Program Description

While most major universities offer graduate programs in applied mathematics, operations research, and statistics in different departments, the faculty and graduate students at Stony Brook find many advantages to a unified mathematical sciences department. Many incoming graduate students are not ready to make a definite choice to specialize in one of the mathematical sciences and benefit from the broader education available at Stony Brook. A unified department is able to offer courses and nurture research programs that have limited appeal in any one discipline alone. At the same time, the department offers M.S. and Ph.D. tracks in computational applied mathematics, statistics, and operations research that are comparable to the training offered by specialized departments in each of these disciplines. A new track in computational biology is currently being developed.

There exists extensive interaction today among the mathematical sciences and other disciplines, both in academic and industrial research. All students in the department acquire a deep awareness of this interaction in courses and research projects and simply by living with fellow students studying in related mathematical science disciplines.

Students are given considerable flexibility in selecting their courses among the three tracks.
The master’s programs are viewed as “professional” programs, similar to an M.B.A. degree. The programs train students in modes of analysis and computational skills that they will need on a daily basis as statisticians, operations researchers, or numerical analysts.

The doctoral program trains students to do independent research and to advance the frontiers of knowledge. Most doctoral students first complete the coursework of one of the master’s tracks so that their research will be based on a sound practical foundation. By the end of the second year, they have typically joined a research team comprising senior and junior faculty, a few postdoctoral students, and a group of three to six other graduate students. Advanced graduate students help mentor newer ones. It is a stimulating and supportive environment for developing research. This results in most doctoral students completing the Ph.D. in five years, and some finish in four. The dropout rate for those who have passed the Ph.D. qualifying examination (taken in the second year) is very low.

The First Year
Students are immediately tracked into one of the three basic areas—computational applied mathematics, statistics, or operations research—although elective courses are commonly taken in other tracks. Students take three or four courses a semester. The computational applied mathematics track starts with courses in analysis (three courses), differential equations (two courses), and numerical analysis (three courses). The statistics track starts with courses in analytic
methods, applied probability, data analysis (two courses), regression, design of experiments, and mathematical statistics. The operations research track starts with courses in analytic methods, applied probability, mathematical programming, network flows, stochastic models, simulation, and applied statistics. Most first-year doctoral students are supported with teaching assistantships or on Fellowships.

The Second Year and Beyond
Master’s students usually complete their degrees in the third semester. Doctoral students take the Ph.D. qualifying examinations in the third semester. Students choose an exam in one out of three tracks and take a mandatory exam in undergraduate mathematics. Students have two chances to pass each exam. Doctoral students usually average two courses a semester in the second year and only an occasional course after that. Even before passing their qualifying exam, many students join a research team and start learning about a topic that could lead to their thesis. In the second year, doctoral students who started as teaching assistants move to research assistantships for financial support for the rest of their graduate study.

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