News on the New Department of Statistics and Data Science at Washington University in St. Louis (WashU)

Less than a year after its inception, WashU’s Department of Statistics and Data Science (https://sds.wustl.edu/) is already assembling the talent and expertise needed to make it a national leader in statistical research with real-world impact, said department chair Xuming He, the Kotzubei-Beckmann Distinguished Professor [and former IMS Bulletin editor!].

“The department will continue to develop foundational research in statistics,” He said. “At the same time, we’re going to take an interdisciplinary approach to explore emerging areas of data science.”

A nationwide search for faculty last year yielded a flood of applications and the department recently hired five talented scholars whose skills will further the department’s mission. The new faculty includes the following people.

Bo Li, previously the chair of statistics at the University of Illinois, is a leading statistician specializing in the complex data underlying environmental science and public health issues.

Joe Guinness, previously an associate professor of statistics and data science at Cornell University, studies large data sets in Earth science.

Ran Chen, previously a postdoctoral researcher at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, works on a wide range of statistical issues, including machine learning and data-driven decision-making with implications for business and health care.

Hong Hu, previously a postdoctoral researcher at the University of Pennsylvania, studies high-dimensional statistics with applications for signal processing and machine learning. He will join the university holding a joint appointment between Department of Electrical & Systems Engineering and Department of Statistics and Data Science.

Carlos Misael Madrid Padilla, recently earned his PhD from the University of Notre Dame, with the 2024 Eli J. and Helen Shaheen Graduate School Award, studies high-dimensional statistics, change-point detection and scalable Bayesian computation.

The department plans to hire more faculty to further the department’s reach into emerging fields such as AI and public health. The department is also committed to expanding its educational reach, with the goal of more doubling the number of students in its graduate program this year.

For more information, please see the online article https://artsci.wustl.edu/ampersand/department-statistics-and-data-science-gains-momentum-new-hires which was written by Chris Woolston.