Asaro Biggar Professorships/Fellowships in Data Science

Congratulations to the newest recipients of the Asaro Biggar Professorships / Fellowships in Data Science, which support tenured or tenure-track faculty from the Hajim School and the School of Arts & Sciences who use data science methods to frame, analyze, and resolve the most pressing issues in their fields. Assistant Professor Zhen Bai from the Department of Computer Science is the Asaro Biggar Family Fellow in Data Science, and Associate Professor Lee Murray from the Department of Earth and Environmental Science is the Stephen Biggar ’92 and Elisabeth Asaro ’92 Fellow in Data Science.

Zhen, an NSF CAREER Award winner, creates embodied and intelligent technologies that augment human learning and communication, particularly for people with diverse abilities (e.g., autism, Deaf and hard-of-hearing) and backgrounds (e.g., underrepresented students in STEM). Lee’s research examines the coupling of reactive chemistry in Earth’s atmosphere with the climate system, aiming to understand the natural and human factors that control variability in atmospheric composition across the past, present, and future, and how this chemistry then feeds back onto the climate system.

The Asaro Biggar Professorships/Fellowships in Data Science are a gift from Trustee Stephen Biggar ’92 and his wife, Elisabeth Asaro-Biggar ’92, to support data science at the University. The Biggars’ gift helps the University to recruit and retain the best talent in the rapidly growing and competitive field of data science by funding fellowships for junior faculty and professorships for senior faculty. Fellowships carry a three-year term and allow the University to honor and encourage outstanding faculty early in their careers.