{"id":221118,"date":"2024-11-19T07:20:52","date_gmt":"2024-11-19T12:20:52","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/?p=221118"},"modified":"2024-11-18T12:29:43","modified_gmt":"2024-11-18T17:29:43","slug":"math-department-wins-gaann-full-funding-for-five-ph-d-fellows","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/2024\/11\/math-department-wins-gaann-full-funding-for-five-ph-d-fellows\/","title":{"rendered":"Math Department Wins GAANN: Full Funding for Five Ph.D. Fellows"},"content":{"rendered":"

The department of mathematics<\/a>, in the College of Liberal Arts & Sciences, has received three-year funding for up to five Ph.D. fellows annually through the federal GAANN (Graduate Assistance in Areas of National Need)<\/a> program.<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

This marks the department\u2019s first receipt of external funds to support doctoral students and is an affirmation of its research strength. It will also help the program expand and diversify its applicant pool as well as its admitted applicants.<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s a great initiative, and it\u2019s going to be extremely beneficial for our department,\u201d says Vasileios Chousionis, director of graduate studies for the department. \u201cIt\u2019s almost transformative. It really solidifies our position as a top research institution \u2013 which is the best verification you could hope for.\u201d<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

As a nationally recognized honor, the program will also allow the department to attract more applicants and welcome more students with financial need. Departmental leaders expect the department to grow even stronger thanks to this new funding, which will cover stipends, tuition, and fees for five qualifying fellows of exceptional talent and demonstrated financial need. <\/span>In return, the University will match a portion of this award.<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

This infusion of funding is dedicated to nurturing students\u2019 academic and professional development in a highly relevant subject of national need. Xiaodong Yan, associate department head, anticipates that it will have a snowball effect on research development and student success, trickling down to undergraduate support as well.\u00a0<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cWe can admit more students than we usually do,\u201d Yan says. \u201cIn the long run, that will also help to strengthen our graduate program itself, because our faculty would be able to run more graduate courses that, in return, will help train our graduate students better and prepare them better for the job market.\u201d<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

Department head Ambar Sengupta attributes the receipt of this grant to the hard work of the entire department, including support staff, and \u201cthe excellence of our faculty research.\u201d<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cOur research output has been increasing steadily over the past few three-year cycles of evaluation,\u201d Sengupta says, pointing to the mathematics graduate program\u2019s <\/span>climb in national rankings<\/span><\/a>. He also praises the quality of classroom teaching in the department, especially acknowledging the department\u2019s talented faculty in residence and lecturers.<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201c<\/span>Our faculty have a<\/span> culture of teaching excellence that is just absolutely remarkable. I\u2019ve never seen it anywhere else,\u201d says Sengupta, who taught at two different universities before joining the UConn faculty in 2016.<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

Chousionis echoes Sengupta\u2019s sentiments. As the director of graduate studies, he oversees admissions decisions and will be responsible for awarding the new fellowships to students. He knows firsthand the quality of applicants to the program, as well as the quality of education they receive.<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cOur graduate students tend to get very good jobs, either in research-oriented positions like postdocs or teaching positions, or in industry,\u201d says Chousionis. \u201cWe tend to produce high-quality Ph.D.s, and this is reflected in the applications \u2013 last year, we received more than 200 applications for 12 positions.\u201d<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

In addition to Sengupta, Chousionis, and Yan, associate professor in residence David McArdle was a key faculty member in securing this grant. McArdle will be overseeing the training of graduate students for teaching purposes, according to Sengupta.<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

The department\u2019s office staff team also made this effort possible, especially Monique Roy, the graduate program coordinator.<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

The College of Liberal Arts & Sciences (CLAS) had a 100% success rate in GAANN grant applications this year \u2013 the department of chemistry<\/a> also received this award.<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The national award will allow the department to grow in size, diversity, and research output<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":175,"featured_media":221119,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"_crdt_document":"","wds_primary_category":0,"wds_primary_series":0,"wds_primary_attribution":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[2275,2429,2226,2459,2076,99,1875,2235,2233],"tags":[],"magazine-issues":[],"coauthors":[2413],"class_list":["post-221118","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-academic-affairs","category-awards-scholarships","category-clas","category-graduate-students","category-research","category-student-life","category-grad-school","category-today-homepage","category-university-news"],"pp_statuses_selecting_workflow":false,"pp_workflow_action":"current","pp_status_selection":"publish","acf":[],"publishpress_future_action":{"enabled":false,"date":"2026-05-26 17:32:32","action":"change-status","newStatus":"draft","terms":[],"taxonomy":"category","extraData":[]},"publishpress_future_workflow_manual_trigger":{"enabledWorkflows":[]},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/wp-rest\/wp\/v2\/posts\/221118","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/wp-rest\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/wp-rest\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/wp-rest\/wp\/v2\/users\/175"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/wp-rest\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=221118"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/wp-rest\/wp\/v2\/posts\/221118\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":221474,"href":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/wp-rest\/wp\/v2\/posts\/221118\/revisions\/221474"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/wp-rest\/wp\/v2\/media\/221119"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/wp-rest\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=221118"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/wp-rest\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=221118"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/wp-rest\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=221118"},{"taxonomy":"magazine-issue","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/wp-rest\/wp\/v2\/magazine-issues?post=221118"},{"taxonomy":"author","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/wp-rest\/wp\/v2\/coauthors?post=221118"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}