e this report is being sent simultaneously with the preparatory do uments
for the third year site visit, it will fo us relatively narrowly on a tivities that have
taken pla e sin e the rst year report, whi h was prepared in August of 2001. Fuller
statisti s and dis ussion of the overall impa t of the VIGRE program will be given
in the preparatory do uments. A major development this year was a de ision to
shift some of the VIGRE resour es from postdo toral support to undergraduate
support and the funding of several new verti al integration programs developed by
our graduate students. This was done with the approval of the VIGRE program di-
re tors. Kevin Corlette, who be ame Chairman of the Department of Mathemati s
in July, 2001, and Diane Herrmann, who is Asso iate Dire tor of Undergraduate
Studies, have been added as new o-PI's.
1. Statisti s
There were 89 graduate students in O tober, 2001.
There were 4 PhD re ipients in 2001{02.
It is expe ted that there will be 103 graduate students in O tober, 2002.
The total undergraduate enrollment is approximately 4100. As of Spring, 2002,
136 of these had primary or se ondary on entration in Mathemati s.
There were 947 re ipients of ba helor's degrees from Summer 2001 through
Spring, 2002, of whom 57, or 6.0%, had primary or se ondary on entration in
Mathemati s.
2. Details of the VIGRE graduate program
We will begin with a dis ussion of attrition, whi h we believe to be a fundamental
problem of graduate programs nationwide. Over the last few years, we have made
a determined eort to ut down on attrition here. It has paid o. In fa t, sin e the
rst report, there have been only the following events related to attrition.
{ One student who took LOA in 2000{01 returned in 2001{02.
{ One student took LOA in Winter, 2001, and will return in Fall, 2002.
{ A ouple transferred to Computer S ien e, she in Summer, 2001, and he in
Spring, 2002. Their advisor holds a joint appointment in Mathemati s and
Computer S ien e, so that there is no loss of ontinuity in their work.
{ One se ond year student dropped out to be with his an ee in New York.
{ One student who matri ulated in 2000 but withdrew for medi al reasons in
Winter, 2001, reentered in Fall, 2001, and is in good standing.
{ One student who matri ulated in 2001 withdrew in Spring, 2002, and is
reentering with partial redit in Winter, 2003.
The net attrition so far from the lasses entering in 1998, 1999, 2000, and 2001 is
6 people, out of 80 entering students. For omparison, the net attrition so far from
the lasses entering in 1995, 1996, and 1997 is 16 people, out of only 41 entering
students. Even that is an improvement over earlier years. The small number of
1
2 SECOND ANNUAL VIGRE REPORT

2002 PhD's is due to the small size of the latter three lasses, to their ited attrition,
and to some people requiring more than ve years to omplete the thesis.
In detail, of the 41 students admitted in 1995{97, or 25 after attrition, 16 have
obtained PhD's, 12 in four or ve years. The remaining 9 will remain as students in
2002-03, 4 as seventh year students (one of whom took a year on LOA and so is really
a sixth year student) and 5 as sixth year students. These 9 students in lude only
3 Ameri ans, 2 in their sixth year and 1 in his seventh. Of the foreign students in
this group, 4 are a tive members of applied mathemati s resear h groups. Another,
Mridul Mehta, is one of the 2002 winners of the University wide Wayne C. Booth
Graduate Student Prize for Ex ellen e in Tea hing.
Of ourse, it is not realisti to expe t VIGRE to have had mu h impa t on these
mostly foreign students who entered the program at least three years before VIGRE
started. However, it is realisti to think that the VIGRE program has had impa t
on the more re ent students and thus on the de rease in attrition. That de rease,
together with better re ruitment su ess, are the main reasons we expe t to have
103 graduate students next year.
The rst year students do not tea h and the se ond year students serve as College
Fellows, who are apprenti e tea hers. That leaves 60 advan ed students eligible to
tea h next year, substantially more than last year. Together with our in reased
number of postdo s, this will allow us to implement more fully the goals of the
VIGRE program by giving people more time o from tea hing next year than has
heretofore been possible. This alleviates one strain mentioned in last year's report.
With the prospe t of in reasing numbers of advan ed students in mind, we have
deliberately underspent funding on graduate students during the rst two years
of the VIGRE program. This will allow us to maximize the targeting of funding
toward advan ed students, those who an benet from the time o from tea hing,
over the lifetime of the grant.
Three 2002 PhD's were partially supported by VIGRE stipends, either this year
or last year. Ashley Reiter Ahlins nished after seven years, in luding two years
on LOA as a high s hool tea her. Her BA was from Ri e University, her advisor
was Benson Farb, and her rst job is at Vanderbilt University. She had full VIGRE
support in 2001{02, doing no tea hing but working to help Herrmann and Sally
omplete a book based on a ourse in our program. Christopher Degni and Daniel
Reumann both nished after ve years, both had BA's from Harvard, and both
had Robert Kottwitz as advisor. Degni's rst rst job is at the Department of De-
fense and Reumann's is at Ro kefeller University. The fourth 2002 PhD, Lawren e
Wilson, used VIGRE travel money to attend onferen es at Oxford and San Diego,
where he presented the results of his thesis. He nished after six years, his BA is
from Harvard, and his rst job is at the University of Florida.
A full list of graduate students with 2001{02 VIGRE stipend support is ap-
pended. Many graduate students used VIGRE funding for travel in 2001{02, and a
full list and some ommentary is appended. Many graduate students parti ipated
in the 2002 summer REU program, and in the Fall, 2001, \Warm{up program" that
they initiated and ran. Lists of parti ipants in those programs are also appended.
Many will parti ipate in two new programs initiated by graduate students that
go into ee t next Fall. These programs will be des ribed brie y below. It seems
 SECOND ANNUAL VIGRE REPORT 3

