John Hood, majoring in statistics and economics, at Hubbard Hall.
of The NSF Graduate Research Fellowship Program, according to its website, “recognises and supports outstanding graduate students in NSF-supported science, technology, engineering, and mathematics fields.” This program provides the Fellow with three years of financial support, including a $34,000 annual scholarship.of The University of Chicago also offers a scholarship to Hood.
In most years, a small number of Bowdoin alumni receive NSF graduate fellowships, but it is rare for Bowdoin students to receive the award while they are still undergraduates.
Hood, who grew up in Charlotte, North Carolina, was encouraged to apply for a fellowship last summer when he attended an undergraduate study program in mathematics and statistics at North Carolina State University. He worked with a small team on a project to improve forecasting models for extreme weather events.
A doctoral program in statistics at the University of Chicago appealed to Hood because of its emphasis on machine learning. “I am interested in the application of new technologies,” he says, using it to address issues such as climate change and financial forecasting.
The university also has a track record of helping graduates find jobs in academia, technology and finance, but Hood is still unsure of which direction to take. “My interest is very general right now,” he said, but he wants to strike a balance between theoretical statistics and real-world applications.
His senior year honors project reflects his interest in applying mathematics to real-world situations. With his adviser Dan Stone, an associate professor of economics, Hood wrote the following paper: “Analyzing managerial responses to fluctuating player performance in Major League Baseball”
