Very few people seem to know the type of work mathematicians and statisticians do in government and industry, and therefore most people do not realize that mathematicians have wide employment opportunities beyond teaching. In fact, at the University of New Mexico, a large percentage of mathematics graduates go into government or industry, whereas the remaining percentage is evenly split between graduate school and teaching. Our students are hired to do applied mathematics. This applied mathematics is sometimes called engineering, sometimes called computer science, sometimes called actuarial science, etc. In fact, the resulting job title may not even mention mathematics.
Our students are also hired as biostatisticians for industries such as pharmaceuticals, medical research and instrumentation firms, hospitals, government centers such as the Food and Drug Administration, the Center for Disease Control and Prevention, as well as industrial statistics maintaining and improving the quality of goods and services in almost all sectors of the economy.

Students interested in Industrial or Biostatistics should have a strong background in statistics and an interest in applying statistics to an industrial, biomedical or engineering field. Prospective graduate students come from a variety of backgrounds including engineering, business, biology and social sciences.