Departmental Overview

The Department

The Department of Mathematics at Berkeley is generally recognized as one of the broadest, liveliest, and most distinguished departments of mathematics in the world. With 58 regular faculty members representing most of the major fields of current research, 150 graduate students, 600 upper-division undergraduate majors, one of the finest mathematics libraries in the nation, and with the good fortune to be situated in a favorable climate in one of America's most exciting and cosmopolitan centers for mathematics research and teaching, Berkeley has become a favorite location for the study of mathematics by students and faculty from all over the world.

Since 1925, when the quality of its mathematics faculty was ranked eleventh in the nation by the American Council of Education, Berkeley has improved dramatically, reaching fourth place in 1957, and second place in 1964. It achieved an unsurpassed ranking in 1970. The ranking was reaffirmed in the most recent 1995 survey.

Sather Tower, branches. Ansel Adams, March, 1965
Sather Tower, branches. Ansel Adams, March, 1965
Location

The Department offices are located on the top four floors of Evans Hall, situated in the northeast quadrant of Berkeley's scenic hillside campus. Within this building, the Department has excellent facilities for a flourishing mathematical community. These include an 1800-square-foot Common Room on the tenth floor overlooking San Francisco Bay, an outstanding computer laboratory on the seventh floor, the world-class Mathematics Library on the first floor, 26 classrooms especially designed for mathematics instruction on the ground floor, and a new calculus computer lab on the basement floor.

Undergraduate

Berkeley is increasingly interested in developing the talents of outstanding mathematics students and has a number of challenging honors-level courses. The Department encourages all major students to participate in the annual William Lowell Putnam Mathematical Competition. Additionally, the Department sponsors undergraduate teams in the annual Mathematical Contest in Modeling in which teams of 3 people write mathematical solutions to real-life problems.

An active Mathematics Undergraduate Student Association (MUSA), of which all departmental majors are automatically members, contributes to making Berkeley a stimulating and rewarding place to study mathematics. In addition, the Noetherian Ring, an organization seeking to promote and support women in mathematics at Berkeley, is open to undergraduate students.

Graduate and Postdoctoral

Berkeley's mathematics education program is greatly enriched by its large number of graduate students, postdoctoral faculty and fellows, and visiting teaching in residence each year. They come from all over the world to teach courses, participate in seminars, collaborate in research, give talks at the weekly Mathematics Colloquium, and be available as consultants. An affiliated interdisciplinary group, with its own doctoral program, is the Group in Logic and the Methodology of Science. The Department also profits from the existence of the Center for Pure and Applied Mathematics, which is situated with the Department in Evans Hall and fosters interdisciplinary research involving mathematics. Our Research Training Group in Representation Theory, Geometry and Combinatorics runs activities and supports graduate students and postdocs within its areas of interest.

The Department has several graduate student groups: the Mathematics Graduate Student Association (MGSA), comprising all graduate students, the Noetherian Ring, a group of women in mathematics, Unbounded Representation (Urep), promoting dialogue on diversity in the math community, and a student lecture series, Many Cheerful Facts.

Mathematical Sciences Research Institute

An exciting development was the establishment of the Mathematical Sciences Research Institute (MSRI) by the National Science Foundation in 1981. In a beautifully designed building on the hills above the Berkeley campus overlooking San Francisco Bay, about 1,700 mathematicians from around the world come each year to participate in research programs in a wide variety of mathematical topics. The combined and cooperative efforts of the Department, the Center, and the Institute provide a program of mathematics courses, workshops, seminars, and colloquia of remarkable variety and exciting intensity.

For younger students with an interest in mathematics, MSRI administers the Berkeley Mathematical Circle.

Copyright

Contemporary Images from Original Negative by Ansel Adams,
UCR/California Museum of Photography,
Sweeney/Rubin Ansel Adams Fiat Lux Collection,
University of California, Riverside.