Duke’s Trinity College of Arts & Sciences has invited its faculty to submit proposals for the creation of new research initiatives on campus.Following the successful launches of the SPACE Initiative and the Society-Centered AI Initiative, the Trinity Research Initiative will support new directions for interdisciplinary research through seed funding for nascent research collaborations, community-building, and complementary educational and outreach activities.Open to all areas of research and… read more about Trinity College of Arts & Sciences Invites Proposals for New Research Initiatives »
A few New York-based graduate alums reunited in November 2025 in NYC. From left to right: Emily Tallman (PhD 2024), Zeki Kazan (PhD 2025), Gangqiang Xia (PhD 2006), David Buch (PhD 2023), Sining Chen (PhD 2002), Lauren West, Cathy Zhou (2002), Distinguished Professor Emeritus Mike West, Yang Chen (PhD 1997), Andrew Cron (PhD 2012), Alonso Guerrero (MSS 2024) and Rick Presman (PhD 2025). Also at the reunion, but not pictured here, were Hao Wang (PhD 2010) and Joe Futoma (PhD 2018). … read more about Recent Duke StatSci Alumni Gathering in New York »
Assistant Professor Simon Mak has received the Young Statistical Engineering Award (https://isea-change.org/YSEA) from the International Statistical Engineering Association (ISEA). This award recognizes outstanding contributions in statistics and engineering by early career industrial statisticians. ISEA is an international organization that promotes the discipline of statistical engineering; its flagship conference is the Stu Hunter Conference on business and industrial statistics. read more about Simon Mak receives the ISEA Young Statistical Engineering Award »
Cadets Austin, Good and Skena contracting and receiving the Oath of Enlistment from Major Allen on East Campus. (Photo courtesy of Anthony Garza) We see them every day — attending classes, grabbing lunch at the WU, dropping by office hours or catching the C1 bus. From dorms and libraries to lecture halls and Cameron Stadium, they’re tightly woven into the fabric of campus life. For these student cadets in the Air Force Reserve Officers’ Training Corps (AFROTC), balancing the… read more about Air Force ROTC at Duke: Building Tomorrow’s Leaders »
Mike West, Distinguished Professor Emeritus of Statistical Science, was the recipient of the 2025 Jerome Sacks Award for Cross-Disciplinary Research. The award was presented by the National Institute of Statistical Sciences (NISS) at the Joint Statistics Meetings held in Nashville, TN. This prestigious award recognizes “sustained, high-quality cross-disciplinary research involving the statistical sciences.”The award is especially meaningful at Duke, where both Jerry Sacks and Mike West left a lasting mark on the Department… read more about Mike West Wins 2025 Jerome Sacks Award for Cross-Disciplinary Research »
Summer InternsAre you seeking interns for summer 2026? The Duke Masters of Statistical Science program resume book for students in the Class of 2027 is now available. Request a free copy here.We strongly encourage MSS students to complete an internship or research opportunity after their first year. Our program focuses both application and statistical theory, and also the professional skills necessary to be an integral part of your summer project team.Duke MSS is a STEM accredited program and our… read more about Hire a Masters Student - Resume Book Available! »
Two Duke alumni, Shreyas Hallur, T’23, and Kashyap Sreeram, T’24, have received the Samvid Scholarship. They were among 20 scholars selected from a pool of more than 1,000 applicants. The program awards up to $100,000 towards tuition and fees for two years of graduate study. read more about Two Trinity Alumni Named 2025 Samvid Scholars »
A few alums reunited in September at the Croucher Advanced Study Institute on Al and Statistics (hosted by PolyU Hong Kong). From left to right:Sheng Jiang (PhD 2021, Assistant Professor of Statistics, Chinese University of Hong Kong, Shenzhen),Keru Wu (PhD 2023, Quantitative Researcher, Citadel Securities, Hong Kong),Zoey Zhao (PhD 2015, Trader Team Lead, Jump Trading, Hong Kong)Lauren West and Distinguished Professor Emeritus Mike West,Haige Shen (PhD 2007, Senior VP and Head of Clinical Development,… read more about Recent Duke StatSci PhD alumni gathering in Hong Kong »
While selective inference can work, there are landmines. Sifan Liu, assistant professor in the Department of Statistical Science, wants to help researchers avoid them.“It’s reasonable to make scientific discoveries by exploring the data you have,” she said, “but you have to be careful. If you use the same data to come up with the conjecture and then again to confirm the conjecture, that’s circular and suffers from bias. My work corrects for the bias.”Selection bias is one of the factors that can lead to results that can’t… read more about Sifan Liu: Helping Researchers Generate Trustworthy Results »
Omar Melikechi took a curiously circuitous route on his way to becoming an assistant professor in the Department of Statistical Science. As an undergrad at Dartmouth, he majored in political science and took just one math class. After graduating, he found himself collecting data as part of his job helping resettle refugees with AmeriCorps in Phoenix. “I became interested in how I could analyze the data and that led me to linear algebra,” he said. “I studied by myself at night for the next two years while working during… read more about Melikechi in the Middle: Statistics Bridging the Gap Between Theory and Application »
