Berkeley Academic Guide
Mathematics math
Mathematics Department
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Berkeley Academic Guide
Overview

The Department of Mathematics is generally recognized as one of the broadest, liveliest, and most distinguished departments of mathematics in the world. With one of the finest mathematics libraries in the nation, and a favorable climate, it is America's most exciting and cosmopolitan centers for mathematics research and teaching. UC Berkeley has become a favorite location for the study of mathematics by students and faculty from all over the world.

UC 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 three 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. Moreover, Women in Mathematics at Berkeley (WIM) serves to foster a community and provide a network amongst the undergraduate women in mathematics at Cal.

Berkeley's mathematics education program is greatly enriched by its large number of graduate students, postdoctoral faculty and fellows, and visiting teachers 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. We have an NSF-funded Research Training Groups in Representation Theory, Geometry and Combinatorics, which runs seminars, workshops, and other activities and supports graduate students and postdoctoral fellows in their 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.

Facilities

The Mathematics Statistics Library on the first floor of Evans Hall, part of the system of the University of California Libraries, provides researchers and students with access to world-class collections.

The Mathematical Sciences Research Institute (MSRI) was founded by the National Science Foundation in 1981. In a beautifully designed building on the hills above the Berkeley campus and 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 MSRI provide a program of mathematics courses, workshops, seminars, and colloquia of remarkable variety and exciting intensity.

Undergraduate Programs

Applied Mathematics: BA

Mathematics: BA (also available with a Teaching Concentration), Minor

Graduate Programs

Applied Mathematics: PhD

Mathematics: PhD