reasonable to say that our graduate students have \bought into" the VIGRE pro-
gram. They have been very alert to ways that its resour es an be used to improve
our edu ational programs through new modes of verti al integration.
3. Graduate student re ruitment
We a epted 60 students in 2000, of whom 18 matri ulated, in luding 4 who had
deferred from 1999 and 3 who were already living in Chi ago. The total in luded 4
women and 14 Ameri ans. We also a epted 60 students in 2001, of whom 22 ma-
tri ulated; none were deferrals and none were living in Chi ago. The total in luded
7 women and 15 Ameri ans. We a epted only 49 students in 2002, of whom 20
are expe ted to matri ulate, in luding one deferral from 2001. The total in ludes 4
women and 13 Ameri ans; another Ameri an a epted but deferred matri ulation.
Over these three years, 25% of the matri ulants have been women and 70% have
been Ameri ans.
The yield, that is the ratio of matri ulations to a eptan es, was 30%, 37%, and,
assuming no summer melt, 41% over the the three years. The improvement of the
yield is espe ially noteworthy sin e an alarming negative trend that we pointed out
in last year's report has ontinued. We a epted 45 Ameri ans for admission in
2000, 36 in 2001, and only 29 in 2002. The reason is that, at least at the very top
level, the pool of Ameri an appli ants has de reased in number over the last two
years. The ompetition for the people in this pool is intense. Sin e the proportion
of NSF winners and honorable mentions who apply to us has been in reasing over
these years and sin e people have been applying to more and more s hools, we are
ondent that we are seeing most of the strongest appli ants nationwide. It is a
worrisome trend. We ould not have a epted more Ameri ans without seriously
ompromising on quality.
The VIGRE program has unquestionably helped with our re ruitment of stu-
dents. We had relatively poor re ruitment years in 1995, 1996, and 1997, when
we matri ulated only 41 students in total. We had a spe ta ular year in 1998, at-
tra ting 27 students of whom only 2 have dropped out. That lass has a very high
per entage of truly ommitted edu ators, and, as a group, it has been instrumental
in improving the atmosphere of our program. Finan ial pressures made it diÆ ult
to follow up that su ess in 1999, when the entering lass was only 12, of whom
only 1 has dropped out. The VIGRE grant, the re ruitment eorts of those two
happy lasses, and the attra tion of our stellar new appointments have ombined
towards the su essful re ruitment eorts of the last three years.
4. The Warm{up Program
Entirely on their own initiative, our graduate students have instituted what they
are now alling the \Warm{up Program". In its rst year of operation, 2000, it
was alled \GRAILS", the Graduate Readiness Annual Introdu tory Le ture Series.
In 2001, it was alled \WOMP's", whi h was meant as an auditory a ronym for
\Warm{up Program."
This le ture series is organized and run by advan ed graduate students for the
benet of in oming graduate students. It took pla e in 2000 during the week
pre eding the rst week of lasses, and it was expanded to a two week program
in 2001. It gives summary treatments of material that in oming students may be
assumed to know during the rst year program. The ourses and their tea hers are
4 SECOND ANNUAL VIGRE REPORT

tabulated below. The program was attended in 2001 by 15 of the 22 entering rst
year students. It was taught by 12 graduate students and 2 instru tors, who were
re ruited by the graduate students as repla ements for people stranded en route
last September.
No VIGRE support was used in 2000, and the program was unanti ipated when
our proposal was written. Some travel and support money was given to entering
students in 2001, and a small honorarium to graduate student tea hers will be
added in 2002. It is to be emphasized that this program, whi h in ludes so ial
events and orientation sessions, is entirely a student initiative. It operated on a
larger s ale in 2001 than 2000, and its su ess may well have something to do with
the fa t that all of the students who entered in 2001 will still be here next year.
5. The undergraduate program
There have been several new ourse oerings aimed at our in reasing, and in-
reasingly sophisti ated, group of mathemati s majors. In 2001, Benson Farb and
Walter Baily taught new undergraduate ourses with this audien e in mind. Farb
is a 2001 winner of the University of Chi ago Fa ulty Award for Ex ellen e in
Graduate Tea hing. Here is his ourse title and des ription:
Undergraduate Proseminar in low-dimensional geometry/topology.
Des ription: This will be an intense undergraduate seminar in whi h we will work
through Thurston's famous book. Topi s might in lude topologi al onstru tions of
surfa es and 3-manifolds, hyperboli geometry (models, lassi ation of isometries,
the boundary at innity), dis rete groups, the Bieberba h theorems, orbifolds, the
eight 3-dimensional geometries. Class periods will alternate between le tures by
me and student presentations of solved homework exer ises.
Baily's ourse was entitled:
Undergraduate Proseminar in Algebra and Fermat's last theorem.
As the titles indi ate, there is more experimentation now with alternatives to
the standard le ture format of tea hing. The \proseminar" format seems to be
per olating down from the graduate level, where a number of groups are making
regular use of it.
In Spring, 2002, Maddhav Nori will oer a new ourse on algebrai urves. It is
intended as an undergraduate introdu tion to algebrai geometry, whi h is some-
thing that has long been viewed as a desirable addition to our undergraduate ur-
ri ulum.
At a lower level, a graduate student tea hing a large lass in linear algebra aimed
primarily at e onomi s majors brought to our attention that her lass ontained
people at rather dis ordant levels. She suggested that, rather than tea h two lasses
at the same level at the same time, it would be better to oer two tra ks of linear
algebra. That reform will be instituted next year.
6. The summer REU program
While the impa t of VIGRE on our graduate program has been very positive,
probably the greatest impa t has been on the undergraduate program. The VIGRE
REU program is having a ripple ee t that substantially in reases the attra tiveness
of our undergraduate major.
In its rst year of operation, in 2000, the REU program had 22 parti ipants.
The 2001 program had 36 parti ipants. The just on luded 2002 program had 45
 SECOND ANNUAL VIGRE REPORT 5

