SAMSI Appoints New Directorate Members

The Statistical and Applied Mathematical Sciences Institute (SAMSI) is pleased to announce the appointments of three new members of the Directorate.

Sujit Ghosh, Professor of Statistics at NC State University (NCSU) and currently a Program Director in the NSF Division of Mathematical Sciences, will become Deputy Director of SAMSI beginning September 8, 2014. Sujit’s research interests are in area of Bayesian statistical methods for analyzing biomedical, econometrics and environmental models. Ghosh previously participated in several SAMSI programs, including as Faculty Fellow representing NCSU in the 2011/12 program on Uncertainty Quantification. Ghosh received his Ph.D. in statistics from the University of Connecticut in 1996is actively involved in teaching, supervising and mentoring graduate students at the doctoral and master levels. He has supervised over 30 doctoral graduate students and 3 post-doctoral fellows and he has also served as a statistical investigator and consultant for over 40 different research projects funded by various leading private industries and federal agencies. In addition to his time at NCSU, he has been a visiting professor at Thammasat University in Thailand, Bocconi University in Italy, Middle East Technical University in Turkey, Techincal University of Crete in Greece and National University in Singapore. He is an elected fellow of the American Statistical Association and the recipient of the 2008 IISA Young Investigator Award. He has also been elected as the President of NC Chapter of ASA in 2013 and served as the Co-Director of Graduate Programs in Statistics at NCSU managing over 150 students annually during 2010-2013, and the Project Director of a training program for undergraduates funded by the NSF during 2007-2013.

“Sujit brings to SAMSI a mature understanding of SAMSI’s research mission, as well as administrative and grant management experience which will be invaluable as we plan for our next funding cycle,” noted Richard Smith, Director of SAMSI.

Thomas Witelski, Professor of Mathematics at Duke University, specializing in nonlinear partial differential equations and fluid dynamics, will become Associate Director of SAMSI for a three year term beginning July 1, 2014. His expertise will be valuable on the applied mathematics side of SAMSI’s activities, and he will also act as SAMSI’s liaison with Duke University during this period. Witelski received his Ph.D. in Applied Mathematics from California Institute of Technology in 1995. Before working at Duke, he was an NSF Postdoctoral Fellow and an Applied Mathematics Instructor at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT). He is a member of the Society of Industrial and Applied Mathematics, the American Mathematical Society and Tau Beta Pi. He is also the co-Editor-in-Chief of the Journal of Engineering Mathematics and a Division Editor of the Journal of Mathematical Analysis and Applications. He also serves on the editorial board for the European Journal of Applied Mathematics, Discrete and Continuous Dynamical Series B.

Ghosh and Witelski will replace Snehalata Huzurbazar from the University of Wyoming, whose term as Deputy Director ends June 30, 2014, and Ezra Miller from Duke University, whose term as Associate Director also ends June 30, 2014. To fill the gap between Snehalata and Sujit, SAMSI is delighted to welcome back Pierre Gremaud, Professor of Mathematics at NCSU, as Interim Deputy Director for July and August, 2014. During this period, Pierre will be primarily responsible for the education and outreach side of SAMSI’s activities. Pierre previously served as Associate Director of SAMSI from July 2008 through December 2009, and as Deputy Director from January 2009 through June 2012.

About SAMSI

The Statistical and Applied Mathematical Sciences Institute (SAMSI) is one of eight mathematical institutes funded by the NSF’s Division of Mathematical Sciences, but is the only one that focuses on statistics and applied mathematics. Its mission is to forge 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 was founded in 2002. 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. You can find more information at www.samsi.info, @NISSSAMSI.

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