IAS/Park City Mathematics Institute

Institute For Advanced Study, Princeton NJ

Investigators

Abstract

The Institute for Advanced Study/Park City Mathematics Institute (PCMI) is a 3-week-long summer mathematics institute, which began over 20 years ago as an NSF-funded Regional Geometry Institute. Each PCMI summer program is organized around a single topic of contemporary mathematical research, which varies from year to year. PCMI's summer programs are of very high quality and are unique in integrating undergraduate mathematics studies, graduate mathematics studies and mathematics research activities through coordinated, concurrent programs. PCMI also has parallel programs for undergraduate faculty and secondary school teachers, whose participants benefit from their proximity to students and researchers. The undergraduate faculty participants develop educational materials related to the research topic for inclusion in undergraduate courses. PCMI has many positive and profound effects on the mathematics community. The undergraduate and graduate summer programs, through the quality of their lecture series and their close relation with a cutting-edge research topic, create excitement among the students and are effective at recruiting students into the mathematics discipline. The unique integration of students, educators and researchers results in many positive interactions, which include collaborations between students and researchers. To ensure that PCMI's lecture series have enduring impact, the graduate student summer school lectures are published by the American Mathematical Society.