parti ipants, of whom three were part time and unpaid. We emphasize that all of
these people are undergraduate students at the University of Chi ago. In 2001 and
2002, there were bla k Ameri an parti ipants from other Chi ago area universities.
There were also parti ipants from the Physi al S ien es Division Master's Program.
As last year, the in rease was fueled by word of mouth. There was no need to
advertise. Also as last year, we losed the program to seniors to limit the numbers.
Half, 13 of 26, of the freshman and sophomores who parti ipated in the 2001 REU
also parti ipated in the 2002 REU.
The 2002 REU was taught by nine fa ulty members of the Department of Math-
emati s. There were 25 graduate student ounsellors, a group that in luded one
graduating senior who parti ipated in the 2000 and 2001 REU's and is going on to
graduate s hool at Harvard this fall. The names of all parti ipants are tabulated
below. Many of the graduate student parti ipants have been or will be partially
supported by VIGRE stipends. Graduate students worked purely voluntarily in
2000, but they were given a bonus to their summer support in 2001 and 2002.
Repeating from last year's report \The most striking feature of our REU is that
undergraduate parti ipants themselves serve as ounsellors to high s hool students
in the YSP program and to elementary s hool tea hers in the SESAME program.
Despite questions on our evaluation forms that en ouraged riti ism, there were no
omplaints about the time spent on tea hing a tivities. To the ontrary, students
were very pleased with the balan e of a tivities. Certainly, the exposure of un-
dergraduates at su h an elite private s hool as Chi ago to people from the variety
of ba kgrounds represented in our outrea h programs is very positive. This is an
immensely broadening experien e for our students.
This program represents an extreme of verti al integration. Fa ulty tea h in the
undergraduate, YSP, and SESAME programs, graduate students serve as ounsel-
lors to the undergraduates, undergraduates serve as ounsellors to the high s hool
students and elementary s hool tea hers, and the a tivities are a blend of resear h
and tea hing at all levels. It feels entirely natural, and runs with surprising smooth-
ness. While the outrea h programs themselves long pre eded the VIGRE program,
the very large s ale REU omponent that VIGRE has made possible has allowed a
far more ee tive and integrated overall program."

7. The Dire ted Reading Program

Four of the REU parti ipants were paired with graduate student mentors to
ontinue study between the end of the REU and the beginning of the Fall, 2002,
quarter. The undergraduates requested this. They had good reason to expe t to
nd willing graduate students, both be ause of the mentoring relationships that
grew up during the REU program and be ause of extensive spring advertisements
for the new \Dire ted Reading Program" that is being organized by the graduate
students.
To put it in simplest terms, our graduate students love to tea h. Due to the
system of requirements at Chi ago, there is no room for anything like a senior
undergraduate thesis, and our graduate students see the desirability for undergrad-
uate students to pursue their own mathemati al interests during the a ademi year,
with suitable dire tion and mentoring. The graduate students are in the pro ess
of organizing a program that will allow approximately 15 undergraduates to work
one{on{one with graduate students on some mathemati al topi of mutual interest.
6 SECOND ANNUAL VIGRE REPORT

The graduate students will re eive some pay from the VIGRE program, and the
PI's of the VIGRE program will provide oversight and onsultation. There has
been onsiderable paperwork on this, and a good deal of thought has been put into
possible stru ture and ontent of oerings. However, we will not write down details
here. Appli ation materials have been sent out, and appli ations are arriving. The
pre ise form of ea h individual mentoring eort will be dis ussed between the grad-
uate and undergraduate parti ipants, under the overall supervision of the Dire tor
of the VIGRE program, who will help establish appropriate pairings of people and
appropriate stru ture. The program will start this Fall.

8. The VIGRE Course Assistants

Another issue of on ern to graduate students has led to a se ond new program.
We have an extensive and ompli ated system of employment for undergraduates as
\Readers" (graders for honors al ulus sequen e and higher level ourses), \ ourse
assistants" (graders for the mid level al ulus sequen e) and tutors (tea hing a -
tivities in the lower level al ulus sequen e). The graduate students, who tea h
most of the mid level al ulus se tions, orre tly per eived that the ourse assis-
tant job was less attra tive and not in fa t attra ting a suitable aliber of grader.
They originally wanted to tie the mentoring program des ribed above to the ourse
assistant program. In the end, the de ision they led us to was to institute both
the Dire ted Reading Program and a new \Vigre Course Assistant" to repla e the
previous mid-level grading jobs. Here is a job des ription:
Math 150's VIGRE COURSE ASSISTANTS:
VIGRE Course Assistants (VCA'S) orre t papers and help students learn al-
ulus under the guidan e of math graduate student Le turers and fa ulty members
tea hing in the 150's al ulus sequen e ourses. A VCA is responsible for ol-
le ting, grading, and promptly returning to the instru tor all written homework
assignments from the assigned lass. A VCA keeps an a urate re ord of students'
homework grades and submits these grades to the instru tor at the end of ea h
quarter. In addition, the VCA will attend the weekly problem session for the as-
signed ourse and will hold informal "oÆ e hours" for students in the ourse at
some ampus lo ation. Ea h week the VCA and instru tor will meet to dis uss
issues in the ourse, su h as diÆ ulties the students are having with the homework
problems, or with understanding on epts.
The graduate student tea hers intend the last part as another mentoring oppor-
tunity, and they intend to see to it that the opportunity is used ee tively.

