应用数学侧重于广泛应用于科学和工程领域的数学和计算工具的创建和研究，以及它们在解决这些及相关领域中难题方面的用途。从生态建模到电磁理论，从机器人技术到气象学，应用数学的研究领域是多种多样的。这样的应用可以在人类努力的任何领域中发生。最广为人知的是科学，经济学或工程学领域的人员，例如，爱因斯坦通过将从微分几何到时空结构的方法应用到广义相对论中，艾罗通过计算Black，Sholes和Merton通过将随机游走理论应用到股票市场，写下了期权价格的基本公式，Shannon用数学术语对信息源进行了特征描述，这样做为
Applied mathematics at Harvard School of Engineering is an interdisciplinary field that focuses on the creation and imaginative use of mathematical concepts to pose and solve problems over the entire gamut of the physical and biomedical sciences and engineering, and increasingly, the social sciences and humanities. Working individually and as part of teams collaborating across the University and beyond, faculty and students in Applied Mathematics seek to quantitatively describe, predict, design and control phenomena in a range of fields. This involves the study of relations between models and observations, while examining the mathematical foundations and limitations of these models and techniques. Students are drawn to Applied Mathematics - now among Harvard's top five concentrations - by the flexibility it offers in learning about how to apply mathematical ideas to problems drawn from different fields, while remaining anchored to empirical data that drive these questions. Research and educational activities have particularly close links to Harvard's efforts in Mathematics, Economics, Computer Science, and Statistics. Graduates go on to a range of careers in industry, academics, to professional schools in business, law, medicine, and, well, just about anything.