Department Awards

This fund was established in 1995 in memory of A. Verne Flint, who was a member of the Math Department’s faculty.  It is to be used to provide scholarships for students enrolled in the Department of Mathematics.

This fund was established in 1976 from the estate of Alice Webber Glover to be used for scholarships for students enrolled in the University of Michigan’s Mathematical Department, especially those in actuarial science.

The Allen Shields Memorial Fellowship was established in 1989 by Smilka Zdravkovska, an Associate Editor of Mathematical Reviews, in memory of her husband, Professor Allen Shields. Professor Shields was born in 1927 in New York, NY. He received his B.S. from City College in 1949 and his Ph.D. in Mathematics from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology in 1952.  Professor Shields taught at Tulane University before joining the faculty at the University of Michigan in 1956. During his career, he was a visitor at New York University, Université de ParisSud,MittagLeffler Institute in Stockholm, University of California Los Angeles, and Steklov Mathematical Institute in Leningrad. At the University of Michigan, Professor Shields served as Chair from 1975-1977 and from 1980-1981. 

In 1979, the University honored him with a Distinguished Faculty Achievement Award. He also directed twenty-six doctoral dissertations, more than any other faculty member in the history of the Mathematics Department at the University of Michigan.  Professor Shields gained worldwide recognition for his research in topological semigroups, complex analysis, and operator theory. He was especially well known for his work combining functional analysis with problems of classical analysis. During the last three years of his life, Professor Shields wrote a series of historical articles for the “Years Ago” column of The Mathematical Intelligencer. After his death in 1989 from cancer, a special issue (Spring 1990) was dedicated to his memory. The fellowship, established in his memory, is intended to provide financial support for graduatestudents.

This fund was established in 2005 by the Allotta Family to provide scholarship support to a student in the Mathematics Department. 

This scholarship was established in 1970 in memory of Emeritus Professor Arthur H. Copeland, Sr., by his wife Dorothy Copeland, and son, Arthur H. Copeland, Jr.  Professor Copeland, a pioneer in the development of probability theory, was born in 1898.  He graduated from Amherst College with a B.S. in 1921 and received his doctorate in Mathematics from Harvard University 1926.   

Professor Copeland taught at Rice University and the University of Buffalo before joining the faculty at the University of Michigan in 1929 as an assistant professor.  He was promoted to full professor in 1943 and retired from the department in 1968.  He was the author of numerous papers, primarily in the foundations of probability, mechanics, and analysis.  His range of interests also included game theory, geometry, algebra, and trigonometry by vector methods.  Professor Copeland was a member of the American Mathematical Society, the Mathematical Association of America, and the Institute of Mathematical Statistics, in which he was an elected fellow.  He died in 1970. 

This scholarship is intended to provide financial support for Mathematics graduate and undergraduate students engaged in various scholarly or research projects.

This fund was established in 1981 to provide support to graduate students in Mathematics.

This fund was established in 2004 in honor of Cameron and John Courtney for graduate students studying mathematics.

The Carroll V. Newsom Scholarship was established in 1990 in memory of Professor Carroll V. Newsom.  Professor Newsom, born in 1905, was known as a mathematics prodigy and received his first teaching position at Trinity University in San Antonio, TX, at the age of 14.  He received his B.A. in Mathematics from College of Emporia and his Ph.D. from the University of Michigan.   

He taught for 11 years at the University of New Mexico, the University of Michigan, Kansas State Teachers College, and the University of Chicago.  He was editor of the American Mathematical Monthly and a co-founder of the Association for Symbolic Logic.  Professor Newsom served as associate commissioner for higher education for New York State for five years and as assistant commissioner for two years.  He joined New York University as an executive vice president in 1955 and was appointed president one year later.   

Professor Newsom was considered a pioneer in educational television.  He edited one of the first books on the subject, “A Television Policy for Education,” for the American Council on Education.  He was also a member of the Joint Committee on Educational Television and chairman of the board for the Metropolitan Educational Television Association. 

