From left: Yulia Gel, Edsel Peña, Yong Zeng, and Jun Zhu

Yong Zeng of the University of Missouri-Kansas City became a permanent program director and Jun Zhu of the University of Wisconsin-Madison became a rotator program director of the Division of Mathematical Sciences in the National Science Foundation Directorate of Physical and Mathematical Sciences this fall. They join Yulia Gel of The University of Texas at Dallas and Edsel Peña of the University of South Carolina-Columbia, who are in their second and third years, respectively, as rotator program directors of the statistics program. Zeng previously served in the Division of Mathematical Sciences from 2015–2018 and 2019–2021.

In February of 2022, longtime Permanent Program Director Gabor Szekely retired from NSF, while Huixia (Judy) Wang completed her four years as a rotator program director last September. Wang returned to her home institution, The George Washington University, where she is now the chair of the statistics department.

Program directors, permanent and rotator, are responsible for managing the portfolio of awarded projects in their disciplinary programs, as well as those from special research programs in the division and/or foundation. They organize review panels charged with making recommendations regarding funding priorities of submitted grant proposals, review grant proposals that do not require a panel and/or ad hoc reviews, decide which proposals to recommend for awards and declinations, perform outreach to the relevant professional communities, and actively continue their own research activities. They also initiate or participate in the development of new program solicitations across the foundation.

Learn more about the NSF statistics program.