Assistant Professor Song Mei has been awarded a significant research grant by the Okawa Foundation for Information and Telecommunications. 

"I am deeply grateful to the Okawa Foundation for their generous research grant. This funding will support my group's efforts in advancing the theoretical foundations of deep learning and AI, empowering us to pursue new and impactful research directions," said Mei.

Mei is an Assistant Professor in the Department of Statistics and the Department of Electrical Engineering and Computer Sciences at UC Berkeley. He received his Ph.D. from Stanford, advised by Andrea Montanari.

Mei's research is motivated by data science and AI and lies at the intersection of statistics, machine learning, information theory, and computer science. His research interests include foundations of deep learning and generative AI, reinforcement learning theory, and high-dimensional statistics. In 2024, he received the NSF CAREER Award, the Google Research Scholar Award, and the Amazon Research Award. 

"The whole Department of Statistics sends its congratulations and warmest wishes to Song," said Chair Haiyan Huang. "Since joining the Department, he has proved to be a talented scholar who is making terrific contributions to the field and is a wonderful colleague." 

The Okawa Foundation for Information and Telecommunications is a public interest corporation founded mainly by the late Isao Okawa, one of the pioneers of the IT industry in Japan who established CSK Corporation. The Foundation's mission is to promote and develop ICT through awards and research grants and efforts to nurture researchers, engineers, and providers. It also seeks to promote diversity and ubiquitousness of human communication and thereby contribute to the peace and prosperity of humankind. The Foundation was established in 1986.

The Grant Presentation Ceremony, including a reception and a dinner, will be held at Hotel Nikko in San Francisco later this year.

-Alex Coughlin