VIGRE

Postdoctoral Recruitment

ALPs

Postdoctoral faculty members at UIUC are widely recruited to fill the established Doob Research Assistant Professor positions and the currently funded NSF VIGRE Research Assistant Professor positions. Both types of positions are intended for mathematicians who have recently completed their doctoral degrees. The NSF VIGRE positions are restricted to citizens or permanent residents, but the Doob postdoctoral positions are not so restricted. The NSF VIGRE grant provides 50% of the annual stipend needed to support postdoctoral faculty members. The remaining 50% of the stipend is a match from the UIUC Department of Mathematics operating budget. The posdoctoral faculty search process proceeds with 1) research area groups and individual faculty making recomendations to the Postdoctoral Search Committee, 2) the Postdoctoral Search Committee evaluating the candidates and giving a prioritized list to the Executive Committee, and 3) the Executive Committee finalizing the list for the Chair of the Department to use in making postdoctoral faculty offers. Members of the Postdoctoral Search Committee are chosen from the ranks of the regular faculty member in the department on an annual basis.

The Doob Research Assistant Professor appointments began in fall 1997 with the appointments of two people. When the VIGRE postdoctoral faculty lines were added in fall 2000, there was a large increase in this very important part of the department's faculty strength. For example, in 2001-2002, there was another postdoctoral faculty member supported by CPSD, a joint project on simulation in manufacturing and design with the Department of Theoretical and Applied Mechanics. Taken together, these programs supported 16 postdoctoral faculty members at Illinois. Because the postdoctoral faculty members have a wide range of research interests, they have a significant impact on the research and teaching missions of the UIUC Department of Mathematics.

With regards to the VIGRE postdoctoral positions, the first three VIGRE Research Assistant Professors hired by the Department of Mathematics, beginning their terms in Fall 2000, were:

• Sean Sather-Wagstaff (commutative algebra)
• Karen Shuman (harmonic analysis, signal processing)
• Jozef Skokan (graph theory, combinatorics)

  Sean Sather-Wagstaff also was selected in 2001 as one of the NSF postdoctoral fellowship recipients.

The three VIGRE Research Assistant Professors hired by the Department of Mathematics to begin their terms in Fall 2001 were:

• Christopher French (topology, homotopy theory)
• Alica Miller (dynamical systems)
• David Sherman (operator theory)

Joining the department in Fall 2002 as VIGRE Research Assistant Professors were:

• Patrick Bahls (geometric group theory)
• Matthew Boylan (number theory)
• Donald Yau (topology, homotopy theory)

Joining the department in Fall 2004 are:

• Clifton Ealy (logic)
• Stephen Hartke (combinatorics)
• Prabhu Janakiraman (analysis and probability theory)

As of Fall 2002, the department had 9 VIGRE Research Assistant Professors and 8 Doob Research Assistant Professors representing many areas of mathematical research specialties; as of Fall 2003, 7 VIGRE Research Assistant Professors and 7 Doob Research Assistant Professors; and in Fall 2004, 6 VIGRE Research Assistant Professors and 10 Doob Research Assistant Professors.

For more information about these postdoctoral faculty, please visit the Postdoctoral Fellowship Program webpage. Each of these postdoctoral faculty members has a faculty mentor(s), and is involved in most aspects of the academic life of the Department of Mathematics.

For additional information about postdoctoral faculty VIGRE activities, see:

• Research Among Peers (RAPs)
• Across Level Peers (ALPs)
• Math 500