This award will support a postdoctoral program in cross-disciplinary research at the National Institute of Statistical Sciences (NISS). Six Fellows will be appointed, for periods of two or three years, to work on existing or prospective NISS projects (located at NISS headquarters or elsewhere), with some teaching responsibilities (at a Research Triangle university or elsewhere). The planned program builds on the intensity, depth, scientiflc breadth and national scope of NISS' current, NSF-funded Junior Fellows program, adding emphases on project development and new forms of institutional support. Junior Fellows will participate in projects that span current and prospective NISS interests, including environment, education, transportation, software development, large data sets, drug design and insurance. These projects involve virtually all aspects of statistical science. Participating senior researchers and junior scientists are drawn nationwide from the statistics and relevant scientific communities, and will serve as collaborators and mentors for the Junior Fellows. Reflecting NISS' close relationship with the Research Triangle universities (Duke, North Carolina State and the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill), four distinguished statisticians will serve as Liaisons with Department Programs: James 0. Berger (Arts and Sciences Professor, Statistics and Decision Sciences, Duke), Peter Bloomfield (Professor, Statistics, NCSU), Richard L. Smith (Professor, Statistics, UNC) and Francoise Seillier-Moiseiwitsch (Associate Professor, Biostatistics, UNC).
