The Applied Probability Section of the UK’s Royal Statistical Society (RSS) has announced that the winner of its 2024 PhD prize in Applied Probability is Serte Donderwinkel. Serte’s thesis, “The structure of large random graphs,” concerns universality in large random structures. In her thesis, Serte developed a new proof technique that resolved several long-standing open problems for random trees and random graphs. The committee of the RSS Applied Probability Section in particular noted the high quality and rigour of the thesis. Papers from the thesis have already been accepted in probability journals including The Annals of Probability.

Serte Donderwinkel is an assistant professor (with tenure track) in probability theory at the University of Groningen; she is also affiliated with CogniGron, the interdisciplinary center of mathematicians, statisticians, computer scientists and material engineers who aim to improve learning-based cognitive computing with materials-centered systems. She was previously a postdoctoral researcher at McGill University, in the research group of Louigi Addario-Berry. She completed her PhD at the University of Oxford under the supervision of Christina Goldschmidt, where she was also a Stipendiary Lecturer at St. Hugh’s College.

The RSS PhD competition in Applied Probability is awarded biennially to PhDs completed at a UK university. The judging panel noted that the standard of applications was exceptionally high. The winner will receive a certificate in an award ceremony at an upcoming Applied Probability Section meeting.