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A new Master’s programme `Advanced Mathematics‘ will be launched at St. Petersburg University in 2019. This is a two-year programme with most of the courses taught in English, no knowledge of Russian is required. The programme is carried out in close collaboration with the Chebyshev Laboratory, headed by the Fields Medalist Stanislav Smirnov.
This unique two-year programme is aimed at training professional researchers in mathematics and theoretical computer science, as well as specialists for the industry. It will allow a student to customize his or her own course programme. While typical Master’s programmes specialize in a single area, such as pure mathematics, this programme has a broad variety of courses ranging from mathematics and theoretical computer science to their applications (for example, there will be courses in data science provided by Yandex).
In order to carry out such an ambitious task, the lecturing staff will consist of the best experts who previously worked in the world’s leading institutions, such as Université Paris Diderot (Paris, France), École Normale Supérieure de Lyon (Lyon, France), Max Planck Institute for Mathematics (Bonn, Germany), Queen’s University (Kingston, Canada). Moreover, courses are taught not only by the regular employees of the programme, but also by other leading researchers in particular from Steklov Institute of Mathematics at St. Petersburg. As a result, the students will be widely exposed to the famous Russian mathematical tradition, while the programme adopts the best international teaching practices.
The new Master’s programme is tightly connected to the Chebyshev Laboratory, whose members have obtained a number of outstanding results, most recent being the Clay Institute Research Award 2017 and 2018 (Alexander Logunov); invitation to speak at ECM’2017 (Roman Michailov, Аnton Baranov, Dmitry Chelkak) and at ICM’2018 (Ivan Panin, Alexander Logunov). All the classrooms and lecturers’ offices are located in the same building as the Chebyshev Laboratory, creating a unique research atmosphere. Students can participate in the active research life in the laboratory, e.g., join its research projects and seminars with prominent guest lecturers from all over the world. Many other research groups across the city, e.g., of Steklov Institute of Mathematics at St. Petersburg, also welcome the students to join their seminars and research projects. By the time the students graduate, they are likely to get their work published, and will be prepared for Ph.D. studies.
Prof. Stanislav Smirnov, head of the Chebyshev Laboratory:
Our main goal was to `reboot’ the teaching of mathematics for students of all levels, because mathematics is constantly developing, and even the views on classical areas are changing. We wanted to make curriculum very broad, flexible, and adaptable both to those, who want to study pure mathematics, and to those interested in its applications. Besides redesigning the curriculum, we attracted many new professors from Russia and abroad. The new programme is situated in the historical center of Saint Petersburg, which is good culturally, and also allows close collaboration with mathematicians at the leading research centers.
Geographically, the programme is located in Saint Petersburg, the cultural capital and the most European city of Russia, which is well-connected with all major cities of the world. Its precise location in the historic center of the city, which constitutes a UNESCO World Heritage Site. The cost of living in Saint Petersburg is smaller than in Europe, and it is also smaller than in Moscow. More details on living in Saint Petersburg as an expat can be found here and here.
Tuition fees will be waived for the most talented international students. Also, the programme has multiple sponsors. For example, Gazprom Neft provides scholarships to selected students and provides travel grants to go to international scientific schools and conferences.
Prospective graduates of the programme may continue their research in Ph.D. programmes at the best universities worldwide (see e.g. testimonies of the former students of the Chebyshev Laboratory). They can also choose a career in the industry, in particular, the laboratory has strong ties with leading Russian and international industrial and IT companies, including Gazprom Neft, Yandex, Huawei and JetBrains, which are interested in promising employees.
Questions about this programme and admission to it are very welcome: please send an email to