News Archive

• July 4 - August 14, 2021: PROMYS 2021 ran online with 109 students and counselors participating from 22 U.S. states and 8 other countries! 40% of students received need-based financial aid up to the full cost of participation. In addition to Number Theory lectures and three Advanced Seminars, there will be the usual exploration labs, research projects, counselor talks and guest lectures.


• Summer 2021: The 2021 Breakout Fellowship was awarded to Andy Zheng of Chicago, Illinois. The 2021 Yongren Fellow is Yiming Ding from Beijing, China.


• Summer 2021: Twenty-seven Mehta Fellows are participating in PROMYS 2021 including 10 first-year Fellows from India, Ghana, Nigeria and Indonesia, 7 returning students and 9 counselors. The Mehta Fellowships have been funded since 2015 by the founding sponsors of PROMYS India: Nick Nash and Phalgun Raju, Avi and Sandra Nash, Indira Foundation and Morph.org. PROMYS looks forward to the launch of PROMYS India in 2022.


• July 7 - August 5, 2021: PROMYS for Teachers (PfT) is running online. Thirty-six teachers and 7 teacher counselors are logging in from 10 states and 5 countries.


• Summers 2020 and 2021: A new online program, the PROMYS Math Circle (PMC) Summer Program, launched in 2020 and is running again in 2021. The PMC Summer Program is a free six-week program in which students work collaboratively on specially designed Number Theory problem sets with the support of experienced mentors.


• September 2020 - June 2021: PROMYS Math Circle ran mentored math circles for talented students in Massachusetts, focusing on students from low-income backgrounds or other underrepresented backgrounds in STEM.


• January 9, 2021: PROMYS held its first Virtual Alum Gathering on Zoom with alumni of all ages including many from India and PROMYS Europe. It was wonderful to see everyone!


• July 5 - August 15 2020: The PROMYS 2020 Bridge Program ran online highly successfully. PROMYS was delighted to welcome participant from around the world, including returning students and counselors who would have attended PROMYS Europe or PROMYS India if not for the pandemic.


• January 16, 2020: Alumni gathered in Denver, CO for a reunion coinciding with the 2020 Joint Mathematics Meetings.


• July 26-28, 2019: PROMYS held its 30th Anniversary Celebration at Boston University. We had a great time celebrating this milestone for PROMYS with alumni and friends!


• January 17, 2019: Alumni gathered in Baltimore, MD for a joint PROMYS-Ross reunion coinciding with the 2019 Joint Mathematics Meetings.


• August 5, 2018: PROMYS hosted the annual Alumni event at Boston University, bringing together current students and PROMYS alumni. The guest speaker was Joshua Greene, president of the PROMYS Foundation, who spoke on Checker Stacks and Surreal Numbers.


• Summer 2018: There were 56 first-year students and 22 returning students at PROMYS 2018. In addition, there were 4 junior counselors and 25 counselors. As always, thanks to the generosity of donors and sponsors, the cost of participation was subsidized to keep PROMYS affordable for families. In 2018, more than a third of students received additional need-based financial assistance in the form of full or partial scholarships.


• 2018 Breakout Fellowship: The PROMYS Foundation was delighted to award the 2018 Breakout Fellowship to William Cowen-Breen of Cambridge, MA. William is a senior at Boston University Academy. Terence Tao, Richard Taylor, and Jacob Lurie, recipients of the inaugural Breakthrough Prizes in Mathematics, very generously established the Breakout Fellowships for PROMYS in late 2014. These are full scholarships to PROMYS for mathematically talented students who might not otherwise be able to attend. The PROMYS alumni community matched the Breakout Fellowship donations to create and fully fund the Breakout Fellowship Endowment which will bring one Breakout Fellow to PROMYS every summer in perpetuity.


• January 11, 2018: Alumni gathered in San Diego, CA for a reunion to coincide with the 2018 Joint Mathematics Meetings.


• August 5, 2017: Alumni and current PROMYS students gathered at Boston University. The alum guest speaker was Jonathan Hanke, who gave a talk titled, "What's so special about eight dimensions anyway?"


• Summer 2017: There were 50 first-year students, 25 returning students, and 25 counselors at PROMYS 2017. As always, thanks to the generosity of donors and sponsors, the cost of participation was subsidized to keep PROMYS affordable for families. In 2017, a third of students received additional need-based financial assistance in the form of full or partial scholarships.


• 2017 Breakout Fellowship: The PROMYS Foundation was delighted to award the 2017 Breakout Fellowship to Haneul Shin of River Edge, New Jersey. Haneul is a junior at Bergen County Academies. Terence Tao, Richard Taylor, and Jacob Lurie, recipients of the inaugural Breakthrough Prizes in Mathematics, very generously established the Breakout Fellowships for PROMYS in late 2014. These are full scholarships to PROMYS for mathematically talented students who might not otherwise be able to attend. The PROMYS alumni community matched the Breakout Fellowship donations to create and fully fund the Breakout Fellowship Endowment which will bring one Breakout Fellow to PROMYS every summer in perpetuity.