He resigned from New York University in 1961, taking a position as a senior vice president with Prentice Hall, Inc. and later became the president of the publishing house.  He worked as a vice president for RCA before retiring 1969.  Professor Newsom died in 1990.  The scholarship, established in his memory, is intended for financial support for graduate students.

This fund was established in 2015 from the bequest of Carolyn Dana Lewis in honor of her husband, Professor Emeritus Donald J. Lewis.  Professor Lewis was on the Michigan mathematics faculty from 1961 to 2000. He served as the department chair from 1984-1994.  The fund will provide graduate student fellowships. 

This scholarship was established in memory of Emeritus Professor Edward Simpson Everett and his wife, Amanda Cowen Everett, in 1968.  Professor Everett, born in 1883, spent one year (1900-1901) at Trinity College before becoming an editorial writer and cartoonist in Rhode Island, including several years with the Providence Journal.  In 1910 he moved to Chicago where he continued to work as a journalist and cartoonist.  He also spent time as a staff member for Dan Beard, a pioneer in founding the Boy Scouts of America. 

In 1911 he entered the University of Michigan and received his B.A. in 1914.  He continued his education at the University of Michigan and received his Master’s (1915) and Ph.D. (1921) in English.  In 1922, he joined the University of Michigan as an assistant professor in the Department of Rhetoric (renamed the Department of English in 1930).  He retired from the Department of English in 1953 and died in 1967. 

Professor Everett’s area of scholarly interest was the Victorian novel, particularly concerning the works of Charles Dickens.  His professional concern regarding the teaching of composition is reflected in his co-authorship of The Michigan Deskbook of English, published in 1935. 

Professor Everett’s loyalty to his alma mater is attested by his generous contributions to the Phoenix Project and to the Departments of Physics, Chemistry, and Mathematics. 

This scholarship, established in the memory of Professor Everett and his wife, is intended to provide financial support for graduate students.

This prize was established by the Department of Mathematics in honor of Professor Edwin Wilkinson Miller shortly after his sudden death in 1942.  Professor Miller, born in 1905, graduated with a BA from the University of Michigan in 1928 and continued on to graduate studies at Harvard University.  He soon discovered that he preferred the atmosphere of the University of Michigan and returned to complete his graduate studies; he received his Ph.D. in Mathematics from the University of Michigan in 1930 and subsequently joined the Department as an instructor.   

He remained in the Department (instructor, 1930-1936; assistant professor, 1936-1941, associate professor, 1941-1942) until his death.  Throughout his professional career, Professor Miller demonstrated excellence in both the classroom and in his research endeavors in topology and function theory. 

The prize, established in his memory, is intended to provide financial support for graduate students.

This fund was established in 2005 from gifted funds to be used to support diversity recruiting within the Mathematics Department.  The fund is named in honor of Emeritus Professor Maxwell Reade, who championed this cause for many years with the Department and College.

This fund was established in from a bequest of Mr. G. Cleaves Byers in 1996 to be used for scholarships or other purposes that help young mathemacians (graduates students or young faculty less than two years past the Ph.D.) seeking academic careers to achieve excellence in collegiate mathematics education. 

The Gabrielle & Sophie Rainich Fellowship was established in 1964 by Emeritus Professor G.Y. Rainich in memory of his mother, Gabrielle, and his wife, Sophie.   

George Yuri Rainich, née Yuri Germanovich Rabinovich in 1886 in Odessa, Russia, studied at the Universities of Novorossia, Göttingen, and Munich.  He taught at the Odessa School of Mathematics, where he graduated in 1904, the University of Kazan, and the University of Novorossia before coming to the United States in 1923. 

At that time, Rabinovich changed his name to Rainich.  He became a Johnston Scholar at Johns Hopkins University before joining the faculty at the University of Michigan in 1926, where he continued for 30 years until his retirement in 1956.  Professor Rainich died in 1968. 

Rainich’s best known work was in relativity, particularly a series of papers in the 1920’s where he showed that the mathematics of the general theory that Einstein used as a model for gravitation also supplied one for electromagnetism.  He also published an influential book on the subject of relativity theory.  Within the Department he was universally regarded as a superb teacher and expositor and served as the Chair of the Doctoral Committee for many years. 

