<p>If not, why?</p>
<p>I think it’s rare at my institution, but there’s no reason there couldn’t be. Maybe research assistants are paid with grants, and grants often go to more “applied” areas?</p>
<p>None of the professors in my school’s math department have any money. So, the only real way to do research with them is by either doing it for credit during the summer or year, which you have to pay for, or just talking to them during the year. I don’t know anyone who doesn’t do it for credit though.</p>
<p>There are also REUs if there are no paid research positions are your school - REUs are always paid.</p>
<p>I know a research assistant for an applied mathematician, but I have yet to meet research assistants in pure mathematics. I suspect that there are few research assistants in math for the following two reasons:</p>
<ol>
<li><p>There’s less outside funding than in the lab sciences.</p></li>
<li><p>There are fewer or no “menial tasks”: no repetitive lab experiments to run, no numbers to crunch, etc.</p></li>
</ol>
<p>Mathematicians need collaborators, not assistants.</p>
<p>What’s your goal for a research assistant job?</p>