Department Mission Statement

The central goal of the Department of Mathematics at the University of Arizona is to provide intellectual leadership in the mathematical sciences that is of direct benefit to the state and its citizens and commands national and international respect for its depth of scholarship.

Specifically our goals are:

• to communicate the beauty, utility, and excitement of mathematics and to be at the frontiers of new discoveries;
• to prime the pipeline pump and prepare a broad and ethnically diverse spectrum of entering students, enabling them to meet the challenges of University programs whose quality will continue to climb;
• to build a first-rate, enthusiastic and vigorous faculty blending youth and maturity in a variety of overlapping fields across the broad spectrum of mathematical sciences with the dual aims that each individual is internationally recognized for the depth and originality of his or her contributions and that the collaborations lead to an environment in which the whole is greater than the sum of the parts;
• not to do all things, but to do well those things we do;
• to provide flexible yet solid undergraduate and graduate programs which challenge the intellect, cater to the diverse interests of our majors and which complement, particularly at the graduate level, our internationally recognized Interdisciplinary Program in Applied Mathematics;
• to encourage and foster creativity and scholarship in their broadest possible interpretations;
• to encourage students in the belief that they gain most from the university experience by developing self-discipline, self-reliance and, under appropriately supervised conditions, by giving full rein to their own creativity;
• to embrace the notion that change such as is manifested in computer technology and educational reform can be beneficial, enhance learning and enrich the intellectual environment;
• to be a resource in the mathematical sciences for other disciplines whose own activities have an ever-increasing need for the power of mathematics;
• to work closely, not only with colleagues from other disciplines within the University, but also with colleagues from the local schools and community colleges who share the responsibility of ensuring the flow of a mathematically literate and confident generation of new Students;
• to be part of a University which aspires to be the best and which pursues policies compatible with this goal.