Noted for his interest in and support of graduate students, Rainich established the Gabrielle & Sophie Rainich Fellowship in memory of his mother and wife in 1964.   His mother, Gabrielle, succeeded in leaving the Soviet Union in 1930.  She was the author of the first Russian-English mathematical dictionary, published in 1950, and died in 1953.  His wife, Sophie, was a dentist and died in 1963. 

The fellowship is intended to provide financial support for graduate students.  The awards are dispersed to the discretion of the Chairman.

This fund was established in late 2014 to be used to support graduate students in the Department of Mathematics.  Anoop Prasad (the son of Indu and Gopal) increased the endowment in early 2015.  These funds are intended to be used for non-actuarial/financial students and non-applied mathematics students.

This endowed fund to support mathematics graduate students. The fund honors Joel Smoller, a faculty member in the Department of Mathematics who passed away in 2017.

This fund was established in 2007 from contributions of friends and family.  Juha Heinonen, Professor of Mathematics, passed away on October 30, 2007.  He arrived in the Department in 1988 as a postdoctoral assistant professor, and became a professor in 2000.  He was a leading researcher in geometric function theory, having published two books and numerous articles with many collaborators.  Most recently, Juha served as Associate Chair for Graduate Studies in the Department, where he mentored many young mathematicians.  Juha Heinonen Memorial Graduate Student Fellowship was established in the University of Michigan Department of Mathematics.  Juha gave tirelessly of his time as a mentor to young mathematicians and this fund will help to carry on his spirit of support and guidance. 

The Luthur Claborn Mathematics Endowment was established in 1968 in memory of Professor Luther Claborn by his wife, Mary Lee Claborn, following his sudden death in 1967.  Professor Claborn, born in 1934, received his B.A. in Mathematics from the University of Michigan in 1955.  He then continued on to receive his Ph.D. in Mathematics from the University of Michigan in 1963.   

He had taught at Wartburg College (Waverly, IA), Cornell College (Mt. Vernon, IA) and the University of Illinois-Urbana.  Professor Claborn received a tenure-track position at Rice University in Austin, TX, and was en route to his new position when he was killed in an automobile accident in Tulsa, Oklahoma, which also claimed the life of his young daughter.  He was a member of the American Mathematical Society and the Mathematical Association of America.   

This scholarship, established in his memory, is intended to provide financial support for graduate students.

This fund was established in 2013 to be used for need-based undergraduate or graduate students in the College of Literature, Science and the Arts majoring in mathematics.

This fund was established in 2003 from the annual solicitation of mathematics alumni.  The fund will provide general support to a number of deserving mathematics students at the undergraduate or graduate level, awarded at the discretion of the Chair.

This fund was established in 2003 from the trust agreement of Alta B. West and from funds from non-alumni donors.   The fund will provide general support to a number of deserving mathematics students at the undergraduate or graduate level, awarded at the discretion of the Chair.

This endowed fund will be used to award a prize for the best Ph.D. thesis among applied mathematics graduate students.  The award honors the memory of Professor Peter Smereka, an early and integral member in the creation of the AIM program, who served in the Department from 1994 until his untimely death in 2015.

This fund was established in 2007 as part of a match from the University President’s fund to provide graduate support in Mathematics.  Donors gifts were matched by the University. 

The Mathematics Department established the Sumner B. Myers Prize for the best Ph.D. thesis in mathematics each year.  The award honors the memory of Professor Myers, a well-known differential geometer who served in the department from 1936 to his untimely death in 1955. No award is made unless a thesis is judged to be truly distinguished.

This fund was established in 2016 to be used to support graduate students in the Department of Mathematics. 

The Wirt and Mary Cornwell Prize is awarded, typically on an annual basis, to a graduate student who shall have demonstrated outstanding "intellectual curiosity" and exceptional "promise of original study and creative work" in their field of study, according to the terms of the bequest from the Cornwells.