Selected Projects

Isaac Newton Institute for Mathematical Sciences Cambridge, England, UK Directors: Sir Michael Atiyah, PRS; H.K. Moffatt, FRS The Foundation extended U.S. participation in the establishment, in 1992, of Great Britain's first national research institute for the mathematical sciences. Rosenbaum Visiting Fellowships, offered (1992 - 2000) on a competitive basis to American post-doctoral scholars, enabled substantial U.S. scholarly participation in all Newton Institute programs. Work in topics such as Low-Dimensional Topology and Quantum Field Theory; Dynamo Theory; Epidemic Models; Biomolecular Function and Evolution in the Context of the Genome Project; etc . rapidly advanced the Newton Institute to its present world leadership status.

Rutgers, The State University of New Jersey New Brunswick, New Jersey Directors: F. Browder, I.M. Gelfand, J. Lepowsky I.M. Gelfand is the recipient of the Kyoto Prize, Wolf Prize, MacArthur "Genius" Award and the Wigner Gold Medal. He is one of the twentieth century's greatest mathematicians with honorary degrees from Universities of Paris, Oxford and Harvard among others. has written hundreds of research papers and dozens of books. The Foundation has supported Gelfand's classic work in mathematics, and his pioneering work in molecular biology, since his immigration to the U.S. An additional Distinguished Visitors grant component produced spectacular collaborative research across several fields. A separate Mathematics Education grant component has supported the Gelfand Outreach Program for Mathematics and continuing development of its high school level mathematics materials.

The Paul and Gabriella Rosenbaum Garden Designer: Robert Slater, Chicago Park District    Design, installation and upkeep of the 50,000 square foot perennial garden which has received numerous awards. The Garden was dedicated as: "A gift to the City of Chicago on behalf of all the survivors to whom she has given shelter, from one family of survivors on the 50th anniversary of their safe arrival in the United States on October 2, 1939." October 2, 1989 was declared Paul and Gabriella Rosenbaum Garden Day in Chicago.

University of Chicago Chicago, Illinois Directors: Robert A. Fefferman; Izaak Wirszup For Chicago Public Schools' high school teachers: a model training program was developed to improve teachers' range of understanding of mathematics. It is based on Singapore's textbooks in combination with Gelfand's Algebra

University of Illinois at Chicago: in Mathematics Education Director: Yoram Sagher Working with elementary and high school teachers: model teacher training programs for the Chicago Public Schools, best described as Teaching To Mastery, are based on Singapore's rich mathematics curriculum. This model, which improves teachers' mathematical proficiency and strengthens their pedagogical skills, has already been extended to schools in other states.

University of Illinois at Chicago: in Health Education Susan R. Levy, Director: Center for Health Promotion and Disease Prevention Research Building Your Life, an abstinence-based university outreach program in health education, was implemented in 10% of Chicago public elementary schools, assisting these inner city schools in fulfilling the State of Illinois mandate for sexuality and HIV/AIDS education. Fully funded by the Foundation, the program focuses on health, preventive care, and sexuality education. The program is in every 5th through 8th grade classroom weekly, in each school. The program's master's level health professionals receive continuing University training and oversight, and carry out its built-in assessment component

Richard J. Daley College A City of Chicago Community College: Director: Vali Siadat Keystone To Learning, a novel project in developmental mathematics (remedial algebra), was given the Best Instructional Program of 1999 Award by the National Council of Instructional Administrators. The Foundation also supported installation by mathematics departments of versions of this program at: University of Alabama, Tuscaloosa DePaul University

The State University of New York at Stony Brook Michio Kuga (1928-1990); Chih-Han Sah (1934-1997); Santiago Simanca Investigations, the grant's research component, included international collaboration in math-physics interaction; classical number theory; algebraic geometry; group theory; and in partial differential equations.     Director: John W. Milnor A separate research grant to SUNY, Stony Brook's Institute for Mathematical Sciences facilitates the Institute's work, which lies mostly in dynamical systems.     Santiago Simanca; Chih-Han Sah (1934-1997) The education component of this grant partnered with the Foundation-supported, high school level, Gelfand Outreach Program in Mathematics (Rutgers). As part of that program's Puerto Rico partnership, S. Simanca translated all program texts into Spanish.

Mathematical Sciences Research Institute Berkeley, California Directors: Irving Kaplansky; William P. Thurston; David Eisenbud MSRI draws together eminent groups of U.S. and foreign mathematicians and scientists for intensive concentration in "hot" areas. The Foundation's Targets of Opportunity grant is structured as discretionary funds, allowing for immediate follow-up to interesting new developments. Workshops over the years have included On Mirror Symmetry; Magic, Mathematics and Coincidence; Mathematics of Computation; Combinatorial Game Theory. The grant also covered experimental programs such as Journalists-In-Residence and Mathematics and the Media.

The Academy of Natural Sciences: Patrick Center for Environmental Research Philadelphia, PA. Director: David D. Hart Environmental science is now considered important, but is still incompletely understood. Even basic data is often unavailable or incomplete. Patrick Center projects carried out by Rosenbaum Fellows included: Assessing ecological benefits of streamside reforestation in an urbanizing watershed; Interpretation of long-term ecological change in southeastern rivers; Pilot monitoring project on the industrialized portion of the Schuykill River; Mathematical modeling of turbulent transport of particles in aquatic systems; An analysis of large-scale regional variation in diatom-water chemistry relationships in rivers of the eastern USA.

Drexel University Philadelphia, Pennsylvania Directors: Wesley O. Pipes; Jacqueline Oler. Projects in drinking water safety. Evaluation of EPA standards with regard to microbiological contamination. Research in preventing waterborne disease in Puerto Rico's unmonitored water systems.

Spertus Institute for Jewish Studies Paul and Gabriella Rosenbaum ARTiFACT Center Director: Howard Sulkin A permanent addition to the Spertus Museum. Designed for children, the Center's hands-on exhibits and activities teach children about archeology and the history of the ancient Middle East. Hundreds of schools have made class visits part of their school curriculum. The visits are so popular that groups must reserve their time months in advance.