SAMSI renewed for another five years by NSF

The National Science Foundation (NSF) has renewed the main supporting grant for the Statistical and Applied Mathematical Sciences Institute (SAMSI). The new funding will provide $17.5 million over five years to the three partner universities – NC State, Duke and UNC-Chapel Hill – and the National Institute of Statistical Sciences (NISS) in conjunction with the William Kenan Jr. Institute for Engineering, Technology and Science.

SAMSI is one of eight mathematical institutes funded by the NSF’s Division of Mathematical Sciences, but this is the only one that focuses on statistics and applied mathematics. It was originally founded in 2002 and is now celebrating its tenth anniversary. This is the second renewal of the NSF funding.

“The renewal of our funding is a tribute to the incredible commitment to SAMSI by the whole community – our partner institutions, the national leadership in statistics and applied mathematics, everyone who has served SAMSI as a directorate member or program leader, and more broadly all the people who have visited SAMSI and participated in our research over the years,” said Richard Smith, Director of SAMSI.

Over the past ten years, SAMSI’s programs have grown, adding summer programs in 2006 and increasing its education and outreach programs to undergraduate and graduate students. Last year, the Institute started holding some of its workshops on the West Coast in addition to the workshops that are held in Research Triangle Park, North Carolina.

The Institute has mentored over 80 postdoctoral fellows and associates over the past ten years. Many now hold now hold academic positions as well as positions in industry and government. SAMSI has hosted hundreds of visitors each year to participate in multi-disciplinary workshops pushing the boundaries of data-driven and model-driven research.

In 2013-14, SAMSI will hold two major programs, one focusing on Computational Methods in the Social Sciences and the other focusing on Low Dimensional Structure in High-Dimensional Systems. It will also host a summer program on Neuroimaging Data Analysis.

SAMSI and PAMS

At NC State, the grant will be administered by Ilse Ipsen, professor of mathematics in PAMS and associate director of SAMSI. Ipsen replaces fellow mathematics faculty member, Pierre Gremaud, as primary investigator on the award.

Gremaud is also ending his four-year commitment at deputy director of SAMSI. He was succeeded by Snehalata Huzurbazar who joined the faculty in NC State’s Department of Statistics this summer as a research professor.

About SAMSI

The Statistical and Applied Mathematical Sciences Institute (SAMSI) is a national institute that is forging a new synthesis of the statistical and applied mathematical sciences with disciplinary sciences to confront important data- and model-driven scientific challenges. It is based in Research Triangle Park, North Carolina.

SAMSI is a partnership of the National Science Foundation with a consortium of Duke University, North Carolina State University, the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, and the National Institute of Statistical Sciences.