9. The ase studies program

As one fa et of our tea her training a tivities, Diane Herrmann has been run-
ning a \ ase studies program" for our TA's sin e the Fall of 2000. This program
makes use of materials developed by The Boston College Mathemati s Case Stud-
ies Proje t to give graduate student tea hers insight into problems and situations
that they may en ounter as tea hers. Herrmann will run the Case Studies Proje t
Workshop at the AMS regional meeting at the University of Wis onsin on O to-
ber 13, 2002. A number of VIGRE supported graduate students have been a tive
parti ipants in this program, helping Herrmann with its organization and its pre-
sentations. In Spring, 2001, Hermann and two students, Ashley Reiter Ahlin and
 SECOND ANNUAL VIGRE REPORT 7

David S hmitz, led a breakout session of the Symposium on Ex ellen e in Under-

graduate S ien e and Mathemati s Tea hing that was organized by Naomi Fisher
and held at the University of Illinois at Chi ago.
Under the auspi es of the University of Chi ago's Center for Tea hing and Learn-
ing, another two students, Mridul Mehta and Vin ent Lu arelli, will lead a breakout
session on the topi of \mid{ ourse orre tions" this Fall. As noted before, Mridul
is a winner of the 2002 Wayne C. Booth Graduate Student Prize for Ex ellen e in
Tea hing. Lu arelli is a winner of the 2002 Physi al S ien es Division Collegiate
Division Tea hing Prize. Lu arelli was also one of the ve winners of the 2002
Lawren e and Josephine Graves Prize of the Department of Mathemati s. He and
the other four winners, Angela Kubena Barnhill, Moon Du hin, Dan Margalit, and
Kevin Wortman are all present or future holders of VIGRE stipends. Margalit,
with travel support provided by VIGRE, presented a ase study on grading at a
meeting of the Case Studies Proje t at Regis College, in Massa husetts.
Approximately twenty graduate student tea hers have attended ea h of the ase
study presentations. In dis ussion sessions following the presentations, students
have been very open about dis ussing problems that they have en ountered while
tea hing. Evaluations have been very positive.

10. The postdo toral program

In last year's report, we dis ussed the problems we fa e in re ruiting VIGRE
postdo s. Usually, when we oer a VIGRE postdo to somebody who has applied
for an NSF postdo , that person re eives an NSF postdo . Sin e NSF postdo s
do a little less tea hing and re eive a bonus in terms of prestige that the VIGRE
position annot mat h, these people hoose to take NSF postdo s.
Last year, we viewed this as a sour e of stress. However, we have ome to see
things dierently. We have de ided to shift resour es from the postdo program to
the undergraduate program. We asked for onsiderably less than we need for the
undergraduate program, due to the unexpe ted popularity of the REU program,
and we asked for onsiderably more than we need for the postdo toral program.
Nevertheless, we view the postdo toral program as a omplete su ess. There
are the o asional top appli ants who have hosen not to apply for NSF postdo s,
or who have been turned down. The four VIGRE postdo s we have hired as fresh
PhD's, Daniel Grossman, Sharon Hollander, David Nadler, and, oming this Fall,
Laura DeMar o, are ex ellent people who t this des ription. The ompetition or
synergy with the NSF postdo toral program is illustrated by the fa t that next year,
their se ond past the PhD, Nadler will be an NSF postdo , rather than a VIGRE
postdo , and Robert Polla k will arrive after taking his rst year on LOA from
Chi ago and will be a VIGRE postdo , rather than an NSF postdo , in 2002{03.
We take the view that, at least from the perspe tive of Chi ago, the NSF and
VIGRE postdo toral programs are ompletely inter hangable. The only dieren e
is whi h of NSF's po kets provides the postdo 's outside funding. On e here, these
people are treated in exa tly the same way. The VIGRE program has given us the
nan ial ba king to allow aggressive re ruitment of top not h Ameri an postdo s.
The su ess of this re ruitment eort has been nothing short of spe ta ular. Next
year we will have 29 non-tenured fa ulty members, 15 of them Ameri an. Of these,
4 are ex{NSF postdo s, 10 are urrent NSF or VIGRE postdo s, and the last,
Daniel Biss, has a ve year Clay Fellowship, whi h he hose over the ve year AIM
8 SECOND ANNUAL VIGRE REPORT

Fellowship. One of the honorable mentions for the latter, Dimitry Arikin, is also
oming to Chi ago. Two of our foreign assistant professors are Sloan Fellows. The
pool of talented young mathemati ians at Chi ago is truly extraordinary.
For omparison, ignoring people on LOA, we had 8, 8, and 11 nontenured Amer-
i an fa ulty members, out of totals of 20, 21, and 22, in the previous three years.
The ee t of VIGRE is evident, even though relatively little of our VIGRE funding
has a tually been spent on postdo s. The added number of advan ed graduate
students and postdo s will enable more postdo s to tea h graduate ourses next
year.
Starting last Fall, we initiated a new kind of mentoring of postdo s. We now
assign fa ulty tea hing mentors to all nontenured fa ulty. The role of these mentors
is to sit in on lasses, to follow up on student evaluations, and in general to oer
help and advi e. The mentor, who is in a dierent eld from the nontenured fa ulty
member, is expe ted to obtain suÆ ient information to be able to write an informed
letter of re ommendation that fo uses on tea hing.
11. Cost sharing
11.1. The postdo toral program. Our VIGRE proposal ommits us to an in-
rease in the number of our FTE nontenured positions from 11 1/2 to, on average,
15 1/2, with the in rease viewed as ost sharing. We had 14 1/2 FTE's in 2000{01
and 16 1/2 in 2001{02, and we will have 18 and a fra tion in 2002{03. A fulltime
NSF ounts as 0 FTE's, while a VIGRE or halftime NSF ounts as 1/2 FTE. The
salaries of the 10 VIGRE and NSF postdo s are supplemented to the salary of a
Di kson Instru tor, urrently $48,000, and fringe benets of 21.8% are paid on the
supplements. Be ause of the numbers, these supplements represent a onsiderably
larger than anti ipated amount of ost{sharing.
11.2. The graduate program. Our VIGRE proposal ommits us to an average
of $300,000 per year in university funded stipend support of rst and se ond year
graduate students. We were well above that in 1999-00 but the amount in 2000{
01 was was $242,406. This is explained by the ex eptionally large 1998 entering
lass and the ex eptionally small 1999 entering lass. The amount in 2001{02 was
$279,354, and the amount in 2002{03 is expe ted to be greater.
11.3. The undergraduate program. Fa ulty tea hing in the new REU program
is not funded in the VIGRE grant. The Department of Mathemati s, from its own
funds, is paying fa ulty at the rate of $3,000 for a two-week program of talks and
problem sessions. The total amount so spent was $36,000 in 2000, $42,000 in 2001,
and $36,000 in 2002.
 SECOND ANNUAL VIGRE REPORT 9

