Born in Peru and raised in California, Tanya Garcia fondly remembers—as a 4-year-old—craftily fitting together the pieces of jigsaw puzzles. Puzzles took a new shape years later and her enthusiasm for solving mathematical and statistical problems blossomed. Now at UNC Chapel Hill as a tenured associate professor, Garcia works toward predicting precise, personalized, and robust progression profiles for neurodegenerative diseases.

In celebration of Hispanic Heritage Month, we recognize the following 12 individuals from the Hispanic community who have made tremendous contributions to the math and statistics field. Read their biographies to learn more about how they entered the field of statistics, what they’ve accomplished, and how they became leaders in their professional careers.
Submitted by Adrian Coles

Robert Santos’s expertise spans quantitative and qualitative research design, sampling, survey operations, and statistical analysis, and his specialty areas include undocumented immigrants and other disadvantaged populations. He has held executive-level leadership positions across multiple organizations and was elected the 116th president of the ASA.