American Institute of Mathematics


The American Institute of Mathematics is one of eight NSF-funded mathematical institutes. It was founded in 1994 by John Fry, co-founder of Fry's Electronics, and originally located in the Fry's Electronics San Jose, California location. It was privately funded by Fry at inception, and it obtained NSF funding starting in 2002.
Brian Conrey became the institute's director in 1997.
The Institute was founded with the primary goal of identifying and solving important mathematical problems. Originally, very small groups of top mathematicians would be assembled to solve a major problem, such as the Birch and Swinnerton-Dyer conjecture. Now the Institute also runs an extensive program of week-long workshops on current topics in mathematical research. These workshops rely strongly on interactive problem sessions.
From 1998 to 2009, AIM annually awarded a prestigious five-year fellowship to an "outstanding new PhD pursuing research in an area of pure mathematics", and currently is not offering the fellowship. AIM also sponsors local mathematics competitions and a yearly meeting for women mathematicians.
The Institute will eventually move to Morgan Hill, California, about 39 miles to the southeast of San Jose, when its new facility there is completed. Plans for the new facility were started about 2000, but construction work was delayed by regulatory and engineering issues. In February 2014, the AIM received permission to start construction of the facility, which will be built as a facsimile of The Alhambra, a 14th-century Moorish palace and fortress in Spain, but as of three-and-a-half years later, no construction activity had started.

Sponsored research

The American Institute of Mathematics has sponsored fundamental research for high-profile problems in several mathematical areas. Among them are:

Combinatorics