PARTICIPATING FACULTY and POSTDOCS, 2002-03

Administration
Peter May; Dire tor
Paul Sally; Co-P.I. and Dire tor of Undergraduate Aairs
Robert Feerman; Co-P.I. and Department Chair through June 30, 2001
Kevin Corlette; Co-PI and Department Chair sin e July 1, 2001
Diane Herrmann; Co-PI and Asso iate Dire tor of Undergraduate Aairs
Committee on Graduate Studies
Kevin Corlette
Alex Eskin
Benson Farb
Carlos Kenig
Robert Kottwitz
Peter May
Madhav Nori
Paul Sally
Committee on Undergraduate Studies
Peter Constantin
Kevin Corlette
Robert Feerman
Diane Herrmann
Peter May
Matam Murthy
Raghavan Narasimhan
Paul Sally
Tea hers in the 2002 REU program
La i Babai
Jerey Bro k
Peter Constantin
Benson Farb
Alex Kiselev
Robert Kottwitz
Peter May
Melvin Rothenberg (emeritus)
Paul Sally
10 SECOND ANNUAL VIGRE REPORT

VIGRE POSTDOCS

Name Mentor 2000-01 2001-02 2002-03

Daniel Grossman Farb VIGRE VIGRE VIGRE
Sharon Hollander May ||||{ VIGRE VIGRE
David Nadler Gaitsgory ||||{ VIGRE NSF
Laura DeMar o Farb ||||{ ||||{ VIGRE
Robert Polla k ||||{ NSF on LOA VIGRE

Daniel Grossman
PhD: Prin eton, 2000
Mentor: Benson Farb
Referen es
[1℄ Torsion-free path geometries and integrable se ond-order ordinary ODE systems. Sele ta
Math., New ser. 6: pp 399-342.
[2℄ (with Weiqing Gu). Uniqueness of volume-minimizing submanifolds alibrated by the rst
Pontryagin form. Trans. Amer. Math. So . 353 (2001), 4319-4332.
[3℄ (with Robert Bryant and Phillip GriÆths). Exterior Dierential Systems and Euler-Lagrange
Partial Dierential Equations. University of Chi ago Press. To appear.
[4℄ Lo al rigidity of dierentially onstrained submanifolds of symmetri spa es. Preprint, 2001.
[5℄ Equivariant isometri embedding of Riemannian manifolds with symmetry. Preprint, 2002.

Sharon Hollander
PhD: MIT, 2001
Mentor: Peter May
Referen es
[1℄ With Daniel Dugger and Daniel C. Isaksen. Hyper overs and Simpli ial Presheaves. Preprint.
[2℄ A Homotopy Theory for Sta ks. Preprint

David Nadler
PhD: Prin eton, 2001
Mentor: Dennis Gaitsgory
Referen es
[1℄ With Matthew Emerton and Kari Vilonen. A geometri Ja quet fun tor. Preprint.
[2℄ Perverse sheaves on real loop Grassmannians. Preprint.
[3℄ Matsuki orresponden e for aÆne Grassmannians. Preprint.
[4℄ With Sergei Yakovenko. Os illation and boundary urvature of holomorphi urves in C n 2.
Math Res Letters 5 (1998).
[5℄ Minimal 2-fold overings of E d . Geom Dedi ata 65 (1997).

Laura DeMar o (arriving Fall, 2002)

PhD: Harvard, 2002
Mentor: Benson Farb

Robert Polla k (arriving Fall, 2002)

PhD: Harvard, 2001
Mentor: Spen er Blo h
 SECOND ANNUAL VIGRE REPORT 11

2002-2003 Nontenured Fa ulty

Assistant Professors
Jerey Bro k (ex-NSF postdo )
Fausto Cattaneo (Italian)
Dennis Hirs hfeldt (Brazilian)
Mi hael Mandell (ex-NSF postdo )
Lenya Ryzhik (Sloan; Russian)
Shankar Venkataramani (Sloan; Indian)
Andrzej Zuk (Polish)

Di kson Instru tors

Miklos Abert (Hungarian)
Pramod A har (NSF postdo )
Max Aldana-Gonzalez (Mexi an)
Dimity Arinkin (Russian)
David Ben-Zvi (NSF postdo )
Daniel Biss (US; Clay Fellowship)
Jim Borger (NSF postdo )
Chris Connell (ex-NSF postdo )
Laura DeMar o (VIGRE)
Peter Gordon (Israeli)
Jesper Grodal (Danish)
Dan Grossman (VIGRE)
Sharon Hollander (VIGRE)
Christopher Hruska (NSF postdo )
Edward Kirr (Romanian)
Kenneth Koenig (ex{NSF postdo )
Marta Lewi ka (Polish)
Ni holas Monod (Swiss)
Roman Mu hnik (NSF postdo )
David Nadler (NSF postdo )
Robert Polla k (VIGRE)
Vadim Vologodsky (Russian)
12 SECOND ANNUAL VIGRE REPORT

