The Department of Mathematics and Statistics at ETSU, until very recently known as the Department of Mathematics, was one of the original departments formed in 1911 when East Tennessee State Normal School, now ETSU, was created. We are a vibrant teaching and research unit in which shared governance is the norm. Our mission encompasses teaching and research in Pure and Applied Mathematics, Statistics, Mathematics Education, and Applied Data Science. Our research strengths are in Discrete Mathematics, Mathematical Modeling and Computation, and Statistics. We currently have on board fifteen tenured or tenure-track faculty members whose responsibilities typically include both teaching and research. We also employ three lecturers, two adjunct faculty, and several graduate assistants whose primary role is teaching.
We offer a Bachelor’s degree in Mathematics and Master's degree in Mathematical Sciences and Applied Data Science. We currently have 55 undergraduate majors, each enrolled in one of four concentrations – Computational and Applied Mathematics, Mathematics Education, Mathematical Sciences, and Statistics; and 23 graduate students pursuing their MS degrees. We offer a minor in Mathematics and a minor in Statistics.
For majors we offer one-on-one interaction with our faculty to help students succeed in their career aspirations:
- Our department is outstanding in encouraging and supervising student research in undergraduate research projects.
- ALL students get to engage with faculty on either an independent research project or a team-based industrial project with industry partners.
- Many of our undergraduate Mathematics Majors have been co-authors on research papers published in scientific journals and have presented papers/posters at professional conferences. Numerous articles were published with undergraduates as coauthors.
- Students may apply for admission to the Honors in Discipline program, which allows students to take courses for honors credit.
- Students get smaller classes and more personal faculty attention.
- The Department sponsors the MATH/STAT club to help students engage with classmates and to socialize.
- In the spring, the department has an academic honors banquet to recognize students and faculty.
We provide a strong academic program which will prepare you for the future no matter what direction you may choose:
- Many of our graduates have attended graduate schools (e.g., University of Rochester, Clemson, Iowa State, Arizona State University, Kennesaw State, University of South Florida, University of Delaware, University of Minnesota, University of Nebraska - Lincoln, University of California - Merced, and University of Mississippi).
- Many students have gone on to work in local school systems (e.g., SHHS, Chuckey-Doak, Dobyns-Bennett EXCEL), community colleges (e.g., Northeast State, Walters State), and universities (University of Portland).
- Our graduates have found work, both locally and nationally in industries (e.g., Eastman, Crown Labs, UPS, Nationwide Insurance, SAS).
- Many of our courses prepare students for a career in data.
Among the externally funded programs the department currently participates in are
- The State of Tennessee Governor’s School on Scientific Models and Data Analysis (Price)
- Eastman Scholar MathElites Program (Stephens)
- Eastman/Niswonger Summer Program for High School Teachers (Knisley)
Past externally funded programs the department participated in are
- S-STEM
- Other NSF support has been received in the past from NSF-IGMS and the Institute for Mathematics and its Applications (D. Knisley), NSF-STEP (Godbole),NSF-ATE Project, (co-PI: Godbole), NSF-UBM (J. Knisley), NSF-CCLI (J. Knisley, Hong, Huang, Seier, Price).
- HHMI Project, Symbiosis (co-PIs J Knisley, Helfgott and Seier)
Please do stop by when you are in the neighborhood. I think you will love what you see.