Statistical Science
The Department of Statistical Science at Duke University will host a virtual information session for our Master’s and Ph.D. programs on Friday, November 19th from 2-3:30pm ET. This session is open to all who are potentially interested in applying to one of our graduate programs. The Master's in Statistical Science (MSS) is a 2-year graduate degree program that provides a modern, comprehensive education in statistical theory, methods, and computation. The MSS program offers generalized focus areas (including data science,… read more about Prospective Students: MS and Ph.D Virtual Information Session »
DURHAM, N.C. -- As North Carolina lawmakers debated new district maps for the state legislature and the United States House of Representatives, two Duke experts spoke to journalists about what the newly drawn maps could mean for North Carolina voters and future elections for the next decade: Watch the briefing on YouTube. Here are excerpts: On how these maps compare to the ones previously discarded as unconstitutional ASHER HILDEBRAND, associate professor of the practice, public policy… read more about Experts Discuss Redistricting in North Carolina »
Statistical Science faculty members Dr. Mine Cetinkaya-Rundel, Dr. Alexander Fisher, Dr. Alexander Volfovsky, Dr. Simon Mak, and Dr. Yuansi Chen joined the Proseminar course to connect with first-year MSS students moderated by Dr. Funda Gunes. Many thanks to all five faculty members for sharing their personal/professional history, research interest, potential research topics with MSS students, and best practices (tips/tricks) to successfully set up research collaborations. Students enjoyed this opportunity to connect with… read more about Faculty discuss research with MS students »
Statistical Science postdoc Rungang Han has been selected to receive the 2021 IMS Lawrence D. Brown PhD Student Award. The award will fund Rungang's travel to next year’s IMS Annual Meeting in London, June 27–30, 2022. Rungang will present a paper at the IMS Lawrence D. Brown Ph.D. Student Award invited session. read more about Postdoc Rungang Han receives IMS Award »
Ruda Zhang, Simon Mak and David Dunson have been awarded the Best Paper Award at the INFORMS Section on Quality, Statistics and Reliability for their paper “GPS: Gaussian Process Subspace Regression for Model Reduction”. This award recognizes the best research paper on state-of-the-art methodological developments and applications that cater to the next generation of intelligent systems for manufacturing, service and healthcare. This paper was selected in a refereed session with 27 submissions this year. read more about Best paper award at INFORMS »
PhD Alum Mengyang Gu is the recipient of the 2022 SIAM Activity Group on Uncertainty Quantification Early Career Prize. This prize is awarded every two years to one individual in their early career for outstanding research contributions in the field of uncertainty quantification in the three calendar years prior to the award year. The SIAM Activity Group on UQ is a the fastest growing activity group in SIAM, currently having over 1000 members. Mengyang is currently an Assistant Professor in the Department… read more about Mengyang Gu (PhD 2016) receives SIAM Career Prize »
Whether preventing explosions on electrical grids, spotting patterns among past crimes, or optimizing resources in the care of critically ill patients, Duke University computer scientist Cynthia Rudin wants artificial intelligence (AI) to show its work. Especially when it’s making decisions that deeply affect people’s lives. While many scholars in the developing field of machine learning were focused on improving algorithms, Rudin instead wanted to use AI’s power to help society. She chose to pursue opportunities to apply… read more about Duke Computer Scientist Wins $1 Million Artificial Intelligence Prize, A ‘New Nobel’ »
We had another great proseminar session, in which second-year MSS students Emre Yurtbay, Lingyu Zhou, Michael Sarkis, Madeleine Beckner, Jack McCarthy, and Rob Kravec recounted their experiences in a variety of summer internships with Voya Financial, Lubrizol, Facebook, Autodesk, Optiver, and 2nd Order Solutions. The students provided great insights and advice, not only describing their internship experiences, but also offering advice about the interview processes. Students emphasized the importance of communication skills… read more about Internship Lightning Talks »
Distinguished Professor of Statistics and Decision Sciences Mike West has been announced as the Bruno de Finetti Lecturer for the 2022 World Meeting of the International Society of Bayesian Analysis (ISBA). This biennial ISBA award recognizes “an outstanding scholar who has provided significant contributions to the advancement of Bayesian Statistics.” Established in 2015, the award has previously recognized Persi Diaconis (Stanford), Phil Dawid (Cambridge) and our own Jim Berger. read more about Statistical Science Professor has been announced as the Bruno de Finetti Lecturer »
First-year MSS students are getting prepared for summer internship applications by taking part in an interactive Writing Effective Resumes Workshop. The workshop was given by Dr. Heidi Giusto and is tailored to the needs of Master’s students in the Statistical Science Department. In this workshop, students learned best practices for resume writing and understanding how applicant tracking systems work. Upon completing the workshop, each student will have two individual consultation sessions with Dr. Guisto to review their… read more about MSS Professional Development Series Begins »
