MSU’s newest academic department—the Department of Computational Mathematics, Science and Engineering (CMSE)—has its first graduate fellowship thanks to a gift from MSU alumnus Raymond Ginther and his wife, Marie.
The gift will establish the Raymond P. and Marie M. Ginther Graduate Fellowship Endowment, which will provide academic and research support to recruit one or more exceptional graduate students each year.
After Raymond earned his bachelor’s degree in social science from MSU in 1973, he worked in both the criminal justice field and the publishing industry. His wife worked for an investment firm established by the head of the math department at Stony Brook University.
“We were the beneficiaries of a good company; we reaped financial reward,” Raymond says, of his wife’s work.
“All of their trading was based on mathematical formulas. This made us realize the value of mathematics, and its importance related to how the world works. We were both of the mind-set that we had to give back,” he says, adding “I want MSU to be the go-to place for anyone interested in this field.”
CMSE is jointly administered by the College of Natural Science and the College of Engineering. The department is unique, nationally, in that it is the first to treat computation as a discipline of its own. Its faculty members are focused on the construction of mathematical models and quantitative analysis techniques, as well as using computers to analyze and solve problems in the areas of physical, biological, and engineering sciences.
For more information on making a gift to CMSE, contact Senior Director of Development Corey Longley Palmer at longleyc@msu.edu or call (517) 353-1637.