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Graduate Assistantships in Developing Countries (GRAID)

Supporting Mathematics Graduate Students in the Countries that Need it Most

Jose Maria Balmaceda
C. Herbert Clemens
Ingrid Daubechies
Angel R. Pineda
Galina Rusu
Michel Waldschmidt

Introduction

In most of the world there is little support for graduate students in mathematics. This leads to a large fraction of mathematical talent not being fully developed since access to educational opportunities depends strongly on where someone is born. One program that addresses this problem is the Graduate Assistantships in Developing Countries (GRAID) from the Commission for Developing Countries (CDC) of the International Mathematical Union (IMU). GRAID provides scholarships for graduate students in mathematics in low-income countries.

The origin of the program was a grassroots effort where the need to support graduate students was identified while sending volunteer faculty to teach graduate courses in Cambodia. The faculty could provide instruction but the ability for the students to spend the time needed was limited by their need to work (often a full-time job) to sustain themselves while completing the master’s degree. GRAID was adopted as an IMU CDC program in early 2017. What started with an individual mathematician supporting a particular student has become one of the programs of the CDC which has supported 31 students in 14 countries in just 6 years.

Recent publications have shared an overall view of the IMU Ken20, the Breakout Graduate Fellowships Dum19, and the Volunteer Lecturer Program Ses18. In this paper, we share the work of GRAID. We begin by sharing the stories of two collaborations supported by GRAID, one in Uganda and another in Nepal. We then describe the structure of the program and summarize the outcomes.

Uganda: Algebraic Geometry

One of the groups funded early in GRAID (2018) was at University of Makerere in Uganda with David Ssevviiri as the principal investigator (PI) and Michael Wemyss as the international partner (IP) at the University of Glasgow, UK. There were two students in that group, Caroline Namanya and Brian Makonzi.

In 2021, Caroline Namanya received an IMU Breakout Fellowship Dum19 halfway through her four-year PhD trajectory and so is finishing her degree under that program. The IMU Breakout Fellowships have significantly more support for students and having a GRAID-supported student receive such a competitive award is an indicator of the quality of work being done. Brian Makonzi already has a paper accepted for publication in the Journal of Noncommutative Geometry. He is expected to complete his PhD in 2023.

In this project, the GRAID support provided a catalyst for a visit from the students to the PI’s institution (Figure 1) for both students and a larger fellowships for one of the students. The collaboration and the opportunities facilitated by GRAID are examples of what is possible with a small amount of support.

Figure 1.

Hiking near Glencoe, Scotland, during a research visit, from left to right, Michael Wemyss (IP), Caroline Namanya (GRAID-supported student), David Ssevviiri (PI), Brian Makonzi (GRAID-supported student).

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Nepal: Mathematical Biology

Figure 2.

From left to right, Anjana Pokharel (GRAID-supported student), Naveen K. Vaidya (IP), Kedar Nath Uprety (PI), Khagendra Adhikari (GRAID-supported student), Ramesh Gautam (GRAID-supported student). This photo was taken at the 2022 Infectious Disease Modeling Workshop in Nepal.

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The group in Nepal was first funded in 2020 with Kedar Nath Uprety of Tribhuvan University as the PI with Naveen K. Vaidya as the IP at San Diego State University, USA. The group has three GRAID-supported students Anjana Pokharel, Kagendra Adhikari, and Ramesh Gautam.

These students have participated as co-organizers and presenters in national and international programs including a Summer Research School of the International Center for Pure and Applied Mathematics (CIMPA) in Bangladesh (May 2022), a four-day workshop in infectious disease modeling in Nepal (July 2022), and a disease modeling lab session: “Solving basic disease models using MATLAB” with collaboration between Nepal and San Diego State University, USA (June 2022).

The students meet with the PI and IP every Saturday for two to three hours to discuss their weekly progress and plans for further work. They present their progress regularly in the scheduled meeting of the Research Committee of the Central Department of Mathematics, Tribhuvan University. In this short time, their research has already resulted in four publications modeling the spread of measles, malaria, and Covid-19 in Nepal PAG22GPA22AGP21AGP22.

