## 2020 Elected Officials

### President-Elect

Krzysztof (Chris) Burdzy

Professor, Department of Mathematics, University of Washington

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Education

• M.A. in mathematics (1979) Maria Curie-Sklodowska University (UMCS), Lublin, Poland
• M.A. in statistics (1981) University of California, Berkeley
• Ph.D. in statistics (1984) University of California, Berkeley

Research Interests

• Probability: Brownian motion, couplings, branching processes
• Mathematical analysis: potential theory, spectral theory, PDE
• Mathematical physics: billiards, statistical mechanics, lattice models
• Philosophical foundations of probability

Previous Service to the Profession

• 1997-1999, Member of the Publications Committee of the IMS
• 1997-1999, Associate Program Secretary for Probability and Its Applications of the IMS
• 1999-2001, American Statistical Association Task Force on Electronic Publications, a representative of the IMS
• 1999, Chair of the Publications Committee of the IMS
• 2000-2004, Member of the IMS Electronic Issues Committee
• 2000-2002, IMS representative with project Euclid
• 2003-2009, Associate editor of Annals of Probability
• 2006-2009, Institute of Mathematical Statistics Web Editor
• 2006-2009, Council of the Institute of Mathematical Statistics, ex officio member (as the IMS Web Editor)
• 2009–2011, Associate editor of Annals of Applied Probability
• 2010-2013, Member of the Council of the IMS (elected)
• 2010-2013, Representative of the IMS on the Current Index to Statistics Management Committee
• 2011-2012, Member of the Special IMS-BS Nomination Committee for the Doob Lecture
• 2012-2014, Member of the Schramm Lecture Committee (representative of the IMS)
• 2012-2014, Editor, Annals of Probability
• 2012-2014, Member of the Council of the IMS (ex officio)
• 2012-2014, Member of the Committee on Publications of the IMS (ex officio)
• 2012-2014, Member of the Committee on Special Lectures of the IMS (ex officio)

Brief Statement

I am greatly honored by being nominated for the IMS President. Big Data presents both challenges for and opportunities to statistics. In my opinion, it also presents new opportunities for the statistical and probabilistic communities to get closer via the focus on the common scientific models. Electronic publishing went through a revolution in the last 30 years or so. It is a good time to reflect on how we are doing and try to anticipate how scientific publishing may evolve next. The IMS is widely known for publishing some of the best journals in the field. To retain this status, it is important to maintain (and increase, if possible) support for its activities among both junior statisticians and junior probabilists.

### Council

3 Year Term

Tony Cai

Daniel H. Silberberg Professor of Statistics, Department of Statistics, University of Pennsylvania

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Education

• Ph.D. in Statistics, 1996, Cornell

Research Interests

• High-dimensional statistics & large-scale inference
• Statistical machine learning
• Applications to genomics, chemical identification, and medical imaging

Previous Service to the Profession

• President, International Chinese Statistical Association, 2017
• Program Chair, IMS Annual Meetings  (2017 & 2007)
• COPSS Presidents’ Award Committee, 2009-2012, 2014; Chair, 2012
• Co-Editor, The Annals of Statistics,2010 – 2012
• Associate Editor, JRSSB, JASA, Annals of Statistics, Statistica Sinica
• Publications Committee, Bernoulli Society, 2011-2014
• Director of the Board of International Chinese Statistical Association, 2009-2011
• Committee on Special Lectures, Committee on Nominations, Committee to Select Editors, IMS

Brief Statement

The emergence of data science presents unprecedented opportunities and challenges to statisticians and also to IMS as a learned society. If elected, I will help promote the IMS as the foremost scientific society for researchers in statistics, machine learning, and probability, as well as a platform for interactions with data science researchers in applied sciences, high tech and financial industries.

Richard A. Davis

Howard Levene Professor of Statistics, Department of Statistics, Columbia University

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Education

• 1974: BA Mathematics, University of California at San Diego
• 1979: PhD Mathematics, University of California at San Diego

Research Interests

• Time series analysis
• Extreme value for stationary sequences and space-time processes
• Spatial statistics with application to environmental data
• Applied probability

Previous Service to the Profession

• IMS: Council (2013—2015); Carver Award Commttee (2017—present); Memorials Committee (2017-present)
• Foundation Committee for “The Prize in Statistics), IMS rep (2018-present)
• IMS President (2015/16)
• Joint IMS/Bernoulli Society Publications Management Committee (Jan 14-present)
• Editor-in-Chief, Bernoulli (Jan 10– Dec 12)
• Associate Editor, Annals of Applied Probability (Jan ’94–Jan ’00)
• Associate Editor, Extremes (Jan ’07 – present)
• Associate Editor, Bernoulli (Jan ’07 – Dec 08)
• Editor, Statistical Science (Jan ’08 – Dec 10)
• Associate Editor, Stochastic Processes and Their Applications (Jan ’93-Jan ’96, Mar 08– Jan `10)
• Business and Economics Statistics Section, Chair-elect (2009), Chair (2010)

Brief Statement

It is an honor to stand for election to the IMS council.  The strength of IMS is its engaged and dedicated membership of whom so many are willing to commit their time and expertise to the betterment of the society and the profession.  As an IMS council member, I would hope to follow in this tradition and provide sensible guidance and advice to the society.  I am especially keen for IMS to expand its support, via activities and opportunities, of early career researchers and under-represented groups.  This is an important component for the long-term health of both the society and our field.

