3. Postdoctoral Program - MSRI

16. Evidence Already Pointing to Long-Term Success of Program
From the 2007 MSRI-UP, 8 of the 12 undergraduates are currently enrolled in graduate
programs. Two of these 2007 program alumni, Gina Pomann and Talea Mayo, received the
prestigious and highly competitive NSF Graduate Research Fellowship Awards in 2010.
From the 2008 program, 13 students are currently in graduate programs of the 14 who
have finished college.
Six of the nine 2009 students who graduated last year are in doctoral programs, five of
those in the mathematical sciences.
17. Conclusion
Like the three summers that preceded it, reviews of the MSRI-UP from its students, staff, and
guests have been overwhelming positive. The program is certainly perceived as an overall
success, though the real fruit—that of achieving the program’s primary goal to increase the
number of graduate degrees in the mathematical sciences, especially doctorates, earned by U.S.
citizens and permanent residents by cultivating heretofore untapped mathematical talent—will
take years to realize.
The long-term data that will confirm that the MSRI-UP objectives contribute towards the
goal of increasing the number of Latinos/Chicanos, African-American and Native Americans
earning graduate degrees in the mathematical sciences will not be available for several years.
The Directors are committed to maintain the relationships developed with each cohort of
students in the program in order to monitor and collect data on the MSRI-UP students’ academic
progress and, whenever possible, to provide them with additional academic opportunities.
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