The mathematics department supports an intimate and vibrant graduate program. All of our professors are active in research, which provides graduate students with many options for research areas.The mathematics department supports an intimate and vibrant graduate program. All our professors are active in research, which provides many choices of research area to doctoral students. At the same time our faculty is devoted to teaching and mentoring of students. Our graduate courses and research seminars provide a great atmosphere for collaborative learning and research. Moreover, the seven other research universities in the Boston area are all within easy reach, providing access to many more classes, seminars and colloquia in diverse areas of mathematical research.Master's students must either pass 9 courses or pass 7 courses and write a thesis. A master's thesis is the result of directed study with an adviser of your choice, it is usually a survey of a specific topic or an in-depth study of some problem. The Master's program is intended to prepare students for employment in the mathematics profession either in academia, in government, in business and industry or to pursue further graduate education. It normally takes about two years of full time study for someone entering with the equivalent of an undergraduate mathematics major, including a background in algebra and analysis, students entering with less background may take longer, and nontraditional students are warmly invited to apply.Common threads of interest among our faculty working in Algebra include Lie theory, applications of buildings to algebraic groups, algebraic varieties and geometric invariant theory, representation theory, algebraic geometry and commutative algebra.In particular: Fulton Gonzalez's algebraic interests include Lie theory and symmetric spaces. George McNinch studies the structure and representations of linear algebraic groups. Montserrat Teixidor is an algebraic geometer who studies topics related to algebraic curves, vector bundles on these curves, and their moduli. Loring Tu studies the geometry and topology of manifolds, especially the actions of Lie groups on manifolds and equivariant cohomology. Richard Weiss studies buildings and other geometric aspects of group theory.