Moore Foundation selects Matthew Stephens for Data-Driven Discovery grant

The Gordon and Betty Moore Foundation has announced the University of Chicago's Matthew Stephens as the recipient of a Moore Investigator in Data-Driven Discovery award. Stephens, a professor in statistics and human genetics, is among 14 scientists from academic institutions nationwide who will receive a total of $21 million over five years to catalyze new data-driven scientific discoveries. Stephen's grant is for $1.5 million. These Moore Investigator Awards are part of a $60 million, five-year Data-Driven Discovery Initiative within the Gordon and Betty Moore's Science Program. The initiative—one of the largest privately funded data scientist programs of its kind—is committed to enabling new types of scientific breakthroughs by supporting interdisciplinary, data-driven researchers. "Science is generating data at unprecedented volume, variety and velocity, but many areas of science don't reward the kind of expertise needed to capitalize on this explosion of information," said Chris Mentzel, program director of the Data-Driven Discovery Initiative. "We are proud to recognize these outstanding scientists, and we hope these awards will help cultivate a new type of researcher and accelerate the use of interdisciplinary, data-driven science in academia." Stephens is a data scientist who develops statistical and computational analysis tools for the large datasets being generated in the biological sciences.