University of Tennessee Martin professor receives second National Science Foundation grant

A professor of mathematics and physics at the University of Tennessee Martin, Dr. Jason DeVito, has received a second National Science Foundation grant for his research into the shape of the universe. His newest grant award, totalling $136,007, is for his most recent project, “RUI: Quotient Spaces and the Double-Soul Conjecture.” in 2021, Dr. DeVito earned an NSF grant for “RUI: Biquotients, Cohomogeneity-One Manifolds, and Double Disk Bundles,” which will expire at the end of June 2024.

According to an article on The University of Tennessee Martin’s website, Dr. DeVito explained his research, saying, “From measurements physicists have done, it appears that, on average, our universe is either flat (zero curvature) or slightly positively curved. Here, positive curvature refers to something like the surface of a sphere. This leads to a math question that I am interested in: What are all the four-dimensional shapes whose curvature is zero or positive? But, there’s a twist. Some versions of quantum mechanics suggest that our universe is actually 10-dimensional – others 13. Who is right? I have no idea, but it means to me that there’s nothing special about the math question in four dimensions. So, a better question to me is: What are all the shapes whose curvature is zero or positive?”

The grant that Dr. DeVito won from the National Science Foundation is a second three-year grant that will give him the financial support he needs to work on his research during the summer months and to pay undergraduate research assistants, attend seminars, travel, and pay for necessary supplies.

Dr. DeVito explained that “RUI” stands for Research at Undergraduate Institutions, which is a type of project the National Science Foundation lends support to because, he said, “They realize that someone like me, who regularly teaches four courses a semester, cannot reasonably have the same kind of research output as someone at an institution like Harvard, where a more typical teaching load is two to three courses for the entire year. As such, the NSF has set aside some funds specifically for funding research at undergraduate institutions: the RUI program.”

Specifically for this second grant, Dr. DeVito will be receiving financial support for two months during the summer, as well as funding to attend annual Joint Mathematics Meetings and the Workshop on Curvature and Global Shape in the UK and Germany.

For more information about The University of Tennessee Martin, visit the school’s website.