People News for August 2021

Susan Murphy

The Department of Statistics at Florida State University recently announced Susan Murphy—professor of statistics at Harvard University, Radcliffe Alumnae Professor at the Harvard University Radcliffe Institute, and professor of computer science at the Harvard John A. Paulson School of Engineering and Applied Sciences—as the 2021 speaker for the Myles Hollander Distinguished Lecture.

Murphy will present “We Used a Bandit Algorithm to Personalize but Did It Work?” September 24. Murphy’s lab works on clinical trial designs and online learning algorithms in sequential decision-making, particularly in the area of digital health. She developed the micro-randomized trial for use in constructing mobile health interventions, which is in use across a broad range of health-related areas. She is a 2013 MacArthur Fellow, a member of the National Academy of Sciences and National Academy of Medicine, both of the US National Academies. She is a past president of the Institute of Mathematical Statistics and Bernoulli Society and a former editor of the Annals of Statistics. She is a prior recipient of the R. A. Fisher Award from the Committee of Presidents of Statistical Societies and the Guy Medal in Silver from the Royal Statistical Society.

The Myles Hollander Distinguished Lectureship was established by Robert O. Lawton, distinguished professor and statistics professor emeritus at Florida State University. The annual lectureship recognizes an internationally renowned leader and pioneering researcher in statistics who has made a sustained impact on the field. Lectures feature topics spanning the breadth of statistics.

Bin Yu

Bin Yu of the University of California, Berkeley has been awarded an honorary doctorate from the University of Lausanne (UNIL) Faculty of Business and Economics in Switzerland. She was honored for being one of the most influential researchers of her time in statistics and data science, for the excellence and impact of her work, and for her major contributions to the development and advancement of machine learning.

Bin was interviewed by journalist Nathalie Randin, with an introduction by Dean Jean-Philippe Bonardi of UNIL, in French. An English translation is available. Visit the UNIL website to read more about the award.