Computer scientist Daniel Spielman named inaugural Simons Investigator

Yale computer scientist Daniel Spielman has been named to the inaugural class of Simons Investigators, providing him and Yale's Department of Computer Science with $660,000 over five years for curiosity-driven research. A potential five-year renewal could raise the value of award to more than $1.3 million. The majority of the award, from the New York-based Simons Foundation, is intended to support Spielman's work directly. The foundation is a private organization that supports research in mathematics and the basic sciences. It established the Investigators Program "to provide a stable base of support for outstanding scientists in their most productive years, enabling them to undertake long-term study of fundamental questions." Spielman, who joined the Yale faculty in 2006, is among 21 mathematicians, theoretical physicists and computer scientists in the inaugural class, all from U.S. research universities. He said the award would be especially helpful because of its flexible terms of use. "The funding from the Simons Foundation will make it easier to pursue my best ideas, whether or not I had put them into a grant proposal," he said.