University of South Carolina Statistics Department Celebrates 40th Anniversary

David Hitchcock, Edsel Peña, and Joshua Tebbs

From March 27–28, former faculty and alumni joined current faculty, graduate students, and friends of the department of statistics at the University of South Carolina for a conference to celebrate the department’s 40th anniversary. Around 80 participants joined the festivities, which included retrospectives of the department’s history, presentations from distinguished alumni, and the 15th edition of the Palmetto Lecture, given by Chancellor’s Distinguished Professor Bin Yu of the University of California, Berkeley. Yu was also the featured speaker at the South Carolina Chapter’s annual symposium the previous day.

Opening remarks were offered by Carl Dahlman, associate dean of the McCausland College of Arts and Sciences, and current and former department chairs Edsel Peña and Joshua Tebbs. Department founder and distinguished professor emeritus William (Joe) Padgett presented the history of the department from before its founding until 2002. The statistics group dates to the early 1970s when several statisticians, including Bob Taylor and Padgett, were hired in the department of mathematics. The academic footprint of statistics grew in the 1970s and early 1980s, with course designators changing to STAT and the department name changing to include “statistics.” In the 1980s, BS, MS, and PhD programs in statistics were developed, and tenure and promotion processes were separated from mathematics.

In July 1985, a new independent department of statistics was created, with Padgett as chair and John Spurrier and Steve Durham in other leadership roles. The first PhD graduate of the new department, André Lubecke, followed later that year. Many new statistics courses were developed, and early strengths of the department included reliability and quality control, with a Center for Reliability and Quality Sciences led by Jim Lynch.

Nonparametrics and multiple comparisons and an active consulting presence on campus with a statistics laboratory were also strong points of the new department. The department had notable teaching successes, with a National Science Foundation grant funding an introductory statistics course and numerous faculty and students receiving university and national teaching awards.

Professor David Hitchcock gave the recent history, from 2003–present, detailing how the department continued to grow steadily with rising enrollments. During this time, faculty earned research awards, including ASA elected Fellows (Padgett, Don Edwards, Spurrier, Walt Piegorsch, Peña, Tebbs, Tim Hanson), IMS elected Fellows (Padgett, Ian Dryden, Peña), and elected ISI members (Padgett, Spurrier, Peña, Tebbs).

The department has hosted several internationally recognized conferences on reliability (2003), nonparametrics (2007), and latent variables (2016). In 2023, the department moved back into its renovated building on campus, LeConte College. It has continued to attract faculty engaged in cutting-edge research on modern topics such as Bayesian analysis, functional and object data, spatiotemporal data, neuroimaging, machine learning, and artificial intelligence.

After the historical presentations and remarks by McCausland College Dean Tommy Hodges, Yu’s Palmetto Lecture covered veridical data science and its role in statistics and data science education. In the afternoon, eight graduate alumni of the department—from university professors and data scientists in industry to real estate entrepreneurs—spoke about their careers and how their connections to the department contributed to their professional successes.

The conference culminated with a banquet, during which four former faculty (Spurrier, Lori Thombs, John Grego, and Edwards) gave remarks about what the department has meant to their careers and lives.