Statistical Science
Three researchers with ties to Duke's Department of Statistics have received the newly-established Blackwell-Rosenbluth Award. The award recognizes outstanding junior Bayesian researchers based on their overall contribution to the field and to the community. This year's winners include: Duke Assistant Professor of Statistical Science Simon Mak, John Hopkins Assistant Professor of Biostatistics and Duke doctoral alumni Aki Nishimura, and Texas A&M Assistant Professor of Statistics and… read more about Junior Researchers Receive Blackwell-Rosenbluth Award »
StatSci Professor Mine Çetinkaya-Rundel discusses data science pedagogy on the recent episode of the Stats + Stories podcast. The episode’s focus, according to Stats + Stories, is how “in the past, Introduction to Statistics classes spent a lot of time covering distribution tables, teaching students to run stats by hand and focusing on statistical procedures. However, educators are continually considering new ways to teach stats, and the increasing popularity of data science makes it a more urgent… read more about Stats + Stories podcast hosts Mine Çetinkaya-Rundel on data science pedagogy »
Five MSS students received the Dean’s Research Award from The Graduate School this semester: Eric Bai (MSS ’23), Yicheng Shen (MSS ’24), Xinran Song (MSS ’23), Jiongran Wang (MSS ’23), and Xiaozhu Zhang (MSS ’23). This highly competitive award provides funding for students to pursue research opportunities, necessary research tools and programs, and conference attendance. These students will utilize their awards to pursue research on a myriad of topics including mortality predictions via medical texts, analyzing Twitter data… read more about MSS Students Receive Dean’s Research Award »
PhD student Xiaojun Zheng (with advisor Assistant Professor Simon Mak) received the Best Student Paper Award at the Institute for Operations Research and the Management Sciences (INFORMS) Annual Meeting. Their paper, “PERCEPT: a new online change-point detection method using topological data analysis”, proposes a new topology-aware online change detection approach for monitoring high-dimensional data streams, with applications to solar flare detection and human gesture monitoring. This award recognizes outstanding papers… read more about PhD Student Receives INFORMS Best Student Paper Award »
DURHAM, N.C. – Two Duke University seniors were among the recipients selected this weekend for the prestigious Rhodes Scholarship. Qi Xuan Khoo and Shreyas Hallur were chosen from among many applicants from colleges and universities. Hallur received one of the 32 scholarships available to students from the United States, while Khoo won the only scholarship available to Malaysian citizens. The scholarships provide all expenses for two or three years of study at the University of Oxford in England. Recipients are selected… read more about Two Duke Seniors Win Rhodes Scholarships »
Big thanks to our amazing faculty (Dr. Banks and Dr. Jiang), post-docs (Dr. Matuk) and Ph.D students (Evan Knox, Yunran Chen, Raphael Morsomme) for volunteering their time to review provide feedback on the Ph.D. applications of our undergraduate and Master’s students. Mentors gave feedback about where to apply, application tricks, and how to make CVs and statements of purpose stronger. Students found it very helpful and really appreciated this in-house care! read more about Students Prepare for Ph.D. Applications with Review Session »
Statistical Science Professor Jerry Reiter presented the 2022 Clifford C. Clogg Memorial Lecture on November 3 at Penn State University. Reiter spoke on the topic: “Is There a Future for Public Use Data?” Sponsored by Penn State’s departments of statistics and sociology, the annual Clifford C. Clogg Memorial Lecture honors a researcher who has made distinguished contributions at the intersection of statistics and social science. The lecture is in memory of the late Clifford C. Clogg – a distinguished professor of sociology… read more about Jerry Reiter Delivers 2022 Clogg Memorial Lecture »
Recruiters recently returned to campus for an in-person STEM-focused career fair, co-sponsored by the Master’s of Statistical Science and Master in Interdisciplinary Data Science Programs. Almost 20 employers were welcomed to campus, including IBM, Amazon, Cameo, and Humana, among others. Employers searching for students to fill both internship and full-time employment positions were able to connect with over 300 students from the MSS and MIDS programs, as well as graduate students from Electrical & Computer Engineering… read more about Inaugural MSS/MIDS Career Fair – Resume Book available »
The Duke University Master's and Ph.D. of Statistical Science programs are actively recruiting students for Fall 2023 enrollment. We will host a virtual admissions information and Q&A session on Thursday, October 26 from 1:00-3:00 EDT (register here). At this session, students will have an opportunity to hear about both programs as well as chat with current students to hear about their experiences. The Zoom link for the event is here. See below for more information about each program, as well as a… read more about Virtual MSS & Ph.D. Admissions Session »
As a first-year student at Duke, Brooke Harmon didn’t know she would need a mentor – or two, or three – to help guide her through college. But what she didn’t look for, she found nevertheless. Now a senior, Harmon boasts an important, vast and diverse web of friends, confidants, advisers and mentors who she has leaned on throughout her collegiate journey. This group – a personal, informal board of directors of sorts – has proven valuable to Harmon and is the sort of support system Duke’s career counselors and other student… read more about On Students Finding Advice and Help Along the Duke Journey »
Big thanks to Jeffrey Baker and GOURAV GHOSHAL of Wells Fargo for joining our Duke Statistical Science proseminar and sharing valuable information about entry-level data scientists opportunities at Wells Fargo and their work in Analytics and AI ML Center of Excellence (CoE). It was a well-attended (by both Master's and undergraduate students) interactive session with hands-on case studies and activities. read more about Wells Fargo Recruitment Session »
The Department of Statistical Sciences invites applications for a tenure-track position at the Assistant Professor level to begin in July/August 2023. Applicants from all areas of statistical science are encouraged to apply. For more information and to apply, visit: https://academicjobsonline.org/ajo/jobs/22740 read more about New Assistant Professor Tenure-Track Position - Apply Now! »
