Meet Dr. Yong Zeng, Professor in Mathematics and Statistics

Why did you want to be a CAFE Fellow? What are you excited about?

I joined UMKC in Fall 1999 after obtaining my Ph.D. from the University of Wisconsin-Madison and am currently a Professor in Mathematics and Statistics.  Looking back, I have received support throughout my career, but I also received crucial support at critical times of career growth, which enabled me to catch opportunities, unleash potential, and achieve excellence. For example, with backing from UMKC, I was able to serve as a Rotating  Program Director at the National Science Foundation (NSF) for two terms and just returned to UMKC in Fall 2021. I am grateful for this opportunity and excited to give back to UMKC and share my knowledge and experience with faculty.

What do you hope to accomplish this year? Are there any particular goals?  What do you think the legacy of your work will be?

As a CAFE Fellow under the pillar of Research and Creativity, I have been working with the Office of Research Services (ORS) to implement UMKC Forward initiatives. I will use my NSF experience and join the ORS team to co-organize a year-long, large-scale Interdisciplinary Grant Proposal Development workshop.  I will help workshop participants develop strong, large-scale grants that they will submit by October 2022.  Of course, I hope all of these projects will be successful!  Specific goals include providing tips and advice on team building, hypotheses and logic flow, budget building and pitfalls, writing winning proposals, and offering constructive criticism and comments for proposal ideas and presentations. Besides potential large-scale grant funding, the legacy of my work will be a training mechanism with materials to improve faculty members’ ability to develop and write high-quality, large-scale proposals within a cohort of faculty members. As UMKC aspires to boost our faculty research mission, this training mechanism can be used again in the future.

How does your research or role as a faculty member inform your interest and work as a CAFE Fellow?

My research was previously supported by NSF research grants, which boosted my career significantly. As a faculty member, I was fortunate to serve as an NSF program officer and gained valuable experience. As a CAFE fellow, I am motivated to use these experiences to assist other faculty members in obtaining external grants and achieving career excellence.