Mathematics

Local students in grades 7–12 who enjoy being challenged by math are invited to join the Nashville Math Circle, where they will learn from leading Vanderbilt faculty and gain creative math solving skills in a friendly, fun environment. Read More

This article was originally published on the Department of Mathematics’ website in 2009 to celebrate the 40th anniversary of the moon landing. Richard Arenstorf, professor emeritus of mathematics, died in 2014.   Richard Arenstorf The U.S. is celebrating the moon landing that occured 40 years ago on July 20,… Read More

Bozeman's tireless efforts to encourage women from underrepresented groups to pursue graduate degrees in mathematics were recognized by President Obama when he appointed her to the President’s Committee on the National Medal of Science. The 12-member committee is responsible for identifying nominees for the president’s consideration in selecting recipients for the prestigious award. Read More

A Vanderbilt team of scientists have developed a new formulation for cosmic viscosity which strongly favors the "Big Rip" end of the universe. Read More

Minor differences in language can have a large effect on how children think about learning materials, including the objects that make up a pattern. Read More

Vanderbilt mathematician Glenn Webb and NYU microbiologist Martin Blaser propose that the microbes which live on our bodies may have influenced the age structure of human populations in prehistoric times. Read More

Peabody's Melissa Gresalfi is co-author of a four-book series that provides a K-12 curricular toolkit for supporting systems thinking in the digital age. Read More

An iPhone app designed by three members of the VandyMobile club to improve the Vandy Vans experience is now available for free at the iTunes store. Read More

Kindergarten teachers report spending much of their math instructional time teaching students basic counting skills and how to recognize geometric shapes—skills the students have already mastered before ever setting foot in the kindergarten classroom, new research finds. Read More

This Week on VUCast, Vanderbilt’s weekly newscast  highlighting  research, experts, students, sports and everything Vanderbilt: Teaching through touch: How new technology is taking math to a new level Vandy students go inside ESPN What the mantra “no less” means to Commodore women’s basketball [vucastblurb]… Read More

When Vaughan Jones was 5 years old, he made his first mathematical discovery. Read More

Fields medalist brings informal style to Vanderbilt Vaughan Jones (Joe Howell/Vanderbilt) When Vaughan Jones was 5 years old, he made his first mathematical discovery. “I was learning the addition tables and realized that if one plus one equals two, then 100 plus 100 must equal 200 – something that… Read More

James Bradford (Vanderbilt University) James Bradford, dean of the Owen Graduate School of Management, has been named to the board of directors of Cracker Barrel Old Country Store. Vanderbilt’s Department of Mathematics is headquarters to Constructive Approximation, an internationally recognized mathematics journal recently ranked 10th out of 277 journals… Read More

Read about Vanderbilt faculty, staff, student and alumni's latest awards, appointments and achievements Read More

  An adult cicada (John Russell / Vanderbilt) Vanderbilt commencement speakers may have some unusual competition this year: Nashville’s largest brood of cicadas are predicted to emerge in May and hang around for about five or six weeks. Besides their practice of appearing in 13- or 17-year… Read More

I’ve always been fascinated, and occasionally frustrated, by the tendency of string, yarn, rope and wire – any thing that is long, thin and flexible – to knot and tangle. Fields Medal winner Vaughan F.R. Jones Clearly, I’m not the only one. Mathematicians have been studying knots… Read More