• 2017 Mehta Fellowship: The PROMYS Foundation was excited to announce the awarding of eight Mehta Fellowships to PROMYS in 2017. Separately funded by sponsors Nicholas Nash, the Indira Foundation, and morph.org, these are full scholarships for mathematically talented, low-income students from India. The fellowships cover tuition, room and board, books, visa fees, and round-trip airfare from India. Thanks to the generosity of the Mehta sponsors, there were three first-year Mehta fellows at PROMYS 2017 in addition to five returning Mehta fellows.


• 2017 Yongren Fellowship: The PROMYS Foundation was delighted to award the inaugural Yongren Fellowship to Zehong Zong from Zhengzhou, in Henan Province in east-central China. Funded by a generous family foundation, the Yongren Fellowship was established to enable the participation in PROMYS of a mathematically talented, low-income student from China. The fellowship includes a full scholarship to PROMYS (including tuition, room and board), plus round-trip airfare from China, visa application fees, and books.
• January 5, 2017: Alumni gathered in Atlanta, Georgia for a reunion to coincide with the 2017 Joint Mathematics Meetings.


• August 6, 2016: Alumni and current PROMYS students gathered at Boston University. The alumni guest speaker was Lionel Levine(Cornell University).


• July 30, 2016: PROMYS alumni in Europe and PROMYS Europe participants gathered for a Summer Party at Oxford.


• 2016 Breakout Fellowship: The PROMYS Foundation was delighted to award the 2016 Breakout Fellowship to Barry Xu of Alameda, California. Terence Tao, Richard Taylor, and Jacob Lurie, recipients of the inaugural Breakthrough Prizes in Mathematics, very generously established the Breakout Fellowships to PROMYS in late 2014. These are full scholarships to PROMYS for mathematically talented students who might not otherwise be able to attend. The PROMYS alum community then matched the Breakout Fellowship donations to create and fully fund the Breakout Fellowship Endowment which will bring one Breakout Fellow to PROMYS every summer in perpetuity.


• 2016 Trustee Scholarship: The PROMYS Foundation was extremely pleased to award a 2016 Trustee Scholarship to Roshan Padaki. This was a full scholarship to PROMYS funded by the PROMYS Foundation thanks to the generosity of the PROMYS alum community. Roshan has just graduated from Lexington High School in Lexington, Massachusetts. This was Roshan's third summer at PROMYS.


• 2016 Mehta Fellowships to PROMYS: The PROMYS Foundation was excited to announce the awarding of six 2016 Tara and Jasubhai Mehta Fellowships to PROMYS. Separately funded by sponsors Nicholas Nash, the Indira Foundation, and morph.org, these are full scholarships for mathematically talented low-income students from India. The fellowships cover tuition, room and board, books, visa fees and round-trip airfare from India. Thanks to the generosity of the Mehta sponsors, there were four first-year Mehta Fellows in 2016 plus the two 2015 Mehta Fellows returned to PROMYS for a second summer.


• January 7, 2016: Alumni gathered in Seattle, Washington at the 2016 Joint Mathematics Meetings (JMM).


• August 2, 2015 There was an Alumni/Student Gathering at Boston University with Alum Guest Speaker Melody Chan (Brown University).


• August 1, 2015: There was a Garden Party at Oxford for alumni in Europe and for PROMYS Europe participants.


• 2015 Breakout Fellowship: The PROMYS Foundation was proud to announce in May 2015 the awarding of the very first Breakout Fellowship to PROMYS. The inaugural Breakout Fellow was Kushagr Mohan Ahuja.


• 2015 Trustee Scholarship: In 2015, the PROMYS Foundation was very pleased to award a Trustee Scholarship to Michael Seaman who was returning for his third summer at PROMYS.


• 2015 Mehta Fellowships to PROMYS: Thanks to the generosity and farsightedness of Nicholas Nash, the Indira Foundation, and morph.org, two mathematically talented low-income students from India were awarded full scholarships to PROMYS 2015. The Tara and Jasubhai Mehta Fellowships are designed to create a pipeline of opportunity for some of India’s most talented young mathematicians.


• January 28, 2015: There was a New York City Alum Gathering.


• January 12, 2015: There was an Alum Gathering in San Antonio, TX at the Joint Mathematics Meetings.


