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ISPNATTEK-ISP - naturvit. og teknologi

Institution based strategic project - Mathematics and Statistics at UiT The Arctic University of Norway

Alternative title: Instituttbasert prosjekt - Matematikk og statistikk ved UiT - Norges arktiske universitet

Awarded: NOK 2.8 mill.

The project has consisted of supporting the two research groups at the Department of Mathematics and Statistics, UiT - The Arctic University of Norway, that were considered to be the best in the RCN evaluation report in 2011. The researchers in one of these groups have been working (and still work) within pure mathematics; in disciplines called differential geometry, geometric analysis, differential equations, and dynamical systems. At the core of the activity lies the notion of geometric structure, and its symmetry. Properties of these structures in higher dimensional spaces have been studied, and applications to mathematical physics have been derived. Knowledge of these properties is an important tool within a broad range of activities, which in addition to foundational physics also include theoretical chemistry, mathematical biology and economics. The applications are sometimes indirect, but they eventually lead to fundamental progress in these sciences. In our project we hired a new associate professor in August 2016, in order to strengthen this research. This employee has also contributed to popularization of the research through lecturing for pupils in high school. The researchers in the other research group have been working on a wide range of statistical topics, including statistical analysis within diabetes research, natural language processing, use of Gaussian Markov random fields and application of the methodology of integrated nested Laplace approximation within climate analysis. The ultimate goal within the diabetes research is to develop devices that will give patients with diabetes the same health and life quality as anyone without diabetes. The work with natural language processing has consisted of extracting information from electronic health records in healthcare institutions. A systematic way of doing this will provide tools for improved treatment of patients in the future. The work done as a part of this project can be used to quantify a patient's risk of complications during and after surgery. This information can be crucial for a successful outcome of the performed surgery. In addition, the obtained results may be used in the future as a decision support tool for General Practitioners in their search for malignant melanoma. Yet another outcome of the results is in diabetes research where the results may lead to an algorithm for controlling blood glucose levels in persons living with Type 1 Diabetes. Within climate analysis, computationally efficient Bayesian methods have been developed to analyse models that incorporate both long-range dependency structures in temperatures and climate forcing. These models can For example be used to estimate important measures of climate sensitivity assessing climate changes due to anthropogenic effects. We have strengthened the statistics group and the applications by hiring a professor and two associate professors in part-time positions during various periods. One of them has acted as a regional data co-manager for PAGES (Past Global Changes), which is a major international initiative towards studying the climate of the past. In the last phase of the project, from 2018, he has been the one responsible for the statistics part of the research. He contributed to publishing a new version of the global multiproxy database covering the last 2000 years (Nature Scientific Data publication). Using the new data, he contributed to writing and publishing a collection of papers on the climate and hydroclimate of the Arctic of the Common Era.

En hovedvirkning av prosjektet er at forskningen innen rein matematikk generelt, og innen fagfeltet differensialgeometri spesielt, kan fortsette med uforminsket og helst økende kraft ved UiT, campus Tromsø, i de nærmeste årene. Dette vil styrke mulighetene for god forskning, veiledning og undervisning i landsdelen. Resultatene innen statistikk forventes å bidra til å styrke tverrfaglig forskning som forener kompetanse innen statistikk, medisin og teknologi. Det kan forventes at resultatene av denne aktiviteten, som angår elektroniske pasientjournaler, diabetes- og kreftforskning, vil føre til forbedret pasientbehandling på mange områder i framtida. De oppnådde resultatene innen statistikk vil også ha betydning for blant annet klimaforskning, inkludert paleoklimatisk dataanalyse, der en rekonstruerer temperaturutviklingen fra Krist fødsel fram til i dag. Forståelsen av dette vil ha betydning for hvordan en innretter seg for framtida.

The overall goal of the project is to strengthen further the quality of those research activities at the department that were considered to be the best ones in the RCN report from 2011 (in terms of scientific output and master/PhD-students). This will be done by hiring an (associate) professor about one year before the estimated retirement of the oldest member of this research group, and the project will cover the newcomer's salary and running costs until about one year after the retirement of the oldest member. After that UiT will cover the costs of the permanent position. The research group in differential geometry/differential equations cooperates with UiS, and also with UiB, and a key member of the group is a candidate for a Prof.II position at UiS. To contribute well in this way IMS will hire a person to maintain a strong functioning research group around this member. In addition we will strengthen and support highly productive research activity within scale-space statistical methods. This will be done by hiring a Professor II, preferably from another Norwegian university, in a 20% position for 3 years. We have had very good experience with such an arrangement before, and a grant from NRC would enable us to once more establish a research cooperation we are certain will be fruitful. Both these activities (differential geometry / differential equations and scale-space statistical methods) were given very good marks in the evaluation in 2011. A strengthening of both these activities, in particular that in statistics, will also support the research in our newly established climate dynamics research group, that has already proved to be successful in obtaining external research grants. The activities described in the project are in full harmony with the department strategy where one describes "research of good quantity and excellent quality" and "interdiciplinarity and cooperation between the groups for applied mathematics, statistics and analysis" as goals.

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ISPNATTEK-ISP - naturvit. og teknologi

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