GRADUATE STUDENT VIGRE PARTICIPANTS

2001{02 GRADUATE STUDENTS WITH STIPEND SUPPORT
NAME Year BA Stipend Advisor
Ashley Reiter Ahlin* 7th** Ri e University 14,400 Farb
Nils Barth 2nd Harvard University 2,700 Weinberger
Mark Behrens 4th University of Alabama 4,800 May
Benjamin Blander 3rd University of Chi ago 4,800 May
Karl-Dieter Crisman 4th Northwestern University 4,800 Blo h
Christopher Degni* 5th Harvard University 4,800 Kottwitz
Moon Du hin 4th Harvard University 4,800 Eskin
Kaj Gartz 4th Yale University 4,800 Nori
Justin Holmer 4th SUNY at Stony Brook 4,800 Kenig
Daniel Hoyt 1st University of Texas 14,400 Weinberger
Craig Ja kson 1st Alaska (BA) Ohio State (MA) 14,400 Ginzburg
Gabriel Kerr 1st University of Mi higan 14,400
Ni holas Longo 1st Northeastern University 14,400 Feerman
Joshua Maher 6th University of Maryland 4,800 Weinberger
Ann S heels 1st University of Wis onsin 14,400 Corlette
Steven Spallone 4th University of Pennsylvania 4,800 Kottwitz
Katharine Walker 1st Yale University 14,400 Corlette
* Completed PhD in 2002
** In ludes two years on LOA as a high s hool tea her
Mark Behrens wrote a paper entitled
\A new proof of Bott periodi ity."
It has appeared: Topology Appl. 119 (2002), no. 2, 167{183.
Benjamin Blander wrote a paper
\Lo al proje tive model stru tures on simpli ial presheaves."
It has appeared: K -Theory 24 (2001), no. 3, 283{301.
Ashley Reiter Ahlin's 2002 PhD thesis is entitled
\The Large S ale Geometry of Nilpotent-By-Cy li Groups."
Her rst job is at Vanderbilt University.
Christopher Degni's 2002 PhD thesis is entitled
\Positive Orthogonal Sets For SP(4)."
His rst job is at the Department of Defense.
Daniel Reumann's 2002 PhD thesis is entitled
\ Determining if Certain AÆne Deligne-Lusztig Sets are Empty."
Reumann's BA was from Harvard. He was supported on VIGRE in
2001-02. His rst job is at Ro kefeller University.
Lawren e Wilson's 2002 PhD thesis is entitled
\Powerful Groups of Prime Power Order"
His rst job is at the University of Florida.
 SECOND ANNUAL VIGRE REPORT 13

2001{02 VIGRE GRADUATE STUDENT TRAVEL

NAME Date Lo ation Event

Jayadev Athreya 3/01/02{3/03/02 Ann Arbor, MI AMS meeting
Jayadev Athreya 5/04/02{5/05/02 Cornell University Topology Festival
Angela Kubena Barnhill 6/30/01{7/14/01 Montreal, Canada Conferen e
Angela Kubena Barnhill 3/01/02{3/03/02 Ann Arbor, MI AMS meeting
Karianne Calta 3/01/02{3/03/02 Ann Arbor, MI AMS meeting
Dimitry Cherkashin June-July, 2001 Steklov Institute Summer s hool
Dimitry Cherkashin 3/01/02{3/03/02 Ann Arbor, MI AMS meeting
Barbara Csima 1/06/02{3/06/02 San Diego, CA AMS meeting
Pallavi Dani 3/01/02{3/03/02 Ann Arbor, MI AMS meeting
Moon Du hin 4/14/02{4/17/02 Ri e University Porter Le tures
Neil Epstein 3/01/02{3/03/02 Ann Arbor, MI AMS meeting
Aytek Erdil 6/18/01{7/06/01 Grenoble, Fran e Summer s hool
Aytek Erdil 7/12/01{7/19/01 Paris, Fran e summer s hool
Daniel J. Hoyt 3/01/02{3/03/02 Ann Arbor, MI AMS meeting
Craig Ja kson 3/01/02{3/03/02 Ann Arbor, MI AMS meeting
Phillip Lyn h 3/01/02{3/03/02 Ann Arbor, MI AMS meeting
Dan Margalit 6/30/01{7/14/01 Montreal, Canada Conferen e
Dan Margalit 7/08/01{7/09/01 Weston, MA Case Studies Proje t
Dan Margalit 3/01/02{3/03/02 Ann Arbor, MI AMS meeting
Alexandra Pettet 3/01/02{3/03/02 Ann Arbor, MI AMS meeting
Kristina Rogale Plaz April, 2002
Daniel Reumann 3/01/02{3/03/02 Ann Arbor, MI AMS meeting
David Rule 3/01/02{3/03/02 Ann Arbor, MI AMS meeting
Loren Spi e 6/15/01 Madison, WI Midwest Lie theory
Loren Spi e 11/27/01{12/01/01 Ban, Canada Conferen e
Loren Spi e 2/21/02{2/23/02 Ban, Canada Conferen e
Evelyn Toumpakari 3/01/02{3/03/02 Ann Arbor, MI AMS meeting
Sergey Vasilyev 6/18/01 { 7/06/01 Grenoble, Fran e Summer s hool
Stephen Wang 3/01/02{3/03/02 Ann Arbor, MI AMS meeting
Lawren e E. Wilson 8/05/01{8/11/01 Oxford University Conferen e
Lawren e E. Wilson 1/06/02{3/06/02 San Diego, CA AMS meeting
Kevin Wortman 6/30/01{7/14/01 Montreal, Canada Conferen e
Kevin Wortman 10/12/01{10/14/01 Albany, NY Seminar
Kevin Wortman 3/01/02{3/03/02 Ann Arbor, MI AMS meeting
Kevin Wortman 5/22/02{5/24/02 Kortrijk, Belgium Conferen e

(1) Jayadev Athreya attended the Cornell Topology Festival.

