Annie Qu
Regina Liu received the Committee of Presidents of Statistical Societies’ 2024 Elizabeth L. Scott Award based on her outstanding achievements in research, education, service, and leadership and her superlative contributions to fostering opportunities for women, underrepresented groups, and junior researchers in statistics and nurturing their careers.
Liu holds the distinguished professor of statistics at Rutgers University. She has been part of the Rutgers community since 1983, serving as department chair from 2005–2020.
Citation: For her dedicated leadership and commitment to the statistical profession toward fostering opportunities, developing careers, and creating a supportive work environment for underrepresented groups and new researchers and for her outstanding research contributions to statistics, particularly in data depth and nonparametric statistics.
Liu is a world-renowned researcher in data depth and resampling. She introduced “simplicial depth” in the Annals of Statistics in 1990, which laid the foundation and framework for the notion of data depth. In 1999, her discussion paper in the Annals of Statistics developed data depth into a systematic multivariate statistical approach as a viable nonparametric alternative to the traditional normality-based approach. In addition, on resampling, Liu was among the first to make significant contributions to bootstrap outside the realm of independent and identically distributed settings. For example, her paper with Kesar Singh was the first to propose bootstrap for correlated data and coin the now standard terminology “moving block bootstrap.”
Liu has an exceptional service record at Rutgers and in the statistics profession. She has served on numerous editorial boards and professional and university committees. In her service roles, she emphasizes the importance of female participation. An example of this is when she served as coeditor for the Journal of the American Statistical Association and made sure the editorial board included significant female and underrepresented members. She has also recommended and supported several female associate editors as they became chief editors.
Over the years, Liu has been appointed to many leadership roles. She served as the department chair at Rutgers for 15 years. Her vision and selfless efforts have been credited for the significant rise in the standing of Rutgers’ department of statistics, and she has been a tireless advocate and mentor for junior faculty members. In addition, Liu is a great leader who put in many long hours and great effort toward her role as the former Institute of Mathematical Statistics president. Among her many initiatives and activities, diversity, equity, and inclusion were among her top priorities. She systematically recruited females and underrepresented groups to make sure they were well represented on IMS committees or in editorship positions. She also worked closely with the DEI committee to form new initiatives to broaden female membership.
Liu is a dedicated, inspirational professor and mentor to her students. She has been a role model for many students and junior researchers, especially female researchers. Many students and colleagues at Rutgers have benefitted from her kindness, generosity, wisdom, and high moral standards.
Liu is an outstanding, tireless, selfless, and courageous leader who has served as a role model and inspiration to many female statisticians. She exemplifies the true spirit of Elizabeth L. Scott’s lifelong efforts to advance the careers of women in academia.
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