Press Release | WIAS | 06-10-2011

Berlin mathematician receives “mega-grant” from Russian government

Prof. Vladimir Spokoiny of the Weierstrass Institute for Applied Analysis and Stochastics (WIAS) receives a “mega-grant” in the amount of 150 million roubles (about 3.4 million euros) from the Russian government.

Berlin mathematician receives “mega-grant” from Russian government

Prof. Vladimir Spokoiny|Foto: Jan Zwilling, FVB

 

Prof. Vladimir Spokoiny of the Weierstrass Institute for Applied Analysis and Stochastics (WIAS) receives a “mega-grant” in the amount of 150 million roubles (about 3.4 million euros) from the Russian government. Worldwide a total of 39 researching scientists have been elected out of 507 applicants.

Through the award of mega-grants, Russia wants to use the potential of internationally successful scientists and thereby strengthen its own research. The award winners have to use the money for the establishment of a research team at a college/university in Russia. This work will be done parallel to the scientist's activities in the respective country. Vladimir Spokoiny will therefore continue to work at WIAS, where he leads the research group “Stochastic Algorithms and Nonparametric Statistics”. At the same time he is going to establish a research team with focus on “Predictive Modelling” at the renowned Moscow Institute of Physics and Technology (State University).

Two of the 39 scientists who have been awarded are Nobel Prize winners; four of the award winners live in Germany, six in France and ten in the U.S.A. The projects will be funded for two years until the end of 2013; afterwards these projects are supposed to be continued independently. Therefore, the decisions were not only based on scientific performance indicators such as the scientist's publications and citations, but also on the future viability and marketability of the research programmes and on the scientist's leadership and teaching qualities. For these reasons, Vladimir Spokoiny's project took the first place in the field of “information technologies”.

“I want to build a strong research team in Russia, which will be internationally competitive and be able to use the scientific potential of the country”, says Spokoiny. “Another objective will be to include students and doctoral candidates from Moscow. An intense cooperation with my team and other colleagues in Berlin is expressly desired and planned”.

The winners of the mega-grants have been invited by the Russian government for the 18th and 19th October to the West Siberian city of Tomsk to discuss prospects of technology development and science in Russia. The Russian government hopes for appraisals and recommendations of the top-class scientists for their scientific system.

 “I do not only regard the award as a personal appreciation of myself but as a huge success for the Weierstrass Institute. I also hope to contribute to the reconstruction of the vast scientific traditions of my home country”, emphasizes Vladimir Spokoiny.

 

Kontakt:

Weierstraß-Institut für Angewandte Analysis und Stochastik
Dr. Torsten Köhler
Tel.: +4930-20372 582, Email