In particular, individual faculty do not make admission decisions and do not have internships or post-doctoral positions to award. Any summer funding or projects that might become available would be used to support our current students already here.
Concerning graduate study, students are admitted to the graduate program, not to research groups of faculty members. Furthermore, selection of a research advisor occurs after taking the basic courses and completing the basic examinations on graduate mathematics. This means that there is no benefit to be gained by sending inquiries to many (or one) professor requesting internships or PhD supervision before receiving admission to the PhD degree program.
In recent years I have received many such inquiries from students in Asia, India, and Iran. I have now heard that certain students in India are required to seek summer internships abroad. This is unfortunate, given that such internships generally do not exist; the result is a waste of everyone's time in a fruitless search. Students should inform whoever requires them to make random solicitations to researchers outside their fields that the contact is impolite spam that will have no positive outcome. The time taken to send the information on this page in response to such inquiries has necessitated establishment of this page. International students who send me requests for internships and research assistantships will now receive a pointer to this page in response.
If you are particularly interested in working with me for graduate study, due to your prior study or work in an area that I also have worked in, then mention this in your application for admission, and probably it will come to my attention at some point during the application process. Having done a research project about algorithms does not imply that you have worked in an area of my interest.
Please understand my purpose in referring such inquiries to this page. It contains exactly what my letter in response to an individual would say and is not meant to discourage anyone. I do not have time to read attached resumes that students send to me in email, since the information is of no use.
As a guideline, note that our department only admits strong students. We encourage strong students to apply for admission. There is no other information or assistance that I can provide at this stage. Furthermore, I cannot provide any estimate of anyone's chances for acceptance on the basis of any information sent to me in email. Admission and financial aid decisions are made by departmental committees and the Director of Graduate Studies during February and March.
Best wishes and good luck with your application,
Douglas B. West