Alice Guionnet

Directrice de recherche, Unite de Mathematiques Pures et Appliquées, CNRS-ENS de Lyon

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Education

• PhD, 1995, Université d’Orsay
• Habilitation, 2005, ENS de Lyon

Research Interests

• Probability
• Statistical physics
• Large random matrices
• Large deviations

Previous Service to the Profession

• Editor  of the Annales  de l’IHP, 2006 -2011
• Associate Editor for the Annals of probability,2011-2017
• Associate Editor SPA 1998-2001
• Associate Editor JAMS 2015–
• Associate Editor Annales de l’Institut Fourier 2019–
• Associate Editor Compte Rendu de l’Academie 2020–

Brief Statement

I believe that the IMS plays a central role to promote probability and statistics as a central field of mathematics. It is crucial that IMS maintains the high level of its publications and continues to make them affordable, being a role model for affordable journals. This means developing novel ways of publishing and assessing research, providing support to junior researchers, and guaranteeing an inclusive approach to research and dissemination.

Martin Wainwright

Chancellor’s Professor, UC Berkeley, Department of Statistics, and Department of EECS, UC Berkeley

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Education

• B. Math, U. Waterloo (1994)
• Master’s Harvard (1999)
• Ph.D. MIT (2002)

Research Interests

• High-dimensional statistics
• Non-parametric statistics
• Information theory and statistics
• Statistical optimization
• Graphical models

Previous Service to the Profession

• IMS Committees:  Special Committee on Publications,
Awards Committee,  President Committee
• Associate Editorships:  Annals of Statistics (2008–2016),
Journal of Machine Learning Research (2007–2013), Journal
of the American Statistical Association (2013–2015)

Brief Statement

The advent of data science has provided Statistics with both tremendous opportunities and challenges moving forward.  We need to ensure that Statistics grows through engagement with other disciplines, while simultaneously preserving its rich intellectual history and scholarly traditions.  I am confident that my own background, which combines statistics with computer science, will provide useful perspective to the IMS Council in addressing these issues.

Fang Yao

Chair Professor, Department of Probability and Statistics, Peking University

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Education

• PhD, 2003, University of California at Davis

Research Interests

• Functional and longitudinal data analysis
• Statistical modeling of high-dimensional and complex structured data
• Nonparametric and semiparametric statistical methods
• Applications involving functional, high-dimensional and complex objects, e.g., clinical studies, evolutional biology, human genetics, brain imaging, finance and e-commerce, chemical engineering, etc.

Previous Service to the Profession

• IMS Nomination Committee (2017-2018),
• IMS Committee on Electronic Issues (2013-2016),
• Program Committee for 2012 JSM (IMS contributed sessions),
• ASA Noether Awards Committee (2014-2019),
• Chair for Student Paper Awards of ASA Section on Nonparametric Statistics (2011, 2012).
• Editor for Canadian Journal of Statistics (2019—present),
• Associate Editor for Statistica Sinica (2011–2014, 2017–present),
• Associate Editor for Journal of the American Statistical Association (2014–present),
• Associate Editor for Journal of Computational and Graphical Statistics (2012–present),
• Associate Editor for Canadian Journal of Statistics (2010–2018),
• Associate Editor for Journal of Multivariate Analysis (2016–2018),
• Associate Editor for The Annals of Statistics (2008–2009, 2013–2015),
• Associate Editor for Bernoulli Journal (2013–2015),
• Associate Editor for Journal of Statistical Planning and Inference (2012–2014),
• Associate Editor for Electronic Journal of Statistics (2010–2012).

Brief Statement

Fang Yao is a Chair Professor at Peking University, and has been a tenured Full Professor at University of Toronto. As an accomplished statistician, Fang Yao has received several awards, including the 2014 CRM-SSC Prize, which is considered the Canadian COPSS Award  (recognition of a statistical scientist’s professional accomplishments in research primarily conducted in Canada during the first 15 years after having received a doctorate).  In 2017 and 2018, he was elected the Fellow of the IMS, the Fellow of the ASA, and the Elected Member of ISI, respectively. He has been an excellent citizen of the statistical community by serving on key committees for IMS, ASA and other organizations, and serving on editorial boards for many statistical journals. He is a member of IMS, ASA, ICSA and SSC. Being in Peking University, one of the most reputable institutions in China/Asia, he will help increase the visibility and impact of IMS in Asia-Pacific region.