The Committee of Presidents of Statistical Societies presents awards annually to honor statisticians who have made outstanding contributions to the profession. This year, the following Leadership Academy winners were selected in addition to the Distinguished Lecture Award and Elizabeth L. Scott Award winners. All awards will be presented at the Joint Statistical Meetings. For the latest news, follow @COPSSNews on Twitter.

Xi Chen
New York University
Associate Professor

For notable contributions to statistical inference for distributed, online, and high-dimensional data; to stochastic optimization; and to statistical applications in business domains; for outstanding educational efforts to the next generation of business leaders; and for significant industrial impacts.
 
 
Natalie Dean
Emory University
Assistant Professor

For ground-breaking, high-impact work in the development of innovative study designs and analyses for evaluating novel vaccines and for wide-reaching public engagement and thought leadership during the COVID-19 pandemic.
 
 
Davina Durgana
Oxford University and Walk Free

In recognition of outstanding service through pioneering scientific research and policy communication to end human trafficking and advocacy efforts to encourage youth and women in STEM fields across the world.
 
 
 
Philip Ernst
Rice University
Associate Professor

For significant contributions of extraordinary merit to applied probability and mathematical statistics, particularly the resolution of the longstanding conjecture of Yules’ nonsense correlation; for outstanding teaching; and for leadership.
 
 
Pierre Jacob
ESSEC Business School
Professor

For path-breaking contributions to Monte Carlo algorithms and Bayesian statistics and for exemplary dedication as teacher and mentor.
 
 
 
Kristian Lum
Twitter
Sr. Staff Machine Learning Researcher

For strong contributions to the study of algorithmic fairness and ethics in statistics and data science; for high-quality, high-impact collaboration and advocacy in social justice; and for leadership in maximizing our profession’s openness and support of all members.
 
 
Lester Mackey
Microsoft Research
Principal Researcher

For significant contributions to the theory and practice of statistical machine learning.

 
 
Betsy Ogburn
Johns Hopkins University Bloomberg School of Public Health
Associate Professor

For creative methodological innovations in causal and network analysis; for contributions to education; and for generous service to the profession and society, including leadership in addressing the COVID-19 pandemic.