Lasse Vuursteen’s fascination with theory and statistics began with poker. “In my teens, I was playing poker semi-professionally and reading books about poker theory,” said Vuursteen, assistant professor in the Department of Statistical Science. Game theory led him to math, econometrics, and statistics. As an adult, he still plays poker, but just for fun. Now his paycheck comes from developing statistical theories that help researchers and companies analyze data more efficiently and accurately. “I use math to… read more about Lasse Vuursteen: The Best Possible Method »
Do old statistical methods work with today’s big data? That’s one of the questions that drives Anya Katsevich, assistant professor of Statistical Science. “There are a number of classical methods — nice reliable methods — which work in the regime of small data,” she said, “but we’re not sure anymore whether we can rely on them.”She’s witnessed the confusion: “I’ve seen scientists use a method when it’s questionable, and I’ve also seen people lament in papers, ‘We wish we could use this method but we’re not sure it works… read more about Anya Katsevich: Taming Big Data With Old Statistics »
Interested in applying to Duke’s Master’s of Statistical Science program? Join Dr. Dawn Strickland and Megan Kelly Deyncourt to learn more about our world-class program. We’ll give a brief overview of the MSS program and the admissions process, followed by a Q&A session with the participants.Session One: Tuesday, October 21st, 9 am EDTSession Two: Thursday, October 29th, 1 pm EDTRegister here. read more about Upcoming Master's Admissions Information Session »
The Trinity College of Arts & Sciences has launched the SPACE Initiative at Duke (Science & Policy to Advance Cosmic Exploration), a universitywide endeavor dedicated to advancing our understanding of the cosmos through interdisciplinary collaboration. All are invited to its celebratory kick-off event to be held on Sept. 8 at 4 p.m., at Penn Pavilion. The event will combine a poster presentation, a reception and a keynote talk by Duke alumna, astronaut and former Lead Space Operations Engineer at SpaceX… read more about Trinity College of Arts & Sciences Launches SPACE Initiative »
Faculty team Maria Tackett and Nicole Schramm-Sapyta's seven-year project is transforming our understanding and responses to the needs of people navigating Durham’s criminal justice and healthcare systems. Working with student researchers and in collaboration with the Durham County Detention Facility, Justice Services Center, and Duke Health, they’ve compiled one of the most comprehensive datasets of its kind, covering over 23,000 individuals with mental health diagnoses who were locally incarcerated between 2014 and… read more about Behind the Data: Mental Health and the Justice System in Durham County »
The University of Zaragoza will honor Alan Gelfand's legacy with a conference "IUMA day on Bayesian analysis: The influence of Alan Gelfand's work". The workshop will feature four sessions with invited speakers, focusing on key areas of Alan Gelfand’s influential contributions. These sessions will cover Spatial analysis, Environmental and ecological processes, and Bayesian methods.In addition to the main sessions, the workshop will include a contributed poster session and a flash talk session,… read more about University of Zaragoza to award Doctor Honoris Causa degree to Alan Gelfand »
Mine Çetinkaya-Rundel, professor of the practice and the director of undergraduate studies in Statistical Science, has been appointed director of the First-Year Experience in Trinity College of Arts & Sciences.Çetinkaya-Rundel will play a pivotal role in overseeing the launch of the First-Year Experience, a signature component of the new Arts & Sciences curriculum being implemented in Fall 2025. All incoming first-year students will participate in the experience through either the longstanding FOCUS program or the… read more about Mine Çetinkaya-Rundel Appointed Director of the First-Year Experience in Trinity College of Arts & Sciences »
We are excited to launch the Duke MSS Alumni Mentorship Program! This program aims to build meaningful, professional connections between current MSS students and alumni working across diverse industries and in academia. We will match current students with alumni mentors who can offer guidance, advice, and support as students navigate academic decisions, career planning, and the transition into the workforce or into PhD programs. If you are interested in joining as an alumni mentor or as a student mentee, please review… read more about MSS Launches Alumni Mentorship Program »
Cynthia D. Rudin, the Gilbert, Louis, and Edward Lehrman Distinguished Professor of Computer Science, received the 2025 International Joint Conference on Artificial Intelligence Organization (IJCAI) McCarthy Award.The award recognizes Rudin’s foundational work on trustworthy artificial intelligence (AI), which is shaping the field of interpretable machine learning and making a major impact on sweeping societal changes. The John McCarthy Award celebrates mid-career researchers who have sparked innovative research… read more about Cynthia Rudin Receives 2025 International Joint Conference on Artificial Intelligence McCarthy Award »
