Reflecting the University of Kentucky's growing leadership in ensuring more diversity in graduate studies, President Eli Capilouto Friday announced that the university's Department of Mathematics, within the College of Arts and Sciences, has been awarded a $559,626 National Science Foundation grant to fund the new Graduate Scholars in Mathematics program. The funding will be dispersed through July 2019.

The program will support incoming mathematics graduate students at UK, including first-generation and Appalachian students, for the critical first two years of doctoral study, with a goal of helping to build a more diverse community of mathematicians.

Graduate Scholars in Mathematics (GSM), accepting applications until Jan. 15 and launching in fall of 2015, will provide rigorous pre-professional training in advanced mathematics, provide participants with an early introduction to research in mathematics and develop their academic leadership skills.