Opportunities in Mathematics and Statistics

• National Security Agency summer internships
• Search for National Science Foundation (NSF) Research Experiences for Undergraduates (REUs)
• The American Mathematical Society (AMS) has a list of REUs that may not be included in the NSF list above.
• The Society of Industrial and Applied Mathematics (SIAM) also provides lists of research opportunities and internships for undergraduates.
• The American Statistical Association list of internships
• Research on Industrial Projects for Students (RIPS), run by UCLA's Institute for Pure and Applied Mathematics, organizes undergraduates into teams to work on problems from industry. 
• The National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) hosts an interdisciplinary Summer Undergraduate Research Fellowship (SURF). There are excellent opportunities in applied mathematics, statistics, and computer science. Double majors with physics, biological sciences, biochemistry, or chemistry might find these projects especially intriguing.
• Rutgers REUs
• German Universities of Applied Sciences (UAS7) internships

• Park City Mathematics Institute Summer Program, run by the Institute for Advanced Study, conducts a themed program every summer which includes an introductory and advanced undergraduate summer school. Additionally, they list future programs.

• Enhancing Diversity in Graduate Education (EDGE) is a program "with the goal of strengthening the ability of women students to successfully complete graduate programs in the mathematical sciences, with particular inclusion of women from minority groups."

The Center for Careers, Life, and Service provides information about many scholarships, including Gates Cambridge, Gilman, Marshall, Mitchell, and Rhodes Scholarships. 

The Budapest Semester in Mathematics program operates on the College International Campus of the Technical University of Budapest, located near the historic city center of Budapest, a city of two million and the nation's capital. Hungary has a long tradition of excellence in mathematics education, and the Budapest Semester provides students of mathematics a unique opportunity to study under the tutelage of eminent Hungarian scholar-teachers from Eotvos University and the Mathematical Institute of the Hungarian Academy of Sciences. More than 40 Grinnell College students have participated in this program since 1985.

All courses are taught in English in small groups and comprise a wide selection in mathematics, along with non-mathematical options including European History, Film and Drama, and three levels of Hungarian language. Students take three or four math courses and two intercultural courses including intensive Hungarian. Housing options include either a homestay or renting a furnished apartment shared with other program participants. The cost of living is very low, and students normally find the extensive cultural life of Budapest, including music and theatre as well as restaurant meals, to be easily affordable. Budapest is well situated for travel throughout Eastern and Central Europe and students are encouraged to avail themselves of the reasonable fares and opportunity to travel throughout Hungary and neighboring countries.

A full list of off-campus study options is available through the Off-Campus Study office.

Pamela Ferguson was appointed president of Grinnell College in 1991 and served in that position until 1997. After stepping down from the presidency, she continued to teach as a professor of mathematics. In 2003, she was appointed the Breid-McFarland Professor of Science. Though she is best remembered at Grinnell College as a former president, Pam Ferguson has been described as a lover of mathematics. She published over forty papers in her area of group theory, most appearing in the highly regarded Journal of Algebra. Her work was strongly connected to the classification of finite simple groups, one of the landmark results of twentieth-century mathematics. The endowment supporting this prize was established by her husband, D. Roger Ferguson.

The goal of this merit prize is to recognize and encourage mathematical potential among students of all genders, particularly among women, who are traditionally under-represented in the discipline.

Up to two prizes will be awarded annually to the mathematics or statistics majors entering their senior year who are judged by the Department of Mathematics and Statistics to have demonstrated the greatest achievement and promise, as measured by such criteria as performance in mathematics or statistics courses (particularly upper-level courses), independent research projects, posters and other presentations, publications, competitions, etc.

Recipients of the Pamela Ferguson Endowed Prize in Mathematics

• 2022: Grace Davis ’23 and Harper Crosson ’23
• 2021: Yuki Takahashi ’22 and Daniel Tedeschi ’22
• 2020: Gabby Masini ’21 and Riu Sakaguchi ’21
• 2019: Hongyuan Zhang ’20 and Abigail Lewis ’20
• 2018: Libby Farrell 2019 and Cory McCartan 2019
• 2017: Nina Galanter 2018 and Yuan Wang 2018
• 2016: Elizabeth Eason 2017 and Lillian Webster 2017
• 2015: Iris Bennett 2016 and Jordan Hellman 2016
• 2014: Imad Bahkira 2015 and Samantha Mizuno 2015
• 2013: Abby Stevens 2014 and Bridget Toomey 2013
• 2012: Bingxi Wu 2013 and Alice Nadeau 2013
• 2011: Boanne MacGregor 2012 and Klevi Xhaxho 2012
• 2010: Nicole Bridgland 2011 and Benjy Greenberg 2011
• 2009: Sam Calisch 2010 and Barbara Monaco 2010
• 2008: Buchan (Lynn) Xue 2009 and Katie Shepard 2009
• 2007: Katrina M. Honigs 2008 and Rolf W. Hoyer 2008
• 2006: Stephanie Daniel Fried 2007 and Norman Lewis Perlmutter 2007

