At Amherst the study of mathematics includes both its pure and applied aspects as well as offerings in statistics. We offer courses for majors and for any student interested in mathematics or statistics as a liberal art.
This year's Connecticut Valley Colloquium at Amherst College will be given by Rachel Ward of the University of Texas - Austin on Friday November 10 at 4:30pm in Seeley Mudd 206.
Prof Nick Horton is the 2017 recipient of the annual Lagakos Distinguished Alumni Award, given by the Department of Biostatistics at Harvard University. The citation of the award describes his impactful leadership and service to the profession, his distinguished contributions to statistical methodology and computing, and his commitments to teaching and statistical education.
Nick also recently received the prestigious Founders Award, presented at the 2017 Joint Statistical Meetings (JSM) in Baltimore. The other three awardees are Wendy Martinez, Director of the Mathematical Statistics Center, Bureau of Labor Statistics; Jane Pendergast, Professor, Department of Biostatistics and Bioinformatics, Duke University School of Medicine; and John Eltinge, Assistant Director for Research & Methodology, U.S. Census Bureau. The citation read, “The ASA is extremely pleased to present our highest honor to Wendy, Jane, Nick, and John. They have dedicated their careers to the field of statistics and demonstrated impressively high standards that have helped strengthen the experiences of colleagues throughout the association’s membership and beyond. From teaching future generations of critical thinkers the theories and applications that can lead to new scientific discoveries, to calculating and analyzing government data in robust, meaningful and accurate ways, to advancing research that will lead to more effective healthcare, they each have left a tremendous footprint in the scientific discipline that is statistics,” said ASA President Barry Nussbaum.
Congratulations to Mathematics Professor Harris Daniels who was named an honorary member of the Amherst College Class of 2016. Harris received a certificate and a cane (the same that the graduating seniors receive).
Ningyue (Christina) Wang '16 has been chosen as the recipient of the 2016 Boston Chapter of the American Statistical Association Mu Sigma Rho Award. This annual award recognizes one outstanding statistics undergraduate per year in the BCASA region (Rhode Island, Massachusetts, Maine, New Hampshire, and Vermont). Mu Sigma Rho is the national statistics honor society. Christina was selected as the inaugural winner of the award based on her outstanding achievements in statistics (she had been inducted into Mu Sigma Rho in 2015).
In addition to Christina's award, eleven Amherst College students were inducted into Mu Sigma Rho. Congratulations to Jonathan Che, Stephany Flores-Ramos, Paul Gramieri, Connor Haley, Azka Javaid, Rishi Kowalski, Levi Lee, Amanda Rosenbaum, Muling Si, Sarah Teichman, and Alex Titelbaum for their academic achievements and distinction.
Congratulations to Jonathan Che, Pei Gong, Timothy Lee, Shelly Tang, and Sarah Teichman for being named "Best in Group" and "Best in Show" at the Five College ASA DataFest. Other winners from Amherst included the team consisting of Jordan Browning, Jerry Chen, Brendan Seto, Leonard Yoon, and Jingwen Zhang. DataFest is a data analysis competition where teams of up to five students have a weekend to attack a large, complex, and surprise dataset. More than 130 undergraduate students from the Five Colleges participated in this year's event. More details can be found at http://www.science.smith.edu/datafest/2016/04/04/recap-of-winners-from-datafest-2016/
The AMS Leroy P. Steele Prize for Exposition was awarded to three mathematicians: David Cox (Amherst College), John Little (College of the Holy Cross), and Donal O'Shea (New College of Florida) "for their book Ideals, Varieties, and Algorithms, which has made algebraic geometry and computational commutative algebra accessible not just to mathematicians but to students and researchers in many fields."
Students engage in many aspects of modern mathematics, ranging from the beauty and insight of proofs in an abstract setting to the power and excitement of using mathematics in concrete applications.
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Students develop the capacity to “think with data” through integrated and repeated exposure to statistical methods, mathematical and computational foundations, modeling and statistical practice.
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Many mathematics and statistics majors study abroad in their junior year. Interested? See a mathematician or statistician in the department in the spring of your sophomore year to make plans.
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Students have numerous opportunities to take part in summer research, internships and teaching. Check our our REUs (REU=Research Experience for Undergraduates).
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Majors go on to graduate school in mathematics, statistics and related fields; to teaching positions; to actuarial positions; and to many other careers. Learn what some of our alumni are doing now.
Learn moreThrough discussion of basic modeling principles and case studies, learn how to translate a real-world problem into a mathematical expression, analyze it using mathematical tools and numerical simulations, and interpret the results>/a>.
Examine inequality in K–12 math education. How is variation in accomplishment in mathematics related to race, gender and socioeconomic class? How do public attitudes toward math affect student learning?
Explore probability theory and its use in applied settings, and learn parallel analytic and empirical problem-solving skills. Develop an intuitive feel for probabilistic thinking, then evolve toward more rigorous study.
Many of our majors are interested in teaching. We've collected information on teaching as a summer experience, teaching after Amherst as a career, and taking a semester abroad focusing on mathematics education in Budapest. After you click to learn more, scroll down to find the section that interests you.