Huixia Judy Wang, COPSS Treasurer/Secretary
The Committee of Presidents of Statistical Societies (COPSS) presents awards annually to honor statisticians who have made outstanding contributions to the profession. For 2021, COPSS awards were presented at the Joint Statistical Meetings (JSM) on August 11 by COPSS Chair Bhramar Mukherjee and the award committee members.
Jeffrey T. Leek of The Johns Hopkins University is the winner of the 2021 Presidents’ Award. This award is presented annually to a young member of one of the COPSS participating societies in recognition of outstanding contributions to the profession. The award citation recognized Leek for “influential work addressing high-dimensional data; for development of empirical tools for data science as a science with applications to meta-research, reproducibility, and replicability; for scaling (bio)statistics-centered data science education to millions of people worldwide; and for leveraging data science tools, educational technologies, and community partnerships to create economic opportunities in under-served communities.”
Alicia Carriquiry of Iowa State University is the recipient of the 2021 F.N. David Award and Lectureship. This award, sponsored jointly by COPSS and the Caucus for Women in Statistics, is granted biennially to a female statistician who serves as a role model to other women by her contributions to the profession through excellence in research, the leadership of multidisciplinary collaborative groups, statistics education, or service to the professional societies. The award citation recognized Carriquiry for “being an outstanding role model for female and Latin American statisticians and for statisticians striving for scientific impact; for influential Bayesian, forensics, transportation, and nutrition research; for effective leadership of multidisciplinary groups; for extensive engagement in the National Academies and professional statistical societies; and for advocacy for female and early-career statisticians.” Carriquiry’s lecture was titled “Statistics in the Pursuit of Justice: A More Principled Strategy to Analyze Forensic Evidence.”
Wing Hung Wong of Stanford University is the recipient of the 2021 COPSS Distinguished Achievement Award and Lectureship. This award recognizes outstanding scholarship in statistical sciences that has had a highly significant impact of statistical methods on scientific investigations. The award citation recognized Wong for “groundbreaking and fundamental contributions to statistical theory and applications, particularly in likelihood inference, Monte Carlo computation, Bayesian statistics, and computational biology.” Wong’s lecture was titled “Understanding Human Trait Variation from the Gene Regulatory Systems Perspective.”
David Dunson of Duke University is the honoree for the 2021 George W. Snedecor Award. This award, established in 1976 and given biennially, honors an individual who has been instrumental in the development of statistical theory in biometry. The award citation recognized Dunson for “seminal and consequential advancements in the theoretical and methodological underpinnings of Bayesian modeling and inference and for significant contributions in high-dimensional statistical inference, nonparametric Bayesian modeling, and their wide-ranging applications in biomedical and natural science.”
The COPSS Leadership Academy is a new initiative for emerging leaders in statistics. This award recognizes the increasingly important role early-career statistical scientists are playing in shaping the future of the discipline and is designed to call attention to the efforts of these individuals and to provide a mechanism for them to share their vision for the field with each other and the statistical community. Nine awardees to the 2021–2024 COPSS Leadership Academy were recognized at JSM.
Visit the COPSS website for details about eligibility and nomination requirements for all these awards. The deadline to nominate a candidate for 2022 is December 15.
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