New York University: NYU’s Jonathan Niles-Weed Wins Sloan Foundation Research Fellowship

Jonathan Niles-Weed, an assistant professor in New York University’s Courant Institute of Mathematical Sciences and Center for Data Science, has been awarded a fellowship from the Alfred P. Sloan Foundation.

The fellowships “honor extraordinary U.S. and Canadian researchers whose creativity, innovation, and research accomplishments make them stand out as the next generation of leaders,” the Sloan Foundation said in announcing this year’s 118 fellows.

A full list of the 2022 Fellows is available on the Sloan Foundation website.

“Today’s Sloan Research Fellows represent the scientific leaders of tomorrow,” says Adam F. Falk, president of the Alfred P. Sloan Foundation. “As formidable young scholars, they are already shaping the research agenda within their respective fields—and their trailblazing won’t end here.”

Niles-Weed studies mathematical aspects of data science. His work uses tools from statistics, probability theory, and computer science to rigorously analyze the procedures that underlie modern machine learning. His recent research focuses on developing a statistical theory of optimal transport, an 18th-century mathematical technique which has been revitalized by its increasing popularity in deep learning, physics, and computational biology.

Since the first Sloan Research Fellowships were awarded in 1955, 82 faculty from NYU have received a Sloan Research Fellowship.

Overall, 53 Sloan Fellows have received a Nobel Prize in their respective fields, 17 have won the Fields Medal in mathematics, 69 have received the National Medal of Science, and 22 have won the John Bates Clark Medal in economics, including every winner since 2007. A database of former Sloan Research Fellows can be found on the foundation’s website.

Fellows receive $75,000, over a two-year period, to further their research.