Only one line of code separates a method created by Duke Statistical Science Professor Fan Li from another methodology commonly used in assessing the relative effectiveness of medical treatments. But her approach has proved to be a powerful new tool for doctors trying to navigate complex treatment challenges for patients with COVID-19. Li began her work with overlap weights – the name of her methodology – years before the pandemic struck. Her initial paper on the topic was published in the Journal of the American… read more about Duke-Developed Statistical Method Helps Physicians Weigh COVID-19 Treatments »
The Department of Statistical Science at Duke University is participating in a campus-wide faculty search for the Duke Science and Technology Initiative; please see the job ad at https://research.duke.edu/dst-faculty-search. This program seeks to attract leading scholars in, among other areas, computation. The position is open rank, although junior candidates are preferred. read more about Faculty Position with Duke Statistical Science »
It's always wonderful to have our MSS alums come and talk to our current students. Eden Huang, MSS 2018 alum, thank you for your excellent presentation about various data science projects at Liberty Mutual Insurance! Also, thanks to Dan McCarthy for his excellent discussion on company culture, available positions, internship opportunities, and interview advice. We hope a few of our students will be able to take advantage of the wonderful opportunities available! read more about Liberty Mutual Information Session »
Our colleague and alum Hedibert Lopes (Duke StatSci PhD 2000) has been appointed as the Charles Wexler Distinguished Professor of Statistics in the School of Mathematical and Statistical Sciences at Arizona State University. Please join us in congratulating Hedibert on his new position and in looking forward to the coming years in statistical science and especially for Bayesian analysis at ASU. read more about PhD Alum Hedibert Lopes named a distinguished professor at ASU »
Fan Li's 2018 paper "Balancing covariates via propensity score weighting" (JASA, 113(521), 390-400) is the second most cited paper in 2020 among all papers published in the Journal of American Statistical Society in the last three years. read more about Fan Li paper among most highly cited in JASA »
At the International Society for Bayesian Analysis (ISBA) 2021 World Meeting, multiple Duke Statistical Science PhD students were among the 21 selected to receive the “Best Student/Postdoc Contributed Paper Award”. The awards are sponsored by the National Science Foundation. Each award is accompanied by a monetary prize and a certificate. The StaSci winners’ contributions are listed below. Alessandro Zito (Current PhD student at Duke Statistical Science) … read more about Multiple StatSci Winners of the ISBA Student/Postdoc Contributed Paper Awards »
David Dunson was interviewed on the podcast, Philosophy of Data Science, on his views of how statistical science advances other disciplines. Watch the interview here. read more about David Dunson talks on Statistics and Science »
Congratulations to Andrew Cron (Duke StatSci PhD 2012) on taking over as Chief of Science at 84.51 read more about New Role for Andrew Cron (PhD 2012) »
PhD student Alessandro Zito won a ISBA 2021 Best Student/Postdoc Contributed Paper Award. He received the award for his paper titled, “Bayesian modeling of sequential discoveries.” read more about Alessandro Zito wins best paper award at ISBA conference »
PhD student Anna Yanchenko won the Best Student Presentation Award of the Industrial Statistics Section, International Society for Bayesian Analysis (ISBA), at the recent ISBA World Meeting. Anna won the award based on her presentation of research in the paper on “Hierarchical Dynamic Modeling for Individualized Bayesian Forecasting.” read more about Anna Yanchenko wins best presentation award »
Mine Cetinkaya-Rundel has been elected as Chair-Elect 2022 for the American Statistical Association Statistical Computing Section. Yue Jiang has been elected Secretary/Treasurer of the American Statistical Association Risk Analysis Section. read more about Mine Cetinkaya-Rundel and Yue Jiang elected to ASA offices »
Duke Statistical Science professor Beka Steorts has been selected to deliver the Washington Statistical Society Presidents' annual invited lecture. Professor Steorts will discuss her work on, "Entity Resolution with Societal Impacts in Statistical Survey Methodology, Statistical Science, and Machine Learning." The lecture will be on June 24 over Zoom; see flyer for details including the Zoom link. read more about Beka Steorts to deliver WSS Invited Lecture »
Duke Statistical Science PhD alumnus Kelly Moran, postdoc Sharmistha Guha, and postdoc Tommaso Rigon have been named 2020 Savage Awards Finalists. The Savage Award, named in honor of Leonard J. “Jimmie” Savage, is bestowed each year to two outstanding doctoral dissertations in Bayesian econometrics and statistics, one each in Theory & Methods and Applied Methodology. Kelly and Sharmistha were named in the category Applied Methodology, and Tommaso was named in the category Theory and Methods. All finalists present… read more about Duke StatSci Savage Award Finalists! »