(2) Jayadev Athreya, Angela Kubena Barnhill, Karianne Calta, Dimitry Cher-
kashin, Pallavi Dani, Neil Epstein, Daniel Hoyt, Craig Ja kson, Phillip
Lyn h, Alexandra Pettet, Dan Margalit, Daniel Reumann, David Rule,
Loren Spi e, Evelyn Toumpakari, and Kevin Wortman attended the Mid-
west AMS meeting at the University of Mi higan. Others attended but did
not harge shared expenses. Many attended spe ial sessions in their elds.
(3) Angela Kubena Barnhill, Dan Margalit, and Kevin Wortman attended
the \Groups and low dimensional topology" onferen e at the Centre de
14 SECOND ANNUAL VIGRE REPORT

Re her hes Mathematiques of the Universite de Montreal; they are work-

ing with Farb or Eskin, and the onferen e was dire tly relevant to their
work.
(4) Dimitry Cherkashin attended a summer s hool and gave a talk at the
Steklov Institute.
(5) Barbara Csima attended the national AMS meeting in San Diego, where
she gave a talk entitled \Degree spe tra of prime models"; her advisor,
Robert Soare, gave a talk on their joint work at the same meeting.
(6) Moon Du hin went to Ri e University to attend the Porter Le tures given
by her advisor, Alex Eskin, and to meet with others in her eld.
(7) Aytek Erdil attended two nearly onse utive summer s hools, \Trans en-
dental aspe ts of algebrai y les" in Grenoble and \E ole d'etea en geome-
trie symple tique."
(8) Dan Margalit went to Regis College to attend a summer workshop for
fa ulty of the Boston College Mathemati s Case Study Proje t. He has
also submitted two papers for publi ation and has talked on his work at
Mi higan, UIC, Rutgers, and Columbia.
(9) Loren Spi e attended a Midwest onferen e on Lie groups and harmoni
analysis at Madison, and he attended two workshops at Ban, Canada, the
rst on automorphi forms and representations of p-adi Lie groups and
the se ond on representations of redu tive p-adi groups.
(10) Sergey Vasilev attended a summer s hool on \Trans endental aspe ts of
algebrai y les" at the Fourier Institute in Grenoble, Fran e.
(11) Lawren e Wilson attended and presented his work at the onferen e \Groups
{ St. Andrews" in Oxford, England.
(12) Lawren e Wilson attended the national AMS meeting in San Diego, where
he gave a talk on what has sin e be ome his 2002 PhD thesis \Powerful
Groups of Prime Power Order". His rst job is at the University of Florida.
(13) Kevin Wortman attended the \Groups and low dimensional topology" on-
feren e at the Centre de Re her hes Mathematiques of the Universite de
Montreal.
(14) Kevin Wortman spoke at the graduate study seminar at SUNY at Albany
and then attended the Albany group theory seminar there.
(15) Kevin Wortman attended a onferen e on rystallographi groups held in
Kortrijk, Belgium.
 SECOND ANNUAL VIGRE REPORT 15

REU GRADUATE STUDENT COUNSELLORS

The following table gives the graduate student ounsellors and their assignments
to the various ourses oered during the 2002 summer VIGRE REU.

June 17 { 28 July 1 { 12 July 15 { 26 July 29 { Aug 9

Approximations Sally Sally
Dis rete mathemati s Babai Babai
Geometry Farb May Rothenberg Bro k
Quantum me hani s Constantin and Kiselev
Invariant theory Kottwitz
Categori ation May
Shreya Amin |||||||- |||||||- QM QM
Angela Barnhill Geo Geo |||- |||- Geo |||||||-
David Balduzzi Sally Sally Kottwitz May
Nils Barth Babai Babai |||||||- |||||||-
Mark Behrens Geo Geo Geo Geo
Ben Blander Geo Geo Geo Geo
Andrew Blumberg Geo Geo Geo Geo
Chris Bremer Babai |||||||- Kottwitz May
Kariane Calta |||||||- |||||||- |||||||- Geo
Jeremy Copeland |||||||- |||||||- QM QM
Gautam Iyer Sally Sally QM |||||||-
Ni k Gurski |||||||- Geo Kottwitz May
Sonal Jain Babai |||||||{ |||- Kottwitz May
Joseph Johns |||||||- |||||||- QM QM
Ben Lee Geo Geo Geo Geo
Ni k Longo Babai Babai QM QM
Vin ent Lu arelli Sally |||||||- |||||||- |||||||-
Joshua Maher Geo Geo Geo Geo
Dan Margalit Geo Geo |||||||- Geo
Karin Melni k Babai Babai |||||||- |||||||-
Deepam Patel Sally Sally Kottwitz May
Ro helle Pereira |||||||- Geo Geo |||||||-
Ann S heels |||||||- |||||||- QM QM
Steve Spallone |||- Sally Sally Kottwitz |||||||-
Loren Spi e Sally Sally |||||||- |||||||-
NOTES: With the following ex eptions, the listed parti ipants have ompleted be-
tween one and four years of graduate study in mathemati s at Chi ago. All ex ept
Balduzzi (South Afri a), Iyer (India), and Johns (Canada) are U.S. itizens.
1. Shreya Amin is an entering student in the Physi al S ien es Division Master's
Program.
2. Sonal Jain obtained his BS from Chi ago in June, 2002, and is entering
Harvard as a mathemati s graduate student in September, 2002.
3. Deepam Patel is an entering rst year graduate student in mathemati s.
16 SECOND ANNUAL VIGRE REPORT

Several undergraduate students and graduate students were paired as student and
mentor for ontinued study between the REU and the start of the Fall quarter.
Student Mentor
Keith D'Souza Mark Behrens
Joshua Mer er Deepam Patel
Matthew Stover Angela Kubena Barnhill
ShaÆq Welji Mridul Mehta

THE WARM-UP PROGRAM FOR ENTERING GRADUATE STUDENTS

ENTERING FIRST YEAR STUDENTS

David Balduzzi
Christopher Bremer
Jerey Clouse
Maria Dymarz
Mi hael Gurski
Daniel Hoyt
Craig Ja kson
Ni holas Longo
Courtney Morris
Jinhyun Park
Irene Peng
Ann S heels
Joaquin Thomas
Katherine Walker
Christopher Walla e

