President Linda Mills formally announced the creation of NYU’s Courant Institute School of Mathematics, Computing, and Data Science, a school aimed at building on NYU’s efforts to prepare students for a rapidly expanding tech industry.
The new school will house an expanded computer science department, merging programs in the College of Arts and Sciences and Tandon School of Engineering, as well as the Center for Data Science and NYU’s mathematics department. Based out of Warren Weaver Hall, it will also offer a dozen graduate and Ph.D. degrees, including Atmosphere Ocean Science, Information Systems and Scientific Computing.
Undergraduate students currently enrolled in mathematics, computer science or data science programs at CAS or Tandon will not face any changes to their academic requirements, and will still complete their degrees through their respective school.
“The main thing to know about the creation of this new school is that it is incredibly exciting news, it will be transformative and it is another major step forward in our efforts to advance science and technology at NYU,” Tandon Dean Juan de Pablo said in a statement to WSN. “The school’s primary impact on students will be to benefit academically from the intensified momentum, expanded resources, and elevated energy of the new Courant Institute School.”
Gérard Ben Arous, a Courant professor of over 20 years, was appointed to interimly lead the institute at the start of the semester. NYU is currently conducting an international search for Courant’s permanent dean for fall 2026. Faculty across the involved departments began publicly discussing the potential new school in February, and reaffirmed plans at a June board of trustees meeting.
“These initiatives, coupled with the success of current students and faculty, are positioning NYU to be a future leader in the science and technology sphere,” a recap of the meeting read.
The Courant Institute School of Mathematics, Computing, and Data Science is one part of Mills’ science and technology expansion at NYU. In November 2024, the university purchased new office space on Broadway for STEM programming. It also committed to spending $1 billion on Tandon’s engineering program in an effort to compete with the nation’s top engineering schools, and it ranked No. 1 in New York state for research spending.
The school was named after Richard Courant, a professor from Germany who brought global mathematicians to his research group at NYU in the 1930s. It was supported by the U.S. government and aimed to apply challenging mathematics research to military purposes, eventually leading to practical solutions in fields such as physics and engineering. Since the department’s transformation into a mathematics institute in the 1940s, its students have become nationally recognized scientists and produced research in fields like artificial intelligence.
“Now, we take the next great step on the path that Professor Courant started us on,” Mill wrote in Thursday’s universitywide email announcing the change. “This pivotal moment for NYU marks a major advance in our strategic commitment to science and technology, building on the remarkable ascent of NYU’s research enterprise over the past decade.”
Contact Natalie Deoragh at [email protected].