The Mathematics Genealogy Project is a web-based database that gives an academic genealogy based on dissertation supervisor. A Ph.D. (or other doctoral degree such as D.Sc. or Ed. D.) mathematician's "parent" is her/his doctoral advisor. Mathematician is broadly defined to include statisticians, data analysts, and quantitative methodologists in the physical and social/behavioral sciences, such as computer scientists and operations researchers.

The project grew out of founder Harry B. Coonce's desire to know the name of his advisor's advisor. Coonce was Professor of Mathematics at Minnesota State University, Mankato, at the time of the project's founding, and the project went online there in the fall of 1997. In the fall of 2002, a couple years after Coonce's retirement, Minnesota State University-Mankato, decided that it would no longer support the project. The project relocated at that time to North Dakota State University. Since 2003, the project has also operated under the auspices of the American Mathematical Society, and in 2005 it received a grant from the Clay Mathematics Institute.

The genealogy information is obtained from sources such as Dissertation Abstracts International and Notices of the American Mathematical Society, but may be supplied by anyone via their website. The searchable database contains the name of the mathematician, university which awarded the degree, year when the degree was awarded, title of the dissertation, names of the advisor and co-advisor, and a flag of the country where the degree was awarded. A listing is available containing the 50 most prolific doctoral advisors.^[1]

[edit] References

[edit] External links

• Mathematics Genealogy Project home page
• The Mathematics PhD in the United Kingdom: Notes on its History Contains information/links relevant to the PhD in Britain.
• AI Genealogy Project
• Neurotree - The Neuroscience Academic Family Tree