Iowa State University
Math REU program

  • Program dates: Sunday, June 4, 2023 to Saturday, July 29, 2023 (research from June 5 to July 28)

  • Application deadline: Wednesday, February 15, 2023

  • Application instructions

  • 2023 Projects

  • Support

    • (Partial) travel support to/from Ames, IA in summer 2023 and JMM 2024 in San Francisco, CA in January 2024

    • Housing in campus dorms and some meals (primarily lunches and a few group dinners)

    • US Citizens and Permanent Residents will receive a stipend of $4800 ($600 per week)

  • Eligibility

    • Undergraduate students who will still be enrolled in bachelor's or associate's degree program in Fall 2023

    • Must be 18 years old by June 1, 2023

Non-US Citizens and Permanent Residents can participate in the REU, but will not be able to receive a stipend. (International participants might require a visa to participate in the program, the REU will not pay for any costs associated with obtaining a visa, but are willing to help write a letter of support if selected to participate.)

The REU program at Iowa State runs (roughly) every other year and has been running for about twenty years. Participants spend eight weeks working on research projects coming from a variety of mathematical areas, such as graph theory, numerical analysis, linear algebra, mathematical biology, probability, computational mathematics, logic, and dynamical systems. The topics for any individual summer are determined by the research mentors which primarily come from the Department of Mathematics at Iowa State University (ISU).

Students will work in collaborative teams with 3-6 undergraduate members as part of active research groups during the summer. There is no coursework or workshop associated with the REU; the individual groups will provide relevant backgrounds to their group members as needed at the beginning of the REU, with the bulk of the REU consisting of students engaged in research with regular meeting with their mentors. Note that project mentors select their team.

In addition to the research program there will be regular professional development which includes topics such as how to use LaTeX, basics of SAGE, how to give presentations, preparing for graduate school, careers outside of academia, dealing with collaborators, mental health, diversity issues in mathematics, and more.

At the end of the summer program, each group will produce a writeup of their results, a poster, and a presentation. Many projects subsequently submit papers for publication and present the results of their research at conferences.

This is a diverse REU and some activities are multicultural. We particularly welcome applications from members of under-represented groups.

Questions about the REU program at Iowa State University can be directed to reumath@iastate.edu.

A listing of other REU programs is available online at mathreuprograms.org.