2025 MSS alumna Yicheng “Catherine” Wang served as one of three graduate student representatives from Duke at the NC General Assembly as part of the annual Graduate Education Day. Catherine shared her research — which uses a Bayesian spatial hierarchical model to study flood risk using high resolution environmental data — with legislators and staff.In March 2025, Catherine traveled to Washington, D.C. to the ARPA-E Energy Innovation Summit, where she won the Student Pitch award. She shared her pitch on the Summit’s… read more about MSS alumna Yicheng “Catherine” Wang presents at NC General Assembly's Graduate Education Day »
The Department of Statistical Science is delighted to welcome the following new PhD's to our alumni family: Andrea Aveni, Youngsoo Baek, Yunran Chen, Michael Christensen, Alex Dombowsky, Zeki Kazan, Brian Kundinger, Joseph Lawson, Bo Liu, John Miller, Raphaël Morsomme, Ed Tam, Zhuoqun Wang, Justin Weltz, Xiaojun Zheng, and Yuren Zhou. We also wish to congratulate our PhD BEST Award winner, Aihua Li, and PhD TA of the Year winners Maria Neubrander and Bongjung Sung, along with TA honorable mention winners Kat Husar and… read more about Welcoming Our New PhDs to Our Alumni Family! »
Congratulations to the MSS Class of 2025! Members of this 33-student graduating class are part of an incredibly accomplished group. Several students will be entering top-tier Ph.D. programs, and others will be starting careers in a variety of industry roles, including data scientists, engineers, and analysts at companies like Meta, Eli Lilly, and Liberty Mutual. We wish them continued success in their professional careers, or in continuing their academic journeys.We’d also like to recognize our award winners:2025… read more about Congratulations to Our New MSS Alums! »
Congratulations to our 73 new undergraduate alums on their achievements at Duke! We honored several for their contributions to the department, including 13 graduates with distinction who completed a year-long research project culminating in a senior thesis. The BEST Award, reflecting the role and impact of Bayesian methodology and its application, was won by Jordan Hamelsky for her thesis “Identifying Sociodemographic, Spatial, and Geographic Factors in Durham Associated with Incarceration Using Hierarchical Modeling… read more about Congratulations, Class of 2025! »
The following is a partial list of national, university, school and departmental awards presented to the members of the Class of 2025. In some awards where there are multiple winners, only members of the Class of 2025 are included. read more about Department Honors and Laurels for the Class of 2025 »
Department of Statistical Science Chair Amy Herring has been named Dean of Natural Sciences and Professor of Political Science Kerry Haynie has been appointed to a second term as Dean of Social Sciences, Dean Gary Bennett announced Tuesday. In sharing the announcement, Bennett also expressed his gratitude to Susan Alberts, Robert F. Durden Distinguished Professor of Biology, for her several impactful years as Dean of Natural Sciences. Bennett noted that in returning full time to her research, “Susan is… read more about Herring, Haynie to Lead Natural Sciences, Social Sciences Divisions; Alberts to Return to Research »
We are happy to share that PhD alum and distinguished professor Carlos Carvalho has been named the new President of University of Austin!Read the full announcement. read more about Ph.D Alum Carvalho Named President of University of Austin »
Congratulations to PhD candidate Jennifer Kampe and PhD alumnus Dr. Ed Tam, who were recently awarded the IMS New Researcher Travel Award. Jennifer will graduate in May and has accepted a postdoctoral scholar position at University of Jyväskylä, continuing her work on biodiversity, and Ed is currently a postdoctoral scholar in Biomedical Data Sciences at Stanford University. Both completed their dissertations at Duke under the supervision of Arts & Sciences Distinguished Professor David Dunson. read more about Kampe and Tam win IMS New Researcher Travel Awards »
Alexander Volfovsky, associate professor of Statistical Science, is the recipient of the 2025 Gertrude M. Cox Award for excellence in applied statistics. Established in 2003 through a joint agreement between the Washington Statistical Society (WSS) and RTI International, the award annually recognizes an early to mid-career statistician who has made significant contributions in survey methodology, experimental design, biostatistics and/or statistical computing. Volfovsky’s research is at the intersection of theory… read more about Alexander Volfovsky Receives Gertrude M. Cox Award for Excellence in Applied Statistics »
Adway Wadekar is a graduating senior with majors in Mathematics and Statistical Science and a minor in Economics. He has served as a Trinity Ambassador for Statistical Science. Trinity Ambassadors are student volunteers, nominated by their departments, to serve in this unique and important role.We asked a few of the ambassadors from the Class of 2025 to share their favorite memories from Duke. The below interview has been slightly edited for clarity. What was one of the most impactful classes you took during… read more about Notes From the Class of 2025: Making Statistics Stick »
The American Statistical Association (ASA) selected Dr. Kate Calder, Professor and Chair of Statistics and Data Sciences at UT-Austin, as one of 5 recipients of its 2025 Founders Award. She received both her MS (2021) and PhD (2023) at Duke and conducts research in spatial and spatio-temporal statistics, Bayesian modeling and computation, multivariate data, and network and relational data analysis. The Founders Award recognizes members who have rendered distinguished service to the association. Dr. Calder has… read more about Alumna Kate Calder Recognized with ASA Founders Award »