NSF awarded RTG grant 

The National Science Foundation has recently awarded a Research Training Group (RTG) grant to Iowa State University’s Department of Statistics for a project entitled Statistics for the Engineering and Physical Sciences. The initial group of Statistics faculty who will participate in the research group include (in alphabetical order):

• Alicia Carriquiry

• Song Xi Chen

• Heike Hoffman

• Ranjan Maitra

• Bill Meeker

• Max Morris

• Derrick Rollins

• Steve Vardeman

• Huaiqing Wu

Other Statistics faculty who will be joining ISU in 2005/2006, including Arka Ghosh, Karen Kafadar, and Liang Peng are expected to participate in the research group as well.

Graduate students who participate in the RTG are expected to pursue a PhD in Statistics or jointly in Statistics and a second discipline within the Engineering, Mathematical or the Physical Sciences. Hence we are seeking applications from students with a background in Mathematics, Engineering, Physics, Chemistry, Statistics or a related field. As part of the program, students will spend up to a year working on a “real world” research project at one of the RTG’s partner laboratories, either on or off campus. For a typical doctoral program plan of studies please click here.

The initial set of partner laboratories includes:

• Los Alamos National Laboratory, New Mexico

• Lucent Technologies, New Jersey

• National Institute of Standards and Technology, Washington, DC

• Center for Non Destructive Evaluation, ISU

• Combinatorial Discovery Initiative, ISU

• Power Systems Engineering Research Center, ISU

In addition to his/her academic advisor at ISU, graduate students participating in the RTG will also have a mentor at the partner laboratory who will act as the on-site advisor. Alicia Carriquiry will administer the research group and will contribute to the mentoring and advising of the students.

We are now recruiting graduate students with an interest in Statistics for the Engineering and Physical Sciences. For examples of the type of research projects that will be addressed by the research group, please click here.

Eligibility

NSF fellowships are available for applicants who are US citizens, nationals or permanent residents. Fellowships are renewable annually subject to good academic performance for up to five years. For more information and to complete an application form, please click here.

A limited number of fellowships funded by the Department of Statistics is also available to outstanding candidates who do not meet the NSF eligibility criteria, and are subject to the same renewal and duration guidelines. For more information and to complete an application form, please click here.

Summer internships for qualified undergraduate students who are US citizens, nationals or permanent residents are also available and funded by NSF. Application forms and additional information about the summer internships can be found here.

Additional information

For additional information about the NSF-RTG or to inquire about opportunities for graduate study in Statistics at ISU, please contact Prof. Alicia Carriquiry at Alicia@iastate.edu.

An article describing the goals of the RTG recently published in Amstat News is available here.