About: As data science and AI have continued to permeate society, the National Science Foundation (NSF) has introduced new programs in the foundations of the data sciences and its applications to scientific problems. This talk provided an overview of some of NSF’s activities and opportunities in data science and related fields, with a particular focus on the Social, Behavioral, and Economic (SBE) Directorate.
Dr. Pamela Davis-Kean, Former Program Director in the Developmental Science Program of the NSF SBE Directorate and the Developmental Area Chair and Professor in the University of Michigan Department of Psychology, and Research Professor at the Institute for Social Research
Dr. Pamela Davis-Kean is the Developmental Area Chair and Professor in the University of Michigan Department of Psychology as well as a Research Professor at the Institute for Social Research where she is the Founding Director of the Population, Neurodevelopment, and Genetics (PNG) program. Dr. Davis-Kean was an Associate Director of the Michigan Institute for Data and AI in Society, and recently served as the Program Director in the Developmental Science Program of the Social, Behavioral, and Economic (SBE) Directorate of the National Science Foundation.
Dr. Davis-Kean’s research focuses on the various pathways that the socio-economic status (SES) of parents relates to the cognitive/achievement outcomes (particularly mathematics) of their children. Her primary focus is on parental educational attainment and how it can influence the development of the home environment throughout childhood, adolescence, and the transition to adulthood. Davis-Kean is also a Research Professor at the Institute for Social Research where she is the Founding Director of the Population, Neurodevelopment, and Genetics (PNG) program. This collaboration examines the complex transactions of the brain, biology, and behavior as children and families develop across time and is representative of the population. She has expertise in quantitative methods, data science, the use of secondary data for longitudinal analyses, and open science practices. Her current research is converging methods in social science and computer science to examine the flow of parenting information on social media platforms.