TEACHERS IN THE PROGRAM

Subje t Tea hers
algebrai topology Moon Du hin, Andrew Blumberg
tools of analysis Justin Holmer, Sharon M Cathern
Galois/groupiness Brian Johnson, Haris Skiadas
manifolds Ben Lee, Mark Behrens
ve tor bundles Steve Wang, Moon Du hin
linear algebra Dan Grossman
Fourier series Justin Holmer, Mark Behrens
Riemannian metri s Dan Margalit, Pallavi Dani
Lie groups David Ben-Zvi, Karin Melni k
forms and homology Mark Behrens, David Ben-Zvi
Dan Grossman and David Ben-Zvi are Di kson Instru tors;
Grossman is a VIGRE postdo and Ben-Zvi is an NSF postdo .
The other tea hers are advan ed graduate student volunteers.
 SECOND ANNUAL VIGRE REPORT 17

UNDERGRADUATE VIGRE PARTICIPANTS

2001-02 ACADEMIC YEAR YSP COUNSELLORS

NAME REU's
Julienne Au *
Russell Bu her */**/***
Natalia Ce ire */**
Za hary Cohn **
Kimberly Dorn */**/***
Keith D'Souza **/***
Paul Ellis **
Mathew Gelvin ***
Kathleen Gruher
Sonal Jain */**/***
Lauren Johnson **
Paul Johnson */**/***
David Kanter
William Lopes *
Daniel Mellis */**
Katie Meyer **
Ajay Nainani **/***
Ma iej Ni ewi z **/***
Katherine Pfa ***
Rena Quandt */**
Amanda Redli h ***
Ryan Rei h
Alex Shaller **/***
Raymond Tan **
Jonathon Walsh
Jordan Weil
ShaÆq Welji */**/***

* Attended 2000 summer REU program

** Attended 2001 summer REU program
*** Attended 2002 summer REU program
18 SECOND ANNUAL VIGRE REPORT

2002 SUMMER REU PARTICIPANTS

Lauren Beitler freshman
Douglas Beteta sophomore
Russell Bu her */**/# junior
Emily Butler sophomore
Vivek Dhand junior
Kimberly Dorn */** junior
Keith D'Souza sophomore
Andrew Dudzik freshman
Os ar Fernandez # sophomore
Andrew Liam Fitzpatri k sophomore
Matthew Gelvin freshman
Roli Gostelow freshman
Diana Hall sophomore
Yehuda Halper ** sophomore
Gabrielle Holburt freshman
Yuan Hou ** junior
Paul Johnson */** junior
Adam Kalafarski sophomore
Gary Kilper sophomore
Robert Kribs sophomore
Jungttwa Lee sophomore
Joshua W. Mer er junior
Ajay Nainani ** junior
Ma iej Ni ewi z ** sophomore
Evan O hsner sophomore
Emily Peters ** junior
Catherine Pfa sophomore
David Purdy freshman
Eri Purdy freshman
Amanda E. Redli h freshman (transfer)
Alex G. Shaller ** sophomore
Matthew Stover ** junior
George Sullivan sophomore
Tseng Yen-Chieh sophomore
Kevin F. Tu ker sophomore
Kenneth Ward sophomore
ShaÆq Welji */**/# junior
David Wheat roft junior
Houston L. Whisenant ** junior
Dane White junior
Andrew Wilson freshman
Stephanie Wolahan sophomore
Daniel M. Wol ** junior
Vera Yin sophomore
Derek Zaraza junior
* Also parti ipated in the 2000 REU
** Also parti ipated in the 2001 REU
# Part time and unpaid
 SECOND ANNUAL VIGRE REPORT 19

James Simrall, a student in the Physi al S ien es Division Master's Program,

was also an unpaid part time parti ipant.
Colliness Morris, a bla k Ameri an student at Illinois Institute of Te hnology
was a paid parti ipant (with funding from non-VIGRE sour es)
Parti ipants in luded 11 women, 1 bla k Ameri an, and 1 Hispani .

OTHER UNDERGRADUATE ACTIVITIES and PARTICIPATION

Emily Butler, one of the Chi ago REU parti ipants, left immediately after it to
attend the Budapest Semesters Program for Autumn 2002.
Os ar Fernandez, worked on a proje t supported by the Mellon Minority Fellow-
ship this summer, while also parti ipating in the REU on a part time basis.
Daniel Wolf-Root will be in the re ently reated Mos ow REU program.
Katherine Gruher and Katie Meyer are serving as interns at the National Se urity
Agen y during the summer of 2002.
Christopher Gallo is attending the summer REU in Puerto Ri o.
Natalia Ce ire is attending the summer REU at the University of Illinois at
Chi ago; she attended the 2000 and 2001 REU's at the University of Chi ago.
Keith D'Souza, Joshua Mer er, Matthew Stover, and ShaÆq Welji, who parti i-
pated in the summer REU, were paired with graduate student mentors for ontin-
ued study between the end of the REU and the start of the Fall quarter. These
student/mentor pairings are tabulated in the graduate student se tion.

One undergraduate, Kate Gruher, travelled with VIGRE support during 2001-02.
She attended Mathfest 2001 in Madison, Wis onsin, August 1{5, 2001, and spoke
on joint work from an REU at Williams; one of her ollaborators, Deepam Patel, is
an entering Chi ago graduate student who served as a ounsellor in Chi ago's 2002
REU. Gruher is being nominated for the Ali e T. S haer Prize.

William Lopes, a bla k Ameri an who parti ipated in the 2000 REU, won a
Chur hill Fellowship for a year's study at Cambridge University and will then go
on to graduate study at MIT. On Mar h 18, 2002, an arti le about him, with his
photograph, appeared in the Chi ago Sun-Times.