ISR provides training and leadership to develop the skills and expertisenecessary to tackle complex problems and advance knowledge.
Since 1963, the ICPSR Summer Program in Quantitative Methods has provided rigorous, comprehensible training in statistics, quantitative and qualitative methods, and data analysis. Our commitment to providing premier instruction in courses that are affordable and enjoyable has inspired generations of researchers to call the ICPSR Summer Program their home for learning statistics.
We really saw that for the data to be useful, both for genetic and social science researchers, we needed to cross train. We either needed to teach biologists and statistical geneticists social science or we needed to teach the social scientists genetics. We decided to start by teaching genetics to social scientists.
– Jessica Faul, ISR
ISR serves as a telescope for society, highlighting and bringing into clear focus the attitudes and behaviors that make our world what it is today. A key aspect of our mission is offering our services to the scientific community and the world.
That effort takes many forms, from offering our labs for data collection to serving as administrators for research projects. ISR also offers key training programs for both established social scientists and future contributors to our field.
Our Genomics for Social Scientists workshop is the perfect example of this kind of work. In this program, ISR researchers train social scientists from across the country and around the world how to handle genetic data in a way that can benefit their research.
Over the past year, ISR celebrated the 20th anniversary of the Michigan Program in Survey and Data Science. Established in 2001, the program seeks to train future generations of survey and data scientists by focusing on a broad range of data sources throughout its curriculum.
ISR faculty also contribute to a number of important scientific boards, helping shape policy at the national level. This year, ISR affiliate Deborah Loewenberg Ball was appointed to the National Science Board, showing that our influence reaches to the highest levels of political power in the United States.
