Skip to Main Content

AMS Undergraduate Opportunity Awards: Creating Opportunity for Mathematics Students

Since 1991, over 200 promising math students have received awards to ensure that financial hardship does not stand in the way of completing their degree program, thanks to a bequest from the estate of Waldemar J. and Barbara G. Trjitzinsky, along with their daughter Juliet B.

In recent years, a new award — the Edmund Landau Award — joined the Trjitzinsky Awards to expand the Undergraduate Opportunity Awards program and support more students in the future.

Thanks to these generous donors, this program benefits mathematics students when they need it most. Interviews with past awardees show that along with the monetary support comes a strong sense of affirmation that encouraged them to persevere in their studies. Read more about past recipients and their paths in mathematics.

This award honors Waldemar J. Trjitzinsky

WALDEMAR J. TRJITZINSKY MEMORIAL AWARDS

Waldemar J. Trjitzinsky (1901–1973) was a longtime member of the mathematics department at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign.

He is remembered for his notable contributions in quasi-analytic functions and partial differential equations, and for the exceptional care he showed toward students, for whom he sometimes made personal efforts to ensure that financial considerations would not hinder their studies.

When his wife Barbara died, she left funds to create the awards program in memory of her husband.

Photo courtesy of the Department of Mathematics at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign

Make a Gift

 
This award honors Edmund Landau

EDMUND LANDAU AWARD

Edmund Landau (1877-1938) was a Jewish German mathematician who taught at the University of Berlin and held a chair at the University of Göttingen. He helped establish the Mathematics Institute at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem.

Landau's four problems in number theory, presented at the 1912 International Congress of Mathematicians, remain unsolved to this day. He also made important contributions to complex analysis and is known for his publications, including the Handbuch der Lehre von der Verteilung der Primzahlen.

This award was created by an anonymous donor.

Make a Gift

 
This award honors William Lockwood Forster

WILLIAM LOCKWOOD FORSTER MEMORIAL AWARD

This award honors William Lockwood Forster (1910-1977). Born in Colorado, William graduated from Hollywood High School in Los Angeles in the late 1920s, with the dream of pursuing mathematics at the University of Southern California. However, due to family financial circumstances, he instead worked in the oil industry his entire career.

His family established this award to ensure that future generations of undergraduates would have the support they need to help them complete their studies.

Photo courtesy of the Forster family

Make a Gift

 

To make these annual awards, the AMS randomly selects a number of geographically distributed AMS institutional member schools, who in turn issue one-time awards to beginning mathematical students to assist them in pursuit of careers in mathematics. The number of recipients and scholarship amount vary; in 2023, ten undergraduates each received awards of $3,000. There is no application process for these awards. If you have any questions, contact the Programs department.

Your gift to these three Undergraduate Opportunity Awards will support rising mathematicians across the country. You may also create your own named fund to create an Undergraduate Opportunity Award to benefit future generations of math students in need. To make a gift or for more information, please email or call Douglas Allen, Director of Development at 401-455-4126