The Simons Foundation recently announced its first PIVOT Fellows. Among them is Amit Acharya, of Carnegie Mellon University, who will be a visitor in the UConn Mathematics Department during 2023.

Dr. Acharya will work on a joint project with Professor Ambar Sengupta, with the goal of developing new ideas at the interface of geometry, gauge theory, and materials science.

Professor Andreas Malmendier has received an OVPR Scholarship Facilitation Fund for his project “Developing Best Practices for Inclusive Graduate Mentoring in Mathematics”.

Developing best practices for inclusive mentoring in Mathematics is key for enhancing the diversity in UConn’s mathematical sciences graduate program. The goal of this Scholarship Facilitation Fund is to cultivate knowledge about how to promote a positive and inclusive educational climate in mathematics. Specifically, this project will focus on understanding the learning environment for graduate students in mathematics. The project team consists of Drs. Andreas Malmendier (Mathematics) and Jacqueline Chen (Psychological Sciences).

As part of the SFF, the team will conduct confidential, one-on-one interviews with mathematics faculty members and doctoral students. The team will analyze the interview content to identify common sources of misunderstanding, conflict, or tension between faculty mentors and graduate students when they give and receive feedback, respectively. From the results, Drs. Malmendier and Chen will generate a summary of conclusions about the best practices for graduate mentoring and present them in the Mathematics Department teaching semina