The Statistical and Applied Mathematical Sciences Institute has named UW mathematics professor the recipient of its 2020 .

The , called SAMSI for short, was established in 2002 and is a partnership among Duke University, North Carolina State University at Chapel Hill and the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. Its is “to forge a synthesis of the statistical sciences and the applied mathematical sciences with disciplinary science to confront the very hardest and most important data- and model-driven scientific challenges.”

The Blackwell-Tapia Award, too, began in 2002. Given in even-numbered years, it is named for mathematical and statistical experts , the first African American elected to the National Academy of Sciences, and , winner of the 2010 National Medal of Science. The award recognizes “excellence in research among people who have promoted diversity within the mathematical and statistical sciences.”

Toro is the Craig McKibben and Sarah Merner Professor in Mathematics. She received the UW’s Distinguished Graduate Mentor in 2019 and was to the American Academy of Arts & Sciences in May.

“She is an analyst whose work lies at the interface of geometric measure theory, harmonic analysis and partial differential equations,” the institute said in a news release.

“Her work focuses on understanding mathematical questions that arise in an environment where known data are very rough. The main premise of her work is that under the right lens, objects which at first glance might appear to very irregular, do exhibit quantifiable regular characteristics.”

The award is normally presented during a ceremony at the Blackwell-Tapia Conference. Conference plans are under discussion due to the novel coronavirus.

鈥淲e congratulate these incoming members of the Academy for excelling in a broad array of fields; we want to celebrate them and learn from them,鈥� said Nancy C. Andrews, chair of the Board of Directors of the American Academy. 鈥淲hen Academy members come together, bringing their expertise and insights to our work, they help develop new insights and potential solutions for some of the most complex challenges we face.鈥�

Cauce 鈥� who was named to the Educational and Academic Leadership section of the Academy鈥檚 Public Affairs, Business and Administration class 鈥� became the 33rd president of the UW on Oct. 13, 2015 after serving as interim president for seven months and having previously served as provost and executive vice president.

Throughout her career, Cauce has championed access to higher education, including through the , which provides full tuition to eligible Washington students who otherwise could not attend college. As part of her strong belief in ensuring access to higher education for all, just one month into her role as interim president she engaged students in an honest discussion about race and equity, to create a more just and diverse community.

Cauce is a professor of Psychology and American Ethnic Studies, with secondary appointments in the Department of Gender, Women and Sexuality Studies and the College of Education. She maintains an active research program, focusing on adolescent development, with a special emphasis on at-risk youth. She is also a strong advocate for women and underrepresented minorities to pursue careers in science, technology, engineering and mathematics.

Davis was named to the Cellular and Developmental Biology (including Genetics), Microbiology and Immunology Section of the Biological Sciences Class of the Academy. Davis and her colleagues explore the dynamics of the chromosome capture that occurs in preparation for cell division.

Impressive molecular machinery tries to assure that each cell resulting from the split receives a proper set of chromosomes. Mistakes in sorting, separating and distributing the chromosomes could cause serious problems, such as cancer. Davis鈥� team looks at how the movement and segregation of chromosomes is orchestrated. This chromosome assembly is trial and error, but cells usually can find and fix mistakes. As chromosomes attach to the separation machinery, checkpoints tune into to the connection and the tension it produces. If this quality assurance detects that a chromosome is incorrectly captured, it is released for another try.

The Davis lab uses many ways of examining this and related controls. These include genetic analysis, proteomics, quantitative microscopy, computational modeling and biochemical assays.

Davis holds the Earl W. Davie/ZymoGenetics Chair in Biochemistry at UW Medicine. She also heads the UW鈥檚 Yeast Resource Center, funded by the National Institutes of Health to develop technologies for exploring protein structure and function.

Toro was named to the Mathematics, Applied Mathematics and Statistics section of the Academy鈥檚 Mathematical and Physical Sciences class. Her research centers on the premise that objects, which may at first appear irregular or disordered, actually have regular features that are quantifiable. Toro鈥檚 work spans geometric measure theory, harmonic analysis and partial differential equations. Toro studies the mathematical questions that come up in systems where the known data are 鈥渞ough,鈥� as well as interfaces that arise in 鈥渘oisy鈥� minimization problems.

In addition to her research, Toro has also worked to increase diversity in mathematics. She helped launch Latinx in the Mathematical Sciences, including two conferences through the National Science Foundation highlighting the achievements of Latinx mathematicians.

Toro joined the UW faculty in 1996 and her career includes numerous honors and accolades. Last year, she received the UW鈥檚 Marsha L. Landolt Distinguished Graduate Mentor Award. In 2017, she was elected as a Fellow of the American Mathematical Society. Toro has also been a Guggenheim Fellow, an Alfred P. Sloan Research Fellow and a Simons Foundation Fellow.

Founded in 1780, the is one of the country鈥檚 oldest learned societies and independent policy research centers, convening leaders from the academic, business and government sectors to respond to the challenges facing the nation and the world.

The new members join the company of Academy members elected before them, including Benjamin Franklin and Alexander Hamilton in the eighteenth century; Ralph Waldo Emerson and Maria Mitchell in the nineteenth; and Robert Frost, Martha Graham, Margaret Mead, Milton Friedman, and Martin Luther King, Jr. in the twentieth.

Learn more about the Academy’s , , and on its website .

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