Structure of GRAID

GRAID was established in 2017 to provide research assistantships to graduate students of emerging research groups with an ongoing collaboration with an international mathematician. The GRAID committee (Figure 3) manages the program with administrative support from the American Mathematical Society (AMS). GRAID provides modest support for emerging research groups, working in a developing country listed in priority 1 or 2 of the IMU (per capita gross national income less than 3995 USD), making it possible for them to fund their most talented students to study full-time as graduate research assistants thereby fostering the growth of a mathematics community.

Figure 3.

2019–2022 GRAID committee meeting, from left to right (top row), Ingrid Daubechies, Galina Rusu, Michel Waldschmidt, (bottom row) C. Herbert Clemens, Jose Maria Balmaceda, Angel R. Pineda.

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The amount of the stipend per graduate research assistant does not exceed 3,500 USD per year. One team can apply for up to three graduate research assistantships. The stipends typically cover tuition, fees, and living expenses. For PhD students the stipend typically covers four years depending on satisfactory progress based on annual reports. Master’s students are typically funded for two years.

Collaboration in mentoring

The GRAID teams are founded on an ongoing collaboration between the PI and IP. The PI should be a university professor in mathematics holding a PhD, working at a university or research center in a developing country, who is training mathematics master’s or PhD students. The IP should be a mathematician working at a university or research center in a country with a strong mathematical community. The PI and IP should be in regular contact and through their collaboration create a support structure for the students. By regularly meeting the students, the PI and the IP provide multiple levels of guidance and support.

Application process

The PI has to complete an online application form including information about the research program, mentoring of students, and collaboration with the IP. The details of the application process can be found on the GRAID website.⁠Footnote1

Reporting

The groups with GRAID support submit annual reports for each student, and funding is contingent on appropriate student progress. These multiple levels of reporting provide a careful evaluation of the groups supported by GRAID.

Summary of Outcomes

There have been 15 distinct groups in 14 different countries that have been supported with a total 31 students (Table 1). Four students have completed their PhDs, five have completed their master’s degrees, two students transferred to PhD programs in Europe or the USA, and one student got a Breakout Fellowship Dum19. The impact of GRAID is significant in the local mathematical community of the supported groups but it also has already resulted in several publications PAG22BDTW21BKTW22GTESN22AGP21AGP22GPA22.

Table 1.

A total of 31 students in 15 different groups have been supported by GRAID so far.

Year PI IP Students
2017 Morocco Spain 3
2017 Cameroon USA 2
2018 Uganda UK 2
2019 Pakistan Germany 6
2019 Burkina Faso France 1
2020 Benin USA 1
2020 Nepal USA 3
2020 Ivory Coast France 1
2020 Cameroon USA 5
2021 Congo France 1
2021 Philippines Canada 1
2021 Ghana UK 2
2022 Madagascar Canada 1
2022 Ethiopia Finland 1
2022 India USA 1

How to Support GRAID

GRAID has been supported by donations from individual mathematicians and mathematical institutions worldwide. Individual mathematicians have donated their personal funds and prize money for mathematical awards to GRAID through the Friends of the IMU (FIMU) and CIMPA, members of the AMS support GRAID as an option in the membership form, and CIMPA also supports GRAID. There has even been small grassroots initiative to support GRAID by running (runForGRAID).⁠Footnote2 It has been through a combination of all these efforts that these research experiences for students have been possible. Thank you to all the donors!

Figure 4.

QR codes for GRAID donations through FIMU and CIMPA.

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If you would like to support GRAID, please go to the FIMU donation page (for US-based donors)⁠Footnote3 or the CIMPA donation page (for European-based donors)⁠Footnote4 under the donate to GRAID option. The QR codes for donating to GRAID through FIMU and CIMPA are included in Figure 4.

