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2017 Statistical Science Graduation Reception

The Department of Statistical Science graduation reception will be held at the Rickhouse in Downtown Durham at 609 Foster St, Durham, NC 27701.  Date:May 14, 2017 The reception begins at 12:30 pm with heavy hors d'oeuvres Schedule Welcome: Professor Merlise Clyde- Department Chair Presentation of Bachelor’s Degrees: Professor Mine Cetinkaya-Rundel - Director of Undergraduate Studies Presentation of TA Award: Professor Mine Cetinkaya-… read more »

Jerry Reiter speaks to Ryan Murray Commission on Evidence Based Policymaking

Jerry Reiter gave an invited presentation in front of the Ryan Murray Evidence-Based Policymaking Commission on the role of statistical methodologies and technologies in protecting data privacy.   The Ryan Murray Evidence-Based Policymaking Commission Act of 2016 was jointly introduced by U.S. Senator Patty Murray (D-WA) and Representative Paul Ryan (R-WI), and signed into law on March 30, 2016.   The Commision is described at  https://www.cep.gov/about.html .  The announcement of Jerry's talk is at… read more »

Creative People have Better Connected Brains

From today.duke.edu DURHAM, N.C. –- Seemingly countless self-help books and seminars tell you to tap into the right side of your brain to stimulate creativity. But forget the “right-brain” myth -- a new study suggests it’s how well the two brain hemispheres communicate that sets highly creative people apart.  For the study, statisticians David Dunson of Duke University and Daniele Durante of the University of Padova analyzed the network of white matter connections among 68 separate brain… read more »

Nicole Dalzell wins Dean's Award for Excellence in Teaching

Nicole Dalzell has won the 2017 Dean's Award for Excellence in Teaching. The award is intended "to celebrate and honor exemplary teaching by currently enrolled Ph.D. students who are engaged in teaching Duke undergraduate or graduate students. Each spring, The Graduate School recognizes up to three graduate students who best exemplify the characteristics of effective college teaching as they prepare for lives of service, leadership, and teaching." Congratulations Nicole!! read more »

Professor of Practice Opening

The Department of Statistical Science at Duke is looking to hire a professor of the practice to help grow and run our new master's in statistical science. This position is a great opportunity for Ph.D.-level statisticians with industry connections and/or experience. For more information, please see the position announcement at Academic Jobs. read more »

Mike West Presents a Turing Lecture

Mike West, the Arts & Sciences Professor of Statistics & Decision Sciences in Duke's Department of Statistical Science,  presented a Turing Lecture in London in July,  in the inaugural series of talks at the Alan Turing Institute (ATI),  "the UK’s national centre for data science."  A video of Mike's Turing Lecture-- on "Structured Dynamic Graphical Models"--  is available on-line. read more »

Xi Chen wins SBSS Student Paper Award

Congratulations to Ph.D. student Xi Chen, one of the 2016 Student Paper Awardees of the Section on Bayesian Statistical Science (SBSS) of the American Statistical Association. Xi presented the research in her winning paper, "Bayesian dynamic modeling and analysis of streaming network data", at the 2016 Joint Statistical Meetings (JSM) in Chicago, and was recognized at the SBSS award ceremony at the JSM. read more »

Mine Çetinkaya-Rundel wins Waller Award at JSM 2016

These honors—the Waller Distinguished Teaching Career and Waller Education awards—were established with a contribution from retired ASA Executive Director Ray Waller and his wife, Carolyn. The former recognizes an individual for sustained excellence in teaching and statistics education, and the latter honors an individual for innovation in the instruction of elementary statistics ·  The 2016 Waller Education Award honoree is Mine Çetinkaya-Rundel of Duke University, who was recognized for her outstanding contributions… read more »

JSM Alumni Social 2016

Are you attending JSM 2016 in Chicago this summer? Then don't miss the annual StatSci Dinner! Come and meet new and old faculty, current students, and alums and catch up on all the news while enjoying great food and drink with friends! This year the event will take place on Monday 8/1/2016 at Tapas Valencia - festivities will begin at 6:30!   read more »

2016 Departmental Graduation Reception

The graduation reception for 2016 will be held at the 21c Museum Hotel Durham - Address: 111 Corcoran St, Durham, NC 27701.  Invitations will be needed to enter the event. Due to the turnout of this event we are at capacity and unable to accept any other RSVP's. 12:00pm Heavy Hors D'oeuuvres Welcome  Professor Merlise Clyde- Department Chair Presentation of Bachelor’s Degrees  Professor Mine Cetinkaya-Rundel - Director of Undergraduate Studies… read more »

Statistical Science 3rd Year Ph.D. Student Matthew Johnson Wins the 2015-16 BEST Award