• March, 2014: The PROMYS Breakout Fellowship Endowment is now fully funded! Terence Tao, Richard Taylor, and Jacob Lurie, recipients of the inaugural Breakthrough Prize in Mathematics very generously created the PROMYS Breakout Fellowship. The Breakout Fellowship is a full scholarship to PROMYS for a mathematically talented student who might not otherwise be able to attend. The PROMYS Foundation is happy to report that the PROMYS community has now fully matched the very generous donation of the Breakthrough mathematicians. Thanks to the generosity and vision of all the donors, the future of the Breakout Fellowships to PROMYS is assured: there will be a Breakout Fellow in every PROMYS cohort from this year on. We are very grateful to Richard Taylor, Terry Tao, Jacob Lurie, and the PROMYS alum community for their powerful achievement in making PROMYS accessible to talented young people far into the future.


• March, 2014: PROMYS is excited to announce the creation of the Tara and Jasubhai Mehta Fellowships in Mathematics which will fully fund the participation in PROMYS of two low-income students from India each year. The scholarships will cover tuition, room and board, books, and roundtrip airfare from India. We thank the sponsoring family for their generosity and look forward to welcoming the Tara and Jasubhai Mehta Fellows to PROMYS 2015!


• Summer 2014: The PROMYS Foundation was delighted to fund two full Trustee Scholarships in 2014. These were awarded to two talented returning students. Both young women were returning for their third summer at PROMYS.


• August 2, 2014: Alumni and current students gathered at PROMYS. Alum Solomon Hsiang talked about "Quantifying the Influence of Climate on Human Conflict" and alumni and students got to know each other over pizza and ice cream. The PROMYS Foundation took in many donations at this event, including a generous anonymous matching gift!


• June 18, 2014: There was an alum gathering in New York City. Alum gatherings in NYC will continue on a regular basis, so stay tuned for the next one!


• June 2-6, 2014: Many alumni came to Boston University for Glennfest: Conference on p-adic Variation in Number Theory in honor of Glenn Stevens' 60th Birthday. Alums Ander Steele, Jeehoon Park, Dave Hansen, and Ila Varma gave talks.


• January 14-17, 2014: Alumni and friends of PROMYS met at the Joint Mathematics Meetings in Baltimore. On January 14, there was a mentoring lunch for high-school-aged alums run by Joshua Holden. On January 17, there was a joint social gathering of alumni and friends of both Ross and PROMYS.


• August 16-18, 2013: There was an alum gathering at Oxford University, England.


• July 5-7, 2013: We very much enjoyed seeing alumni and friends at the PROMYS 25th Summer Celebration at Boston University! We had fun at the alum talks and activities that were planned for this milestone event for the program, and had a successful fundraising drive! Trustees pledged $10,007 in matching for donations at the celebration, and alumni came through! Thanks to all who donated! Details are on the PROMYS site and on the alum site.


• May 28, 2013: The Second New York City Alum Gathering took place. Alum-organized NYC gatherings will now take place on a regular basis.


• April 22, 2013: The Inaugural New York City Alum Gathering was held.


• April 20, 2013: The Inaugural Alum Gathering in Los Angeles, California was held.


• March 21, 2013: There was an Alum Dinner in London, England. A second alum gathering in London will take place in May 2013.


• Spring 2013: PROMYS was delighted to announce the expansion of the long-standing PROMYS partnership with the Clay Mathematics Institute (CMI) to the newly formed CMI-PROMYS International Alliance. CMI is fully funding the PROMYS participation of ten European students who will follow up their six weeks at PROMYS with participation in the one-week residential Oxford Masterclasses in Combinatorics at Oxford University. Tuition, airfare, and room and board are covered for all seven weeks. Details are on the PROMYS site.


• January 17, 2013: The new PROMYS site was launched. The expanded site provides considerable material about the program's mission and philosophy. There is also a new FAQ page and information for international students. Visit and read about the alumni and about their significance to the program. There are also lots of photos, quotes, and testimonials.


• January 11, 2013: There was a mentoring lunch for high-school-aged alumni at the Joint Meetings in San Diego.


• January 11, 2013: There was a gathering of alumni in San Diego, California at the Joint Math Meetings.


• July 27, 2012: There was a gathering of alumni and current students held at Boston University. Photos are on the alum site.


• January 7, 2012: There was a mentoring lunch at the Joint Math Meetings in Boston for high-school-aged alumni.


• January 6, 2012, 6:30-8:30pm: There was an informal PROMYS gathering at Photonics (8 St. Mary's Street) at Boston University, coinciding with the Joint Math Meetings.


• December 2011: We are accepting donations!


• July 30, 2011: The PROMYS Foundation had its kick-off event, held at Photonics at Boston University during the fourth week of PROMYS. Alumni and students got to meet and interact, and alums David Jao and Dustin Clausen gave talks. A good time was had by all.