The Mathematical Sciences Postdoctoral Research Fellowships are awards to recent recipients of doctoral degrees. The fellowship is designed to provide 24 months of support divided into 18 academic months and 3 periods of two summer months. The recipient has the option of a Research Instructorship which allows the 18 months of academic support to be taken as 9 months of full-time support and 18 months of half-time support. Mathematical Sciences Postdoctoral Research Fellowship awards allow fellows to choose research environments that will have maximal impact on their future scientific development. Dr. Robert C. Dalang received his doctoral degree from the Ecole Polytechnique Federale in Switzerland, and will pursue research in the area of applied mathematics, specifically, optimal stopping and control of multiparameter processes with emphasis on the extension of results in combinatorial optimization to measure-theoretic settings, under the guidance of Dr. Jim Pitman at the University of California, Berkeley.