The Penn State Department of Statistics hosted the 2025 Rao Prize Conference on May 20 to recognize leading contributors to the statistics field. Among the honorees were Trevor Hastie, recipient of the 2025 C. R. and Bhargavi Rao Prize, and Martin Wainwright, the 2025 P. R. Krishnaiah Lecturer, both widely regarded for their research and impact on the statistical sciences.
Trevor Hastie, the John A. Overdeck Professor of Statistics and Biomedical Data Science at Stanford University, received the Rao Prize for his contributions to statistical modeling, computing, bioinformatics, and statistical learning. Hastie has published more than 200 research articles and six books, and his work has shaped modern methods in machine learning and applied statistics. He is a Fellow of the American Statistical Association, Institute of Mathematical Statistics, Royal Statistical Society, and South African Statistical Society. A member of the National Academy of Sciences and a foreign member of the Royal Netherlands Academy of Arts and Sciences, Hastie’s legacy includes not only academic innovation but also leadership, having chaired Stanford’s department of statistics from 2006 to 2009. He co-edited Statistical Models in S, a text for statistical computing in R, and holds honorary doctorates from the University of Waterloo and Leuphana University.
Martin Wainwright, this year’s Krishnaiah lecturer, is the Cecil H. Green Professor in Electrical Engineering and Computer Science and Mathematics at Massachusetts Institute of Technology. His lecture continued a tradition of spotlighting influential researchers. Wainwright is a recipient of many honors, including the Committee of Presidents of Statistical Societies Presidents’ Award, Institute of Mathematical Sciences Medallion Lectureship, and Blackwell Award. He has received fellowships from the Alfred P. Sloan Foundation and John Simon Guggenheim Foundation and has earned multiple best paper awards from the Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers societies. His interdisciplinary work spans statistics, machine learning, and information theory, with deep theoretical and applied impact.
The 2025 conference brought together about 100 researchers and featured three plenary lectures—by Hastie, Wainwright, and C. G. Khatri Lecturer Hui Zou—as well as four invited talks and a poster session highlighting postdoctoral and graduate student work.
The C. R. and Bhargavi Rao Prize recognizes outstanding innovations in the theory and practice of mathematical statistics, as well as international leadership and pioneering contributions to the field. The P. R. Krishnaiah Lectureship honors the memory of a visionary in statistics by inviting prominent scholars to speak at Penn State.
Leave a Reply