Alan Karr Appointed Director

Alan F. Karr has been appointed Director of NISS, effective July 1, 2000.

Announcing the appointment, Jon Kettenring, Chair of the Board of Trustees, said “Karr's selection, which was the culmination of a nationwide search, signals our readiness to take NISS to new levels of accomplishment and involvement with the statistics community.”

Karr, accepting the appointment, stated that “I am honored to accept the Directorship of NISS, and extremely grateful to the Board of Trustees for their confidence in my ability to lead NISS. We have come a long way in nine years, but now we face new challenges to ensure that NISS becomes an Institute that the entire statistical sciences community is proud of. My goal is to work with the Board of Trustees and the community to meet these challenges.”

Karr succeeds Jerome Sacks, founding Director of NISS. Through December 31, 2000, Sacks will assist with management of the NISS affiliates program, as well as remain involved in NISS research on transportation and computer model evaluation. Effective January 1, 2000, he will become Professor of Statistics and Decisions Sciences at Duke University on a full-time basis. “On behalf of the Board of Trustees,” Kettenring said, “I thank Jerry for having had the vision to start NISS and the wisdom to guide its development from a concept into a strong national resource in the mathematical sciences.”

As Associate Director of NISS since 1992, Karr has developed and led research projects in transportation, software engineering and “Digital Government.” Prior to coming to NISS, he was Professor of Mathematical Sciences and Associate Dean of the School of Engineering at Johns Hopkins.