Graduate students are encouraged to attend (and, if possible, lecture at) professional meetings, research conferences and workshops, which are an important way to learn about new mathematics and make professional contacts. The AMS Mathematics Calendar is a good resource for finding out what's available.
Of course, attending such meetings costs money, especially if they are not in our local area. Here's the recommended way to look for funding.
- Sometimes their are funds for specific meetings set aside for graduate students. Check the web page of the conference, or contact the organizers.
- Ask your advisor: he or she may have grant money that can be used to defray some or all of your travel costs.
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The mathematics department, and the graduate school, both have a modest amount
of money budgeted for student travel to conferences.
Before making such a request for these funds, you should
first look into the two sources of funding mentioned above (the
conference organizers and your advisor).
To request money from these sources:
- Download the graduate school request for travel support form. This is used both by the graduate school and internally by the math department.
- Fill out the form.
- On the back of the form, indicate the efforts you have made to obtain alternate funding (see above) and the amount of funding you were able to obtain.
- Return the form to the graduate secretary in Hill 306. Your request will be considered internally and, if appropriate, forwarded to the graduate school. Note that the graduate school acts on requests at two specific times (Mar 1, October 1), but the math department will consider such requests all year. To be considered for submission to the graduate school, a request should be submitted to the graduate secretary at least a week before the deadline.