References

[AGP22]
Khagendra Adhikari, Ramesh Gautam, Anjana Pokharel, Meghnath Dhimal, Kedar Nath Uprety, and Naveen K. Vaidya, Insight into delta variant dominated second wave of covid-19 in Nepal, Epidemics 41 (2022), 100642.,
Show rawAMSref \bib{Adhikari2022}{article}{ author={Adhikari, Khagendra}, author={Gautam, Ramesh}, author={Pokharel, Anjana}, author={Dhimal, Meghnath}, author={Uprety, Kedar~Nath}, author={Vaidya, Naveen~K.}, title={Insight into delta variant dominated second wave of covid-19 in {N}epal}, date={2022}, issn={1755-4365}, journal={Epidemics}, volume={41}, pages={100642}, url={https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S1755436522000822}, }
[AGP21]
Khagendra Adhikari, Ramesh Gautam, Anjana Pokharel, Kedar Nath Uprety, and Naveen K. Vaidya, Transmission dynamics of COVID-19 in Nepal: mathematical model uncovering effective controls, J. Theoret. Biol. 521 (2021), Paper No. 110680, 11, DOI 10.1016/j.jtbi.2021.110680. MR4241254,
Show rawAMSref \bib{adhikari2021}{article}{ author={Adhikari, Khagendra}, author={Gautam, Ramesh}, author={Pokharel, Anjana}, author={Uprety, Kedar Nath}, author={Vaidya, Naveen K.}, title={Transmission dynamics of COVID-19 in Nepal: mathematical model uncovering effective controls}, journal={J. Theoret. Biol.}, volume={521}, date={2021}, pages={Paper No. 110680, 11}, issn={0022-5193}, review={\MR {4241254}}, doi={10.1016/j.jtbi.2021.110680}, }
[BDTW21]
David Békollé, Hugues Olivier Defo, Edgar L. Tchoundja, and Brett D. Wick, Litte Hankel operators between vector-valued Bergman spaces on the unit ball, Integral Equations Operator Theory 93 (2021), no. 3, Paper No. 28, 46, DOI 10.1007/s00020-021-02640-w. MR4260662,
Show rawAMSref \bib{bekolle2021}{article}{ author={B\'{e}koll\'{e}, David}, author={Defo, Hugues Olivier}, author={Tchoundja, Edgar L.}, author={Wick, Brett D.}, title={Litte Hankel operators between vector-valued Bergman spaces on the unit ball}, journal={Integral Equations Operator Theory}, volume={93}, date={2021}, number={3}, pages={Paper No. 28, 46}, issn={0378-620X}, review={\MR {4260662}}, doi={10.1007/s00020-021-02640-w}, }
[BKTW22]
David Békollè, Adriel R. Keumo, Edgar L. Tchoundja, and Brett D. Wick, Weighted estimates for operators associated to the Bergman-Besov kernels, Adv. Pure Appl. Math. 13 (2022), no. 3, 9–52. MR4431594,
Show rawAMSref \bib{bekolle2022}{article}{ author={B\'{e}koll\`e, David}, author={Keumo, Adriel R.}, author={Tchoundja, Edgar L.}, author={Wick, Brett D.}, title={Weighted estimates for operators associated to the Bergman-Besov kernels}, journal={Adv. Pure Appl. Math.}, volume={13}, date={2022}, number={3}, pages={9--52}, issn={1867-1152}, review={\MR {4431594}}, }
[Dum19]
Della Dumbaugh, From breakthrough prizes to breakout graduate fellowships: ”Mathematics is a community”, Notices Amer. Math. Soc. 66 (2019), no. 8, 1294–1297. MR3967176,
Show rawAMSref \bib{Dumbaugh2019}{article}{ author={Dumbaugh, Della}, title={From breakthrough prizes to breakout graduate fellowships: "Mathematics is a community"}, journal={Notices Amer. Math. Soc.}, volume={66}, date={2019}, number={8}, pages={1294--1297}, issn={0002-9920}, review={\MR {3967176}}, }
[GPA22]
Ramesh Gautam, Anjana Pokharel, Khagendra Adhikari, Kedar Nath Uprety, and Naveen K. Vaidya, Modeling malaria transmission in Nepal: impact of imported cases through cross-border mobility, J. Biol. Dyn. 16 (2022), no. 1, 528–564, DOI 10.1080/17513758.2022.2096935. MR4452542,
