Honors, Awards, and Scholarships

Summer Math Scholarship:
The Summer Math Scholarship supports an undergraduate who wishes to pursue individual research with a faculty mentor. The Summer Math Foundation, Inc. of Amherst, NY has funded the program to begin in 2017, and simultaneously established an endowment to support the program for future summers. Each fall, potential scholarship recipients will apply jointly with a willing faculty mentor, writing up a description of the proposed research and the hoped for outcomes. The mathematics department’s undergraduate studies committee will select the winner. During the Spring semester the student will register for an independent study, including literature review and discussion of research tools. The six-week full-time summer program will include a stipend of $3000. The following academic year the research will be written up into a senior honors thesis. Learn more about the Summer Math Scholarship.

Harry Merrill Gehman Scholarship:
The Gehman Scholarship is awarded each spring to one or more mathematics majors who have a demonstrated interest in teaching. In 1995 Robert C. Luippold, University of Buffalo Class of 1940 and 1942, created the endowment for this scholarship in order to honor the memory of his mentor, Dr. Harry Merrill Gehman. Dr. Gehman came to UB in 1929 where he served as chairman of the mathematics department for 33 years until 1962. He retired from UB in June of 1968 with the title professor emeritus. He died in 1981.

Harriet F. Montague Award: 
Given each year to a junior who has demonstrated "intellectual and creative promise in mathematics." It was established  to commemorate the career of Dr. Harriet F. Montague, who was one of the early graduates in our own mathematics program, and who returned to chair the department for many years.

Hazel and John Wilson Scholarship: 
The Wilson Scholarship is awarded each spring to one or more outstanding mathematics majors, on the basis of financial need, academic achievement and potential. John Wilson was a 1967 University at Buffalo graduate in Mathematics.  Until 2000 he was employed as a mathematician at Calspan, where he led a group responsible for numerical analysis and applications. On his death in 2006, he left half his estate to endow this scholarship in his and his mother’s names. His generous bequest was to recognize the opportunity he felt UB and the mathematics program gave him, and to help provide similar opportunities to others. The general criteria requires the student applicant to have a minimum 3.0 GPA, and be a full-time Math Major with 40 credit hours completed.

Various honors are available to mathematics majors based on grades and/or the writing of a senior honors thesis. These are described below.

Latin Honors: Latin Honors is based solely on the UB Cumulative GPA, and not on the overall GPA. Also, a minimum of 60 credit hours of coursework must be completed at UB, 54 of which need to be graded credits. Read the policy for Latin Honors as described in the UB Undergraduate Catalog.

Departmental Honors: In order to earn Departmental Honors, a student must:

• Complete an honors thesis under the guidance of a faculty advisor. Typically the student registers for MTH 499 Independent Study in the Fall semester and MTH 497 Honors Thesis in Mathematics in the Spring semester, although the timing is flexible, and honors theses are sometimes completed before the student’s senior Spring.
• Complete at least 50 percent of major credit hours at UB.
• Maintain a program GPA as required.

Students completing the above will receive Department Honors "With Honors and Distinction," "With High Honors and Distinction" or "With Highest Honors and Distinction," based on the program GPA.

Departmental Distinction:  Students not completing the requirement of the honors program can still graduate "With Distinction," "With High Distinction" or "With Highest Distinction" based on their GPA.