Please see the full solicitation for complete information about the nomination opportunity. Below is a summary assembled by the Research & Innovation Office (RIO). Nominators must coordinate with Andrew Chiacchierini (andrew.chiacchierini@colorado.edu) of Industry & Foundation Relations before submitting this internal nomination.

Program Summary

The Simons Foundation’s Mathematics and Physical Sciences division invites nominations for Simons Investigators in Mathematics, Physics, Astrophysics and Computer Science. Within the Physics program, the foundation also invites nominations for Theoretical Physics in Life Sciences Investigators.

Nominations should be confidential and nominees should not know they are being nominated.

The Simons Investigators program aims to provide a stable base of support for outstanding theoretical midcareer scientists, enabling them to undertake long-term investigations of fundamental questions in their fields. The intent of the program is to support these scientists in their most productive years, when they are establishing new research directions, providing leadership in the field and effectively mentoring junior scientists.

Deadlines

CU Internal Deadline: 11:59pm MST September 26, 2022

Sponsor Application Deadline: 10:00pm MST November 3, 2022

Internal Application Requirements (all in PDF format)

  • Nomination Letter (Up to 2 pages): Written and signed by the nominator (e.g., a relevant university official, whether internal or external to the nominee’s institution, such as a department chair or dean), on letterhead, explaining the distinctive scientific contributions of the nominee, focusing on scientific accomplishments of the past five years and including discussion of a few important papers. Cosigned letters are acceptable within the page limit. Self-nominations are not allowed and nominators should keep nominations confidential.
  • Nominee’s CV (no page limit): The nominee’s curriculum vitae, including, but not limited to, Ph.D. year, institution, advisor, postdoctoral institutions and advisors, positions held subsequent to award of doctorate, a list of graduate students and postdoctoral fellows mentored by the nominee and the nominee’s up-to-date publication list.

To access the online application, visit:

Eligibility

To be eligible to be nominated for an Investigator award, a scientist must be engaged in theoretical research in mathematics, physics (or theoretical physics in life sciences), astrophysics or computer science and must not have previously been a Simons Investigator. A nominee must be midcareer (typically, early-stage tenured full professors), have a primary appointment as a tenured faculty member at an educational institution in the United States, Canada, the United Kingdom or Ireland, on a campus within these countries, and the primary department affiliation must have a Ph.D. program (note that the appointment need not be in a mathematics, physics, astrophysics or computer science department). A nominee must be in place at the institution submitting the nomination at the time of the appointment start date.

To be eligible to be nominated for an Investigator in Theoretical Physics in Life Sciences award, a nominee must be a well-established, midcareer researcher who develops and applies advanced theoretical physics ideas and methods in the life sciences. The foundation’s expectation is that an Investigator in Theoretical Physics in Life Sciences nominee would have a level of theoretical sophistication on par with the best practices used in theoretical condensed matter physics. The theory must eventually connect with an experiment, suggesting new questions and new classes of experiments, introducing important new concepts and explaining data, thus fostering a scientific culture of theory-experiment collaborations, which is characteristic of physics.

Limited Submission Guidelines

Each institution may submit up to two nominations in each of the Mathematics, Physics, Astrophysics and Theoretical Computer Science programs (two in Mathematics, two in Physics, two in Astrophysics, two in Computer Science) and up to one additional nomination in Theoretical Physics in Life Sciences (three total in Physics — two for Theoretical Physics and one for Theoretical Physics in the Life Sciences) for total of 9 nominations.

Award Information

In 2023, the foundation expects to appoint up to four Investigators in Mathematics, up to seven in Physics (including up to two in Theoretical Physics in Life Sciences), up to two in Astrophysics and up to three in Theoretical Computer Science.

Investigator awards starting January 1, 2024, will receive up to $192,000 per year. This includes $150,000 per year in research support for the Investigator, $10,000 per year for the Investigator’s department, and up to an additional 20 percent per year in indirect costs to the Investigator’s institution.