AMS Graduate Student Blog

by Alex Levin

When I began my first math research project a few summers ago, I thought that I was fairly good at communicating mathematics.  By that time, I had written up quite a few problem sets for various classes, and had even been a TA for a freshman math course.  Thus, I was very surprised by how difficult the process of writing a math paper actually was, and especially astounded by the fact that the hardest part proved to be the introduction.

I spent that summer at Williams College’s undergraduate research program. My collaborators were extremely strong, and the experience proved very educational and productive.  There were many great moments throughout that summer, but one of my favorite happened during an informal group discussion one evening; we realized that a little calculation I had been doing on the side actually had some very interesting connections with some of our other work.  Eventually we decided to make these connections the basis of a new paper, which would present our main results from the new perspective – and in a manner more suitable for a broad spectrum of readers. Continue reading ‘The Hardest Part of Writing a Math Paper’ »

by Brian Katz

In high school, we had guidance counselors to help us make a plan; in  college, we had a mentor or dean to make sure we were on the path to our  goals. But who fills the role of career guide during graduate school?The most natural answer is the thesis advisor. The problem with this is that  most research faculty who produce students only have experience getting research jobs. So what part of their advice should those of us interested in jobs that balance teaching and research take? Over this past year, while applying for jobs, I have realized that the spirit of their advice is exactly right, though some of the details are a little different: as a graduate student, you are a bit of an unknown quantity, and the mark of a strong application is one that makes it clear what kind of peer, coworker, and faculty member you will be. In the end, you will be measured by the evidence that you can provide to support your CV and the quality of impressions that you have made on other people.  Continue reading ‘Getting a (Teaching-Research) Job’ »

By Asher Auel

In the Fall semester of 2006, a small group of graduate students at the University of Pennsylvania embarked on the time-honored tradition of organizing a reading seminar.  Independent of any course or professor, we decided to read through Cornell and Silverman’s ”Arithmetic Geometry” to understand the proof of Faltings’ theorem (the Mordell conjecture).  While it was great fun for the semester, we learned some lessons that we’d like to pass on to those of you who wish to start up a reading seminar on your own. Continue reading ‘Organizing a Reading Seminar’ »