Vittorio Orlandi, a Ph.D. student studying statistics at Duke under the supervisor of Alex Volfovsky and Cynthia Rudin, received the 2022 Laplace Award for best student paper for his work on density regression. Orlandi received the award at the 2022 Joint Statistical Meetings. Orlandi – whose research interests include bayesian nonparametrics, interpretable causal inference, open source software and quantitive finance – won for his paper, Density Regression with Bayesian Additive Regression Trees. read more about Stat Ph.D. Student Wins "Laplace Award" for Best Student Paper »
An interdisciplinary team of Duke researchers – Assistant Professors of the Practice Shira Viel (Mathematics), Maria Tackett (Statistical Science) and Tori Akin (Mathematics) – have joined a seven-institution research collaboration investigating how mathematics departments engage with issues of diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI). As part of ACT UP Math (Achieving Critical Transformation in Undergraduate Programs in Mathematics) project – a three-year, $1.5 million grant from the National Science Foundation (… read more about Team Awarded NSF Grant to Research DEI in Introductory Math »
David L. Banks, professor of the practice of Statistical Science, received the 2022 Deming Lecture Award and delivered the Deming Lecture in early August during the 2022 Joint Statistical Meetings (JSM) in Washington, D.C. American Statistical Association (ASA) President Katherine Ensor and Deming Award Committee Member Amit Bhattacharyya presented Banks the award prior to his lecture, "The Future of Statistics in Industry." Banks was recognized: "For significant contributions to statistical methods and practice in… read more about Banks Receives Deming Lecture Award »
Eight interdisciplinary research projects – including one led by Duke University researchers – are part of a new $7.5+ million initiative by the U.S. National Science Foundation (NSF) focused on empowering more reliable prediction of the spread of infectious diseases, the effects of mitigation measures and other critical aspects of national health crises. Duke assistant professors of Statistical Science Jason Xu and Alexander Volfovsky, along with David McAdams, professor… read more about Interdisciplinary Duke Team Awarded NSF Grant to Better Understand and Predict Epidemics »
The Master’s of Statistical Science program welcomed 51 new students to Durham last week. The incoming MSS class came from all over the globe to participate in the program’s Math and Stat Bootcamp last week, led by Ph.D. students Christine Shen and Steven Winter. Orientation continues this week with Computing Bootcamp, a departmental welcome from department chair Dr. Surya Tokdar and Program Director Dr. Funda Gunes. Their sessions also included speakers from OIE/OSC, DuWell, Scholars@Duke, as well as Dr. Joan Combs Durso… read more about Welcome, new MSS students! »
Alumna Nicole Dalzell, Assistant Teaching Professor of Statistics at Wake Forest University, receives Teaching Professionals Award for Excellence. Read the story here. read more about Statistical Science PhD Alum wins Distinguished Teaching Award »
Multiple members of Duke's Department of Statistical Science – from faculty, postdocs and current students to alumni – received top honors during the 2022 World Meeting of the International Society of Bayesian Analysis (ISBA). The event, which attracted more than 600 top researchers from around the world, brings together its diverse international community of investigators in statistics to share recent findings and present new and challenging problems. During the conference, Duke was recognized in the following areas:… read more about Duke StatSci Sweeps Awards at ISBA 2022 »
Ph.D. students Bora Jin and Shounak Chattopadhyay were selected for travel awards to attend the 13th International Conference on Bayesian Nonparametrics. read more about Shounak Chattopadhyay and Bora Jin receive travel awards »
DataFest 2022 at Duke, held April 1 - 3, was one of over forty ASA DataFest events that took place March - May 2022. DataFest is a data analysis competition sponsored by the American Statistical Association, where students work in teams to analyze a surprise and complex data set over a weekend. Students from Duke University and Duke Kushan University participated in this year’s event, the first held in person since DataFest 2019. The surprise data came from Elm City Stories, an educational video game developed by… read more about DataFest 2022 at Duke »
The faculty and staff of the Department of Statistical Science congratulates the MSS Class of 2022! Members of this graduating class are part of an incredibly accomplished group, and this year, the MSS program has almost a 100% placement rate. Five students will be entering prestigious Ph.D. programs at Duke, UCLA, University of Michigan, University of Wisconsin-Madison, and the National University of Singapore, while the majority of the class are stepping into a myriad of industry roles, including data scientists,… read more about Congratulations, MSS Class of 2022! »
Postdoc Ruda Zhang, Assistant Professor Simon Mak, and Professor David Dunson were named finalists for the Best Paper Award at the Institute of Industrial and Systems Engineering (IISE) division on Data Analytics & Information Systems. Their paper, “GP𝚺: Gaussian process prediction of covariance matrices”, proposes a novel Bayesian non-parametric model for covariance matrix prediction, with applications to surrogate modeling of heavy-ion simulations. This award recognizes outstanding papers in the research and practice… read more about Best paper award finalist at the IISE Annual Conference »
To encourage and reward the graduate students and post-doctoral scholars who help expand undergraduate research opportunities each year, the Department of Statistical Science recognizes one or more doctoral students and/or postdoctoral scholars for their outstanding mentorship of individuals or teams of undergraduate researchers. We believe that an outstanding mentor of undergraduate researchers, while providing mentoring support and guidance, holds themselves and their mentees to the highest ethical research standards,… read more about 2022 Outstanding Mentor of Undergraduate Research Award »