The Department of Mathematics is one of the largest schools in the University of Nairobi. It was established in 2005 during the restructuring from the then departments of mathematics at College of Biological and Physical Sciences (CBPS) and College of Education & External Studies (CEES) The school has 50 teaching staff and 6 non-teaching staff with about 2000 students each year including more than 40 postgraduate students. Service courses students exceed 1500 in number.
The physical location of the school is at Chiromo, Science Campus of the University of Nairobi.
The Department offers specialised training in-:
Pure Mathematics,
Applied Mathematics,
Statistics, Biometry,
Actuarial Science,
Modelling and Operations Research
Members of the Department are actively involved in advanced and applied research of problems that arise in such diverse fields as mathematical biology, AIDS testing and control, vector control, agricultural pest control, educational and manpower planning, mathematical economics, wind energy analysis, analysis of entropy of African languages, survival analysis.
The Department of Mathematics provides a lively environment for both undergraduate and postgraduate studies, and many opportunities for extra-curricular activities exist, both social and academic. The social side includes parties and various competitive events organised in collaboration with student associations.
The Department invites outside speakers to present seminars to staff and students as well as arranging internal research seminars. The National Group of the International Biometric Society (IBS-Gke) has its secretariat in the school and the Group holds its monthly seminar meetings in the school. The Department is also the current overall coordinating center the East African Universities Mathematics Programme (EAUMP) which aims at promoting teaching and research in Mathematics in the region in collaboration with the International Science Programme in Mathematics ISPM based in Uppsala, Sweden.
The School's organizational structure comprises of four divisions.
The Division of Pure Mathematics,
The Division of Applied and Industrial Mathematics,
The Division of Statistics and Operations Research,
The Division of Actuarial and Financial Mathematics.
These divisions are headed by a senior member of staff, in the relevant disciplines, who are charged with the key responsibility of providing subject leadership in the relevant area. Each staff member belongs to one or more of the subject areas.
In addition, the Department has a coordinator based at CEES who manages the teaching of mathematics for the Bachelor of Education students based in Kikuyu campus and another coordinator based at Kenya Science campus who manages the teaching of Mathematics for Bachelor of Education Science.
Graduates from the department Mathematics find employment in many varied fields of the economy such as government departments, financial institutions, agricultural and medical research organisations, Universities, Schools and Colleges, Computing and I.T. Industry, Manufacturing Industry, Accounting and Auditing, Research and Consultancy and so on.
Many of the past students of the School currently hold top positions in various organisations, companies and government departments in the country.
Several others have taken important jobs in other countries such as in Europe and in South Africa and are engaged as high-level experts in their organisations.