Show rawAMSref \bib{Gautam2022}{article}{ author={Gautam, Ramesh}, author={Pokharel, Anjana}, author={Adhikari, Khagendra}, author={Uprety, Kedar Nath}, author={Vaidya, Naveen K.}, title={Modeling malaria transmission in Nepal: impact of imported cases through cross-border mobility}, journal={J. Biol. Dyn.}, volume={16}, date={2022}, number={1}, pages={528--564}, issn={1751-3758}, review={\MR {4452542}}, doi={10.1080/17513758.2022.2096935}, }
[GTESN22]
Bime M. Ghakanyuy, Miranda I. Teboh-Ewungkem, Kristan A. Schneider, and Gideon A. Ngwa, Investigating the impact of multiple feeding attempts on mosquito dynamics via mathematical models, Math. Biosci. 350 (2022), Paper No. 108832, 26, DOI 10.1016/j.mbs.2022.108832. MR4447785,
Show rawAMSref \bib{ghakanyuy2022}{article}{ author={Ghakanyuy, Bime M.}, author={Teboh-Ewungkem, Miranda I.}, author={Schneider, Kristan A.}, author={Ngwa, Gideon A.}, title={Investigating the impact of multiple feeding attempts on mosquito dynamics via mathematical models}, journal={Math. Biosci.}, volume={350}, date={2022}, pages={Paper No. 108832, 26}, issn={0025-5564}, review={\MR {4447785}}, doi={10.1016/j.mbs.2022.108832}, }
[Ken20]
Carlos E. Kenig, The International Mathematical Union (IMU) at 100, Notices Amer. Math. Soc. 67 (2020), no. 3, 404–407, DOI 10.1090/noti. MR4184560,
Show rawAMSref \bib{Kenig2020}{article}{ author={Kenig, Carlos E.}, title={The International Mathematical Union (IMU) at 100}, journal={Notices Amer. Math. Soc.}, volume={67}, date={2020}, number={3}, pages={404--407}, issn={0002-9920}, review={\MR {4184560}}, doi={10.1090/noti}, }
[PAG22]
Anjana Pokharel, Khagendra Adhikari, Ramesh Gautam, Kedar Nath Uprety, and Naveen K. Vaidya, Modeling transmission dynamics of measles in Nepal and its control with monitored vaccination program, Math. Biosci. Eng. 19 (2022), no. 8, 8554–8579, DOI 10.3934/mbe.2022397. MR4449468,
Show rawAMSref \bib{pokharel2022}{article}{ author={Pokharel, Anjana}, author={Adhikari, Khagendra}, author={Gautam, Ramesh}, author={Uprety, Kedar Nath}, author={Vaidya, Naveen K.}, title={Modeling transmission dynamics of measles in Nepal and its control with monitored vaccination program}, journal={Math. Biosci. Eng.}, volume={19}, date={2022}, number={8}, pages={8554--8579}, issn={1547-1063}, review={\MR {4449468}}, doi={10.3934/mbe.2022397}, }
[Ses18]
Padmanabhan Seshaiyer, International collaboration through the Volunteer Lecturer Program, Notices of the AMS 65 (2018), 1011–1014.,
Show rawAMSref \bib{Seshaiyer2018}{article}{ author={Seshaiyer, Padmanabhan}, title={International collaboration through the {V}olunteer {L}ecturer {P}rogram}, date={2018}, journal={Notices of the AMS}, volume={65}, pages={1011--1014}, }

Credits

Figure 1 is courtesy of Michael Wemyss.

Figure 2 is courtesy of Naveen K. Vaidya.

Figure 3 is courtesy of Angel R. Pineda.

Photo of Jose Maria Balmaceda is courtesy of Dennis Leyson.

Photo of C. Herbert Clemens is courtesy of John Schoger.

Photo of Ingrid Daubechies is courtesy of Les Todd/LKT Photography Inc.

Photo of Angel R. Pineda is courtesy of Angel R. Pineda.

Photo of Galina Rusu is courtesy of Galina Rusu.

Photo of Michel Waldschmidt is courtesy of Maryam Emamjomeh Zadeh.