Harvard Department of Mathematics
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| Harvard Department of Mathematics | |
|---|---|
| Name | Department of Mathematics |
| Parent | Harvard University |
| Established | 17th century |
| Location | Cambridge, Massachusetts |
| Chair | See Organization and Administration |
Harvard Department of Mathematics is the mathematics department within Harvard University located in Cambridge, Massachusetts. It forms part of the Faculty of Arts and Sciences and participates in undergraduate programs such as Harvard College and graduate programs through the Graduate School of Arts and Sciences. The department has historically been associated with leading figures connected to institutions such as Princeton University, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, University of Cambridge, and University of Oxford.
History
The department's origins trace to early instruction at Harvard College during the colonial period and expansion in the 19th century alongside developments at Harvard University and influences from mathematicians at University of Göttingen, École Normale Supérieure, and Imperial College London. In the 20th century the department intersected with scholars who had ties to Institute for Advanced Study, Princeton University, University of Chicago, and Columbia University, and engaged with mathematical movements associated with names like David Hilbert, Émile Picard, Andrey Kolmogorov, and John von Neumann. Postwar growth reflected connections to federal laboratories and programs such as National Science Foundation initiatives and collaborations with Bell Labs and Los Alamos National Laboratory.
Organization and Administration
Administration is managed within the Faculty of Arts and Sciences framework of Harvard University with appointments coordinated by departmental committees and overseen by a departmental chair and an executive committee. Governance involves coordination with entities such as the Graduate School of Arts and Sciences, Harvard College, Harvard John A. Paulson School of Engineering and Applied Sciences, and interdisciplinary centers like the Radcliffe Institute for Advanced Study and the Harvard Data Science Initiative. Endowments and named professorships have links to benefactors associated with institutions like Rockefeller Foundation, Carnegie Corporation, and donors with ties to Morgan Stanley and Goldman Sachs.
Academic Programs
Undergraduate curricula lead to degrees administered through Harvard College with concentrations that interact with programs at Massachusetts Institute of Technology via cross-registration, and with study-abroad arrangements linked to University of Cambridge, University of Oxford, and the Sorbonne. Graduate education awards PhD and AM degrees through the Graduate School of Arts and Sciences and prepares students for positions at places like Princeton University, Stanford University, Yale University, Brown University, University of California, Berkeley, and international institutions such as ETH Zurich and University of Tokyo. Joint programs and seminars collaborate with centers such as Harvard Kennedy School, Harvard Medical School, and research institutes like the Broad Institute.
Research and Faculty
Faculty research spans pure and applied areas with scholars who have affiliations or fellowships at organizations including the Institute for Advanced Study, Royal Society, National Academy of Sciences, and award links to honors such as the Fields Medal, Abel Prize, Wolf Prize, MacArthur Fellowship, and American Mathematical Society prizes. Research groups have partnered with laboratories and departments at Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Lincoln Laboratory, Argonne National Laboratory, and corporate research teams from Google, Microsoft Research, and IBM Research. Collaborative projects have engaged with topics and named projects tied to figures like Bernhard Riemann, Henri Poincaré, Alexander Grothendieck, Michael Atiyah, and Robert Langlands through seminars and lecture series.
Notable Alumni and Faculty
The department's community includes individuals who later held positions or fellowships at Princeton University, Yale University, Stanford University, University of California, Berkeley, Columbia University, and Massachusetts Institute of Technology. Alumni and faculty have been recognized by organizations such as the National Academy of Sciences, Royal Society, American Academy of Arts and Sciences, and have received awards including the Fields Medal, Abel Prize, Turing Award, and MacArthur Fellowship. Many have contributed to major works and collaborations involving names like Alan Turing, John Nash, Kurt Gödel, Paul Erdős, Andrew Wiles, Harvey M. Friedman, Benoit Mandelbrot, John Milnor, Enrico Bombieri, and Terence Tao.
Facilities and Resources
Facilities are centered in Cambridge buildings owned by Harvard University and include seminar rooms, lecture halls, and computing clusters with collaborations involving Harvard University Information Technology, high-performance computing centers tied to National Science Foundation resources, and shared laboratories with Harvard John A. Paulson School of Engineering and Applied Sciences and the Wyss Institute for Biologically Inspired Engineering. The department hosts lecture series, conferences, and workshops that draw participants from institutions such as Institute for Advanced Study, Princeton University, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, University of Cambridge, and international societies like the International Mathematical Union and European Mathematical Society.