Larned Linn Smith (known as Linn Smith) was born in Sioux City, Iowa, on October 17, 1899, to Effie and Elias E. Smith. He graduated from Sioux City High School in June, 1916, and was accepted to Grinnell College, which he attended from 1916 to 1920. At Grinnell, Linn Smith was a scholarship holder and a Phi Beta Kappa graduate with a major in mathematics and a minor in physics. Debate was a strong interest of his both at Grinnell and in high school. At Grinnell, he was Secretary of the Debating Union and tied for second in the Hill Contest in Extemporaneous Speaking. He was also on the staff of the 1920 Cyclone (Grinnell College's yearbook) and a sergeant in Grinnell College's Student's Army Training Corps. Particularly remarkable is the fact that Linn Smith published a mathematics paper while still an undergraduate. "A Construction of the Regular Polygon of Seventeen Sides" appeared in the July-September, 1920, issue of the American Mathematical Monthly (volume 27, pages 322-323).

After Grinnell, Linn Smith went to Harvard University on a Charles Elliott Perkins scholarship for graduate study in mathematics. However, he completed only one year of graduate study; his untimely death on August 9, 1921, cut short a promising career. He was spending the summer of 1921 in Peterborough, New Hampshire, watching over the two young sons on Mr. and Mrs. Edward Burling. Edward Burling Jr. recalls him as "an unusually attractive young man." He also remembers the day: "Linn was swimming around the boat ... Suddenly I noticed that Linn was no longer in sight. ... I called out in terror." The official cause of death was listed as heart failure, not drowning. A sister, Genevieve (Mrs. Radford Dove), recalls "those hot August days" at the time of their brother's "enormous funeral and lines of flower cars, reporters, etc."

The Linn Smith Prize for Excellence in Mathematics was first awarded in 1924, although the original name of the award was the "Linn Smith Scholarship for Excellency in Mathematical Study." College records indicate that the prize was established by an anonymous gift of $1000, but Edward Burling Jr. remembers his father making the gift: "Dad would whip off another anonymous gift to Grinnell at the drop of a hat." A much larger contribution from Mr. Burling went for Burling Library.

Recipients of the Linn Smith Prize

Notes: The award was called a scholarship, not a prize, until 1947. Before the change, the scholarship was announced in the graduation program and applied in the following year, which was normally the student's senior year. For many years after the change, the award continued to be announced before the recipient's senior year, a practice that ended in 1961. So the fact that a year of graduation is not indicated from 1961 on simply means that all these recipients were awarded the prize at the time of their graduation. A question mark after a student's name indicates that the record of the award that year may be unreliable.

