Statistical and Applied Mathematical Sciences Institute

Duke University, Durham NC

Investigators

Abstract

Abstract DMS 0635449 Principal Investigator: James O. Berger SAMSI is a national institute that will deeply impact the future of the statistical and mathematical sciences and, through them, science in general, by catalyzing creation of the theory and methodology necessary to confront the central data- and model-driven scientific challenges of our time. SAMSI will focus on new syntheses of the statistical sciences, applied mathematics and disciplinary science. To illustrate the vision, consider an activity central to modern science and technology, and with which SAMSI will be heavily engaged: numerical modeling of complex physical processes. Developing numerical models and evaluating their fidelity to reality requires merging knowledge from multiple disciplines. Applied mathematics builds on disciplinary understanding to construct a fine-detail numerical representation of the deterministic aspects of a process; probability provides concepts and insight to characterize stochastic elements of the process; and statistics provides the mechanisms to relate these constructs to observational data on the real-world process. But, despite a multiplicity of context-specific advances, there is currently no general framework for combining these disciplines, much less a formal system for simultaneously applying them. The SAMSI efforts in this direction will focus on filling this gap, by bringing together statisticians, mathematicians and modelers from across the country (and beyond) to establish frameworks for model development and validation, at a high level that spans multiple application contexts. To carry out this synthesis of the statistical sciences, applied mathematical sciences and disciplinary sciences, SAMSI engages established researchers - from academia, industry, national laboratories and government - as well as young researchers (postdoctoral fellows and graduate students) at the formative stages of their careers. Each research program lasts from 6 months to one year, and involves a host of activities ranging from research by intensive interdisciplinary working groups to broad, energizing workshops. Outreach to undergraduate students, high-school teachers and faculty from teaching institutions extends SAMSI's impact on the essential development of the national human resource base for science. To enable activities of the breadth and depth necessary for the success of SAMSI, the institute is a partnership between the National Science Foundation and the consortium of Duke University, North Carolina State University, the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill and the National Institute of Statistical Sciences. These partners provide a uniquely strong base for SAMSI's national scope. Scientific input to SAMSI comes, in part, from a National Advisory Council composed of eminent statistical and mathematical scientists. Most important, SAMSI will engage the entire nationwide statistical and mathematical sciences communities, by means of widely publicized opportunities to bring problems to SAMSI, or direct SAMSI's attention to them.