3. Postdoctoral Program - MSRI

esearchers studying elliptic curves, and they attended a presentation by invited guest Professor
Ken Ribet from the University of California, Berkeley.
10. Graduate School Workshops and Individual Academic Advising of MSRI-UP Students
Dr. Colette Patt, Director of Diversity Programs in the Physical Sciences at the University of
California, Berkeley visited MSRI-UP and gave a workshop on applying for graduate school and
attaining fellowship funding for graduate school. The workshop addressed questions/issues such
as the significant differences between masters and doctoral programs, the funding opportunities
available for most graduate programs, and the benefits of obtaining a graduate degree. In
addition to this basic information, Dr. Patt also presented successful techniques for applying to
graduate school. She discussed the elements that constitute a good statement of purpose, the
types of professors from whom one should seek letters of recommendation, and successful
techniques for addressing not-so-stellar semesters. Dr. Patt also discussed successful strategies
for compiling a winning national fellowship application. She also provided the students with
related written material. Her presentation and the information she provided were very well
received by the program students.
11. Additional Workshops & Panels
The program held workshops that were devoted to the development of skills that are important to
every mathematician. One was devoted to learning LaTeX, the typesetting program most widely
used by mathematicians. This workshop was designed and run by MSRI-UP Co-director Herbert
Medina during his first-week visit to the program. These skills were needed as MSRI-UP
students prepared their technical report and transparencies using LaTeX, gave an end-of-program
oral presentation using Beamer presentation slides, and used LaTeX to prepare their research
posters.
The program presented a panel discussion by current graduate students for the
undergraduates. The panel was moderated by the program’s two graduate student assistants, and
four mathematics and statistics doctoral students at various stages served, one from Purdue
University, a student of Professor Goins, and three from the University of California, Berkeley.
They spoke about their graduate-school experiences with the aim of “demystifying graduate
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