The College has announced the creation of the Jack Byrne Scholars Program in Math and Society after a donation of $20 million from Dorothy Byrne in honor of her late husband. The College will match the gift with a contribution of $5 million from the $100 million gift to support academic excellence that the College received in 2014.
The program has three components, according to the College. First, Dartmouth will name 32 undergraduate Byrne Scholars — eight per class year — who will be eligible for grants that will sponsor math-related projects and research. Second, the College will award the John J. Byrne Jr. Prize in Mathematics — a $35,000 graduate fellowship — to a member of the senior class each year. Third, three new professorships focused on mathematics applied to societal issues will be endowed.
Byrne said in an email that she chose to honor her husband with this gift because of his interest in both mathematics and education.
“He never lost his enthusiasm formathematics and was aware of the powerof mathematics to solve the world’s complex problems,” she said.
She said the late Byrne would have been pleased to play a part in the lives of math scholars at the College and help to foster collaboration between the math department, the department of computer science and the Tuck School of Business.
Byrne said the College continues to play a role in her family’s lives, and added that they are grateful for the impact it has had on their lives. She said she hopes that the program created through the gift will further the interests of mathematicians at the College and lead them to enjoy the subject in the way that her husband did.
Mathematics department chair Dana Williams said that the gift is a huge opportunity for the department. He said he hopes the gift will attract talented students with an interest in mathematics to come study at the College as well as provide the department with more money to support scholars.
“One of the interesting things about the gift is it contributes to the undergraduate mission, the graduate mission and the research mission of the College all in one gift,” Williams said.
Mathematics professor Dan Rockmore, who said he will help arrange the program but not oversee it, also highlighted how the program will help with recruiting efforts.
He compared the program to the actions of John Kemeny, the College’s 13th president, who travelled around the country trying to recruit talented mathematics students.
“There will be more excellent, mathematically- and quantitatively-minded students on campus interested in taking those courses, and it’s going to do a lot for the overall intellectual environment,” he said.
Rockmore said one key benefit of the donation is the recruitment of the new professors to the College, who will be working in the fields of statistics, probability and the mathematics of decision-making.
“These professorships will add to the growing community of researchers and teachers here who are interested in applying mathematics to the social sciences and economic sciences,” he said.
These professors will be able to advise students with similar interests and offer courses related to this area of mathematics, Rockmore said.
Williams said that the new professors will help the visibility of the department because two of the positions will be distinguished professorships. He added that, with these professors, the department will be able to offer more courses in applied math, which is becoming increasingly popular at the College.
The department hopes to begin recruiting for these new positions over the 2015-2016 academic year, Williams said, adding that the earliest the department can expect a new professor to take up residence is the year after that.
Williams said that the mechanics of the program will change over time. If a Byrne scholar decides not to major in math, he said, they will remain a scholar, but their grant money must be spent on projects with mathematical components.
Rockmore said that current students will also have the opportunity to enter the program based on interest and ability. Students in the program will have funds available to them to support their research, allow them to travel to conferences and access special programming.
Rockmore said programs like this serve to recognize outstanding achievement in students, and said it is important to have a mechanism that brings students together over a common interest.
“The extent to which you can support a student and give them the experience of being in an earnest, engaged, intellectual community is an important thing, which all colleges strive to support,” he said.
Jared Lichtman ’18, one of the first Byrne scholars to be named, said that he was surprised when he was invited to the program. He added that he was not previously aware of any programs like this in the mathematics department.
He is currently planning on majoring in math and said the program will bring more attention to the mathematics department as well as draw math majors closer together.
