Michael Zieve Department of Mathematics University of Michigan

zieve at umich.edu http://www.math.lsa.umich.edu/~zieve/

Research Experiences for Undergraduates

I have mentored undergraduate research projects during the summers of

2012   (16 students)
2011   (4 students)
2010    (3 students)
2002    (5 students)

My REU's give students the opportunity to participate in high-caliber professional research, and aim to produce papers which can be published in such journals as the Annals of Mathematics, Inventiones Mathematicae, and the Journal of the American Mathematical Society. Although it is not always possible to attain this standard, by aiming so high I can let students experience the thrill of working on major problems of serious interest, as well as teaching them how the progress in their research should guide them in modifying the original problems in order to produce significant results. Typically the problems I propose require students to learn and combine advanced tools from several areas of math, which lets students see how the different areas impact one another, while also teaching them how to use results and subjects which they had not previously mastered. These skills, and this approach to mathematics, will be valuable for the students in their subsequent research, while also helping them get the most out of the courses they take.

I will not mentor REU students in 2013, due to an NSF policy change which makes it impossible for the NSF to support the type of REU that I run. I am currently seeking other sources of funding.