U.S. Senator Jack Reed and Dr. France A. Córdova, Director of the National Science Foundation (NSF) met with top researchers, mathematicians, scientists, and engineers from Brown University, the Rhode Island School of Design (RISD), and the University of Rhode Island (URI).
One key stop along the tour was Brown University’s Institute for Computational and Experimental Research in Mathematics (ICERM), which was awarded $17.5 million in NSF funding to continue and expand its mission to explore the intersection of mathematics and computation, bringing new techniques and approaches to bear on critical societal challenges from climate change to cybersecurity.
“Strengthening Rhode Island’s research capacity and infrastructure is critical to economic development, spurring innovation plus entrepreneurship, and it’s critical to bringing new, high-tech, science-related jobs to the state,” noted Reed, who has worked to ensure Rhode Island’s EPSCoR eligibility since 2004, and now Rhode Island’s percentage of NSF funding is one of the highest of EPSCoR-eligible states. The state currently has over $13 million in active EPSCoR awards.
