David Donoho named 2013 Shaw Prize Laureate

David L. Donoho, Stanford University, has been named the 2013 Shaw Prize Laureate in the Mathematical Sciences for his profound contributions to modern mathematical statistics, and in particular, the development of optimal algorithms for statistical estimation in the presence of noise and of efficient techniques for sparse representation and recovery in large data-sets.

Established under the auspices of Mr Run Run Shaw in 2002, the prize honors individuals who have achieved significant breakthrough in academic and scientific research or application, and whose work has resulted in a positive and profound impact on mankind. The three annual Shaw Prizes—in Astronomy, Life Science and Medicine, and Mathematical Sciences—each bear a monetary award of one million US dollars. The presentation ceremony will be on 23 September. See www.shawprize.org/en/

David Donoho is an IMS Fellow and the Anne T. and Robert M. Bass Professor of the Humanities and Sciences, and Professor of Statistics, at Stanford University. David has received numerous honors. In 1991, he was named a MacArthur Fellow. He was elected a Fellow of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences in 1992, and won the COPSS Presidents’ Award in 1994. In 2001, he won the SIAM John von Neumann Prize, and was elected a SIAM Fellow and a foreign associate of the French Académie des sciences in 2009; in the same year he received an honorary doctorate from the University of Chicago. In 2010 he won the Norbert Wiener Prize in Applied Mathematics, given jointly by SIAM and the American Mathematical Society. David is a member of the US National Academy of Science, and last year was made a fellow of the American Mathematical Society.

Kathryn Roeder receives Janet Norwood Award

The University of Alabama at Birmingham’s School of Public Health and Department of Biostatistics has selected the twelfth annual recipient of the Janet L. Norwood Award For Outstanding Achievement by a Woman in the Statistical Sciences. The 2013 recipient is IMS Fellow Kathryn Roeder, Professor in the Department of Statistics at Carnegie Mellon University’s Dietrich College of Humanities & Social Sciences. Kathryn will receive the award at UAB on Wednesday, September 11, 2013. All are welcome: please RSVP to rsarver@uab.edu by September 4. Kathryn’s research interests in theoretical and applied statistics are grounded in an early fascination with basic biology. This translational interest in statistical genetics led to the use of mixture models methodology striving to explain the heterogeneity of nature. Roeder is an elected Member of the International Statistical Institute, and a Fellow of IMS and ASA; she has received the COPSS Presidents’ Award and Snedecor Award.

Maurice Bertram Priestley, 1933–2013

IMS Fellow Maurice Priestley, who passed away on June 15, 2013, was emeritus professor of statistics at the University of Manchester, UK. He gained his first degree at the University of Cambridge (he was a “Wrangler”), and a PhD from the University of Manchester. He is known for his work on time series, especially spectral analysis for stationary series, and modeling nonstationary series via evolutionary spectra. He was the founding editor of the Journal of Time Series Analysis, editing it from 1980–2012.

C R Rao receives State University of New York Honorary Doctorate

Calyampudi R. Rao received the State University of New York Honorary Doctorate Degree at the 167th commencement of the University at Buffalo on May 12, 2013—his 37th honorary degree, received from universities in 19 countries. C.R. Rao is considered a world leader in statistics whose achievements have had a profound impact on a wide range of fields over the past seven decades, including engineering, biostatistics, economics, genetics, medicine and anthropology. Rao is a member of the National Academy of Sciences (USA),the Indian National Science Academy and the UK’s Royal Society. The author of 14 books and 475 research papers, and advisor to 50 PhD students, Rao has received numerous prestigious awards recognizing his work. In addition to the aforementioned National Medal of Science in 2002, these honors include a gold and silver Guy Medal presented by the Royal Statistical Society (the highest awards given to a statistician in UK), Samuel Wilks Medal of the American Statistical Association (the highest award given to a statistician in the US) and the International Mahalanobis Prize for lifetime achievement in statistics.

Donald Richards becomes IMS Executive Editor of Statistics Surveys

Donald Richards is the new IMS Executive Editor, until the end of 2015, of Statistics Surveys. Statistics Surveys is a co-sponsored journal; each supporting society appoints an Executive Editor. Don has taken over from Lutz Dümbgen. Don is a Professor of Statistics at Penn State; his webpage is http://sites.stat.psu.edu/~richards/

Wenbo Li, 1963–2013

IMS Fellow Wenbo Li, University of Delaware, died suddenly in January of a heart attack. Professor Li joined the University of Delaware upon completing his PhD at the University of Wisconsin–Madison in 1992. He held adjunct positions with the Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering at UD, Delaware State University, and Harbin Institute of Technology, China. During his distinguished career, Professor Li also held visiting positions at the University of Pennsylvania, Peking University, the Hong Kong University of Science and Technology, and was a Distinguished Visiting Professor at the Institute of Applied Mathematics of the Chinese Academy of Sciences. In 2006, his numerous and deep contributions to the fields of probability and statistics were recognized with his election as an IMS Fellow.

According to the departmental webpage, “Wenbo advised numerous graduate students during his career and was an active mentor for many undergraduate research students. Since joining the university, Professor Li spearheaded the development of probability as a research focus of the Department of Mathematical Sciences and was a central figure in the growing research prominence of the department. The Proceedings of High Dimensional Probability VI, Banff, 2011, will be dedicated to Professor Li’s memory. His passing leaves a huge void in the mathematical community, in the life of the department, and in the lives of his students, friends, and family.”

An obituary will be published in a forthcoming issue.