Mathematics

Department homepage 

math@rice.edu

The Mathematics department is one of the four inaugural departments on the Rice campus. In fact, Rice’s first President, Edgar Odell Lovett, was a mathematician. Mathematics at Rice is well-known for its cutting-edge research and dynamic faculty.

Mathematics underlies all scientific and engineering disciplines as well as economics and other social sciences, and this influence continues to grow. With 15 faculty members and 29 graduate students, Rice’s Mathematics department teaches over 1,700 undergraduate students each year, each taking an average of three classes. The breadth of Mathematics topics is impressive given the department’s size and demonstrates its excellence and reach into all other disciplines on campus. It is no surprise to learn that while some of Rice’s top mathematics students, the Bray Prize winners, have gone into academic mathematics, most graduates have gone into fields such as the biosciences, physics, computer science, law, and even philosophy. Disciplinary research areas represented within the department include Algebraic and Geometric Topology, Ergodic Theory, Combinatorics, Number Theory, Differential Geometry, Algebraic Geometry, Differential Equations, Real and Complex Analysis, and Mathematical Physics. The faculty has received many honors in research. Notably, all of the junior Mathematics faculty hired in the past twenty years have won Sloan Research Fellowships.

The department’s mission is “to achieve distinction in research and graduate education while providing an undergraduate education that is unsurpassed.”

Brendan Hassett | Department Chair | 713.348.5261 | hassett@rice.edu

Enrollment Fall 2008
Undergraduate Students   72
Graduate Students            32

Graduates 2008
B.S.      22 (48 which includes those with math as a second major)
Ph.D.    5

tenure-track faculty   15

Research Areas

• Algebraic and Geometric Topology
• Ergodic Theory
• Combinatorics
• Number Theory
• Differential Geometry
• Algebraic Geometry
• Differential Equations
• Real and Complex Analysis

Degrees offered
BA in Mathematics
PhD in Mathematics