After graduating from Florida State University in 1970 with a bachelor’s degree in mathematics and a minor in physics, Joe Alfred was searching for a graduate program geared toward applied math. The University of Florida stood out: It had a reputation for expertise in math for business, science and engineering, and its Department of Mathematics was home to the famed mathematician John G. Thompson, who won the prestigious Fields Medal in 1970. Luckily, the campus was just an hour and a half away from Alfred’s home in Jacksonville.
“Mathematics prepared me to think logically,” Alfred said. “My UF graduate courses in analysis, algebra, topology and number theory helped me to understand and work with experts in many aspects of communication technology.”
As a thank you to the university, he wanted to help students experience the same opportunities he gained from the UF Department of Mathematics. In 2018, Alfred contacted Douglas Cenzer, then the chair of the Department of Mathematics, to explore the possibility of a math scholarship for graduate students.
Today, this award is given annually to the students who have the highest score on three of the First Year Semester Exams. Each year, two prominent students are selected for the Joseph A. Alfred Mathematics Graduate Award. The variety of routes each student has specialized in ranges from pure mathematics to analytic number theory to data science.
For more details see the article in CLAS News.