• 2022: Daksh Aggarwal and Yuki Takahashi
• 2021: Tiger Luo and Stefan Ilic
• 2020: Jay Chen, Abigail Lewis, and Hongyuan Zhang
• 2019: Libby Farrell
• 2018: Nina Galanter
• 2017: Lillian Webster
• 2016: Jordan C. Hellmann and China Marie Mauck
• 2015: Mohamed Imad Bakhira
• 2014: David Alexander Brown and Cuong Nguyen Tu Manh
• 2013: Benjamin Zimet Mark and Bingxi Wu
• 2012: Boanne Rosemary MacGregor
• 2011: Benjamin Carl Greenberg
• 2010: Sam Calisch and Rob Zyskowski
• 2009: Henry Thomas Reich, Scott Steven Slinker, and Buchan Xue
• 2008: William Nelson Boney, Katrina Michelle Honigs, and Rolf William Hoyer
• 2007: Stephanie Daniel Fried and Norman Lewis Perlmutter
• 2006: Douglas Christopher Babcock
• 2005: Christine Constance Bormann Oehlert and Zelealem Belaineh Yilma
• 2004: Matthew L. Bond, Ananta Nath Tiwari, and Jonathan L. Wellons
• 2003: Logan M. Axon, Ming Gu, and Rajendra Jarga Magar
• 2002: Jared R. Corduan and Emily Laura Resseger
• 2001: Oleksiy Sergiyov Andriychenko, Rachel Marie Heck, Dmitry Eugenievich Krivin, and Dolph James Robb
• 2000: Wei Zhao
• 1999: Catherine M. Williams
• 1998: Rebecca A. Schuller
• 1997: Chelsea Elisabeth Smock
• 1996: Karen T. Ball
• 1995: Jennifer D. Wagner
• 1994: Stephen T. Ahearn, James A. Mills, and Vikram Subramaniam
• 1993: Siddhartha Agarwal, Christopher A. Jepsen, and Kristopher R. Tapp
• 1992: Kristine L. Hauser
• 1991: Nathan W. Root
• 1990: Julia A. Janik
• 1989: Apryl A. Henry and Peter Gavin LaRose
• 1988: John Charles Roth and Wanda B. Upole
• 1987: Albert J. Goodman
• 1986: Kevin M. Manbeck
• 1985: Brenda L. Johnston
• 1984: Janet Lynn Wilson
• 1983: Kevin J. Lang and Matthew D. Smith
• 1982: David A. Strickler
• 1981: David M. Perkinson
• 1980: Nathaniel Solomon Borenstein and Terry M. Grant
• 1979: Carolyn B. Mow and Genevieve B. Orr
• 1978: Guy T. Blaylock and Carl John Oppedahl
• 1977: Dale E. Worley
• 1976: Paul E. Kennedy
• 1975: Mark S. Ashbaugh and James P. Fernow
• 1974: Robert S. Rumley
• 1973: Jay Roger Southard
• 1972: (no award)
• 1971: Susan Carol Seeder
• 1970: Daniel Eugene Frohardt
• 1969: Clifford Arnold Frohlich and Roy Wyatt Pengra
• 1968: Robert Mandels Katz and Paul Richard Tice
• 1967: Edward Fred Schmeichel
• 1966: Mary Beth Bridgham
• 1965: (no award)
• 1964: James Edward Clapp and David Bruce Patterson
• 1963: Mary Karen Hillix
• 1962: David Alexander McBlain
• 1961: Richard Royal Fisher and Phyllis Noreen Rogers
• 1960: David Manley ’61
• 1959: Bruce Thomas ’60
• 1958: Ellen B. Blaser ’59 and David G. Marker ’59
• 1957: Richard Holmes ’58
• 1956: John Chase ’57 and George Sullivan ’57
• 1955: Samuel Im ’57
• 1954: Charles Cook ’56
• 1953: William Hamilton ’55 and George Simon ’55
• 1952: David Bowersox ’53
• 1951: Kathryn Jantzen ’52
• 1950: Larry Dutton ’51 and Alex Elwyn ’51
• 1949: Jack Sheriff ’50
• 1948: Austin Robert Brown, Jr. ’49
• 1947: Scott Crom ’48
• 1946: Lee Maria Kleiss ’47 (?) and Margaret Ruth Tergillus ’47 (?)
• 1945: Marilyn Marie Herselius ’47
• 1944: Gerry Ross ’45
• 1943: Donald Sterling Noyce ’44
• 1942: Wilma Lois Schallau ’43
• 1941: Charles Philip Plum ’42
• 1940: Carolyn Crandall ’41
• 1939: George Julius Finck ’40
• 1938: Paul M. Beck ’39 and Frederick Albert Manny ’39
• 1937: Fred Christopher Eisen ’38
• 1936: Robertson Gannaway ’37 and Berger Graves ’37
• 1935: Randolph Carlson ’36
• 1934: Joseph Conard ’35
• 1933: Ora Lucy Wheeler ’34
• 1932: Charles Edwin Bures ’33
• 1931: David Merrill Bridgham ’32
• 1930: Carroll Martin Crownsea ’31
• 1929: Donald Prentiss Jones ’30 and John Edward Perry ’30
• 1928: Priscilla Lieberknecht 1929
• 1927: Everett Roy Tarvin 1927 (?)
• 1926: Everett Roy Tarvin 1927
• 1925: Harriet Allen 1926
• 1924: John Stehn 1925

Robert Norton Noyce, scientist, engineer, and entrepreneur, was born on December 12, 1927, in Burlington, Iowa. He received a bachelor's degree in physics and mathematics from Grinnell College in 1949 and a doctorate in physics from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology in 1953. On April 25, 1960, Dr. Noyce was granted a patent for his invention of a "Semiconductor Device-and-Lead Structure" — an integrated circuit. This discovery made the microchip possible and launched the modern electronics revolution. For his scientific achievements he received the National Medal of Science from President Carter in 1980, the National Medal of Technology from President Reagan in 1987, and the Charles Draper Prize of the National Academy of Engineering in 1990. Grinnell College's computer center was named in his honor in 1984.

Dr. Noyce was co-founder and president of Intel Corporation. In 1988, he was appointed chief executive of Sematech, a consortium linking government and private electronic manufacturers. He also served for many years as a trustee of Grinnell College and as chair of the Board of Trustees. Robert N. Noyce died on June 3, 1990, in Austin, Texas, at the age of 62.

The Robert N. Noyce Senior Student Award was presented to the senior student who, in the judgment of the Selection Committee, made the greatest contribution to the use of computer-based technology while a Grinnell student. It recognized not only individual accomplishment, but the breadth and depth of the student's contribution. Beginning in 1984, the Noyce Award was given annually at first, then irregularly. In 2002, the fund supporting this award was diverted to the development of technology-related curricular projects at the College.