The Applied Mathematics Panel (AMP) was created at the end of 1942 as a division of the National Defense Research Committee

National Defense Research Committee

The National Defense Research Committee was an organization created "to coordinate, supervise, and conduct scientific research on the problems underlying the development, production, and use of mechanisms and devices of warfare" in the United States from June 27, 1940 until June 28, 1941...

 (NDRC) within the Office of Scientific Research and Development

Office of Scientific Research and Development

The Office of Scientific Research and Development was an agency of the United States federal government created to coordinate scientific research for military purposes during World War II. Arrangements were made for its creation during May 1941, and it was created formally by on June 28, 1941...

 (OSRD) in order to solve mathematical problems related to the military effort in World War II

World War II

World War II, or the Second World War , was a global conflict lasting from 1939 to 1945, involving most of the world's nations—including all of the great powers—eventually forming two opposing military alliances: the Allies and the Axis...

, particularly those of the other NDRC divisions.

The panel's headquarters were in Manhattan, and it was directed by Warren Weaver

Warren Weaver

Warren Weaver was an American scientist, mathematician, and science administrator...

, formerly of NDRC Division 7, Fire Control

Fire-control system

A fire-control system is a number of components working together, usually a gun data computer, a director, and radar, which is designed to assist a weapon system in hitting its target. It performs the same task as a human gunner firing a weapon, but attempts to do so faster and more...

. It contracted projects out to various research groups, notably at Princeton

Princeton University

Princeton University is a private research university located in Princeton, New Jersey, United States. The school is one of the eight universities of the Ivy League, and is one of the nine Colonial Colleges founded before the American Revolution....

 and Columbia

Columbia University

Columbia University in the City of New York is a private, Ivy League university in Manhattan, New York City. Columbia is the oldest institution of higher learning in the state of New York, the fifth oldest in the United States, and one of the country's nine Colonial Colleges founded before the...

 Universities.

In addition to work immediately relevant to the war effort, mathematicians involved with the panel also pursued problems of interest to them without contracts from outside organizations. Most notably, Abraham Wald

Abraham Wald

- See also :* Sequential probability ratio test * Wald distribution* Wald–Wolfowitz runs test...

 developed the statistical technique of sequential analysis

Sequential analysis

In statistics, sequential analysis or sequential hypothesis testing is statistical analysis where the sample size is not fixed in advance. Instead data are evaluated as they are collected, and further sampling is stopped in accordance with a pre-defined stopping rule as soon as significant results...

while working for AMP.

AMP was formally disbanded in 1946.