The 2015-16 BEST Award was announced during the Annual Graduation Reception of the Department of Statistical Science, held at 21C Hotel on Sunday, May 15, 2016. Professor Mike West presented the BEST Award 2015-16 to Statistical Science 3rd Year Ph.D. Student, Matthew Johnson, in recognition of his research on Bayesian Predictive Synthesis for Financial Forecasting. read more »

Jim Berger receives the 2016 UNC Department of Biostatistics Bernard G. Greenberg Distinguished Lecture Series Award

James O. Berger, Ph.D., Arts and Sciences Professor of Statistics at Duke University, will present the 2016 Department of Biostatistics Bernard G. Greenberg Distinguished Lecture Series. For more information about the series, visit the official website. Above Jim Berger of @StatSciDuke presented with #UNC #biostatistics department's Greenberg Distinguished Lecturer award. read more »

Visiting Faculty Opening

The Department of Statistical Science at Duke University invites applications for a Visiting Faculty position to begin in Fall 2016. Preference will be given to candidates whose core statistical science research interests are complemented by collaborative research interests in computer science, neurosciences, economics or finance, other areas of the social and policy sciences, among others. We are particularly interested in applicants with demonstrated experience and strength in teaching. The Department is an… read more »

DataFest 2016 is coming: April 1-3, 2016

ASA DataFest 2016 will be held over the April 1-3, 2016 weekend at The Edge. Visit http://www.stat.duke.edu/datafest/ to find out more and to sign up. Event starts at 6pm on Friday, April 1 and wraps up by 5pm on Sunday, April 3. An information session for the event will be held on Tuesday, March 1, 6-7pm, at Soc Psych 130. Workshops preceding the event will be announced at www.stat.duke.edu/datafest/#workshops. read more »

Beka Steorts: Named to MIT’s 35 under 35 Innovators List

Beka Steorts is a new assistant professor at Duke University in the Department of Statistical Science with affiliations in the Social Science Research Institute (SSRI) and the information initiative at Duke (iid). Last week she was named one of the 35 innovators under 35, in the category of humanitarian. She has been working on estimating death counts in the Syrian war with Steve Fienberg, the Human Rights Data Analysis Group (HRDAG), and others since 2013. Her award at MIT can be seen here along with a blog-post by… read more »

Jim Berger, Arts & Sciences Professor of Statistics, received the 2015 Samuel S. Wilks Memorial Award

The Wilks Memorial Award honors the memory and distinguished career of Sam Wilks by recognizing outstanding contributions to statistics that carry on the spirit of his work. The Wilks Award is made possible in part by a donation from Alexander Mood, who was a student of Wilks. The 2015 honoree is James O. Berger of Duke University. Jim Berger has made fundamental contributions to the foundations of statistics and to statistical decision theory. He is one of the world’s leading figures in Bayesian statistics, particularly in… read more »

JSM 2015 Alumni Dinner

JSM 2015 Alumni Dinner REGISTRATION Deadline was July 27th - any meal registered after JULY 28TH WILL BE GIVEN A VEGETARIAN MEA. Date: Monday, August 10th, 2015 6:30pm - Social 7:00pm - Dinner The 2015 JSM Alumni dinner has been confirmed and the menu is set. The event will at Andaluca Restaurant  and will begin with a Cash Bar at 6:30pm with one (1) free free drink ticket from the department, dinner will start at 7:00 pm. The Cash Bar will be open until the end of the evening. The cost of dinner… read more »

Alum Jouchi Nakaijima has new position at the Bank of Japan

StatSci alum Jouchi Nakajima (Ph.D. 2012) has moved to a new position in the Bank of Japan. Jouchi is now Deputy Director in the Global Economic Research Division of the BoJ's International Department. In addition to running and directing research, Jouchi is in charge of forecasting the global economy (up to a 3-year horizon)- i.e. making predictions on which the Bank's macroeconomic forecasts of the Japanese economy are based. read more »

Statistics with R on Coursera

Statistics with R Specialization on Coursera offering 5 courses prepared by Duke Statistical Science faculty. https://www.coursera.org/specializations/statistics The courses are Introduction to Probability and Data Inferential Statistics Linear Regression and Modeling Bayesian Statistics Statistics Capstone Project You can take the courses individually or sign up for the whole specialization, but to do the capstone you need to have completed the 4 courses in the specialization. The landing page for the… read more »

Two StatSci Teams are Winners of the LinkedIn Economic Graph Challenge

Two of the 11 teams that won the innovative and highly competitive LinkedIn Economic Graph Challenge are led by Duke Statistics faculty  David Banks, Katherine Heller, and David Dunson. In addition, incoming Assistant Professor Alex Volvofsky is part of the winning team from Havard's Department of Statistics.  Launched in October 2014, the challenge asked investigators, academicians and “data-driven thinkers” to submit their ideas for creating greater economic opportunity for the approximately… read more »