Summer REU Program 2024
Lafayette's REU program is an intensive eight-week summer research experience where students from around the country interact with faculty to explore cutting-edge mathematics problems.
The Lafayette College mathematics department will be hosting an REU site for the summer of 2024. Through close mentorship with their faculty advisors, small student research groups will investigate open problems in mathematics and statistics and share their work in the form of articles, posters, and group presentations. Our program is scheduled to run this coming summer from June 3 to July 26. Students will then participate in the Joint Mathematics Meetings in Seattle, WA (January 8-11, 2025). This site is funded by NSF grant number DMS-2150343.
The three research areas for 2024 will be Financial Mathematics and VIX, Optimal Transport and Monge-Ampere Equations, and Algebraically Defined Edge-Colored Graphs. This year’s mentors will be Professors Qin Lu (with Jeffrey Liebner), Farhan Abedin (with Jun Kitagawa from Michigan State University), and the team of Karen McCready (from King’s College) and Brian Kronenthal (from Kutztown University). Applications are through the NSF ETAP website and can be found here. Applications should be received by March 1, 2024 to be fully considered for acceptance into the program. The team for summer 2024 has been selected and the positions are now filled. An appreciation goes out to all who applied for our program this year and we wish you all the best in your mathematical goals.
The REU is coordinated by the Mathematics Department of Lafayette College, which is located in Easton, Pennsylvania, less than 90 minutes from both New York and Philadelphia. Participants receive a 9-week stipend of $5400, free housing and a flex spending account during the summer, and support for conference travel and expenses. Participants are expected to continue their undergraduate education after the summer is over, and NSF regulations require that only U.S. citizens and permanent residents are eligible to receive stipends. First-generation college students and students from underrepresented groups or institutions without a strong undergraduate research program are particularly encouraged to apply.
Lafayette’s REU program has a long history of supporting successful undergraduate research. Most students who have
participated in the program have published papers in professional journals. Many students have also been inspired by their experience to pursue graduate degrees in the mathematical sciences. In addition to mathematical and statistical research, our REU is committed to mentoring students as they prepare for life after the undergraduate experience. But the Lafayette REU is more than just about math. It’s about finding one’s talents, exploring one’s potential, creating friendships, and generally having fun. The photo above features the 2022 REU group posing with mentors Qin Lu and Trent Gaugler outside Reeder House, where all the REU students dormed together. The photo on the right shows the 2018 REU group and mentors posing with their Lafayette T-shirts at the end of the summer. The photo below showcases the 2023 REU group outside of Pardee Hall, the main academic building on campus and home to the summer research environment, along with mentors Allie Lewis, Jeff Liebner, Ethan Berkove, Carl Hammarstein, and Qin Lu.
More pictures from previous REUs can be found here.
If you have questions about the Lafayette College REU, please contact the program coordinators, Professors Jeffrey Liebner and Qin Lu at mathreu@lafayette.edu. Or, you might prefer this 100% accurate description of the program.