Iowa State University
Math REU program
- Program dates: Sunday, June 1 June 15, 2025 to Saturday, July 26, 2025 (research from June 2 June 16 to July 25)
- Application deadline: Monday, February 17, 2025
Combinatorics with Steve Butler
Game theoretic modeling with Zhijun Wu
- Support
(Partial) travel support to/from Ames, IA in summer 2025 and JMM 2026 in Washington, DC in January 2026
Housing in campus dorms and some meals (primarily lunches and a few group dinners)
All undergraduate student participants will receive a stipend of $5000 $4800 ($625 $800 per week)
- Eligibility
Undergraduate students who will still be enrolled in bachelor's or associate's degree program in Fall 2025
Must be 18 years old by June 1, 2025 (** in some cases this can be waived with additional paperwork; contact the organizers)
There will be 1-2 slots which will be available for non-US Citizens and Permanent Residents to participate in the REU. These participants will also receive a stipend (from a different funding source). International participants might require a visa to participate in the program, the REU will not pay for any costs associated with obtaining a visa, but are willing to help write a letter of support if selected to participate.
The REU program at Iowa State runs (roughly) every other year and has been running for about twenty years. Participants spend eight weeks working on research projects coming from a variety of mathematical areas, such as graph theory, numerical analysis, linear algebra, mathematical biology, probability, computational mathematics, logic, and dynamical systems. The topics for any individual summer are determined by the research mentors which primarily come from the Department of Mathematics at Iowa State University (ISU).
Students will work in collaborative teams with about three undergraduate members as part of active research groups during the summer. There is no coursework or workshop associated with the REU; the individual groups will provide relevant backgrounds to their group members as needed at the beginning of the REU, with the bulk of the REU consisting of students engaged in research with regular meeting with their mentors. Note that project mentors select their team.
In addition to the research program there will be regular professional development which includes topics such as how to use LaTeX, basics of SAGE, how to give presentations, preparing for graduate school, careers outside of academia, dealing with collaborators, mental health, diversity issues in mathematics, and more.
At the end of the summer program, each group will produce a writeup of their results, a poster, and a presentation. Many projects subsequently submit papers for publication and present the results of their research at conferences.
This is a diverse REU and some activities are multicultural. We particularly welcome applications from members of under-represented groups.
Questions about the REU program at Iowa State University can be directed to reumath@iastate.edu.
A listing of other REU programs is available online at mathreuprograms.org.