In this issue
I was born in Beijing in northern China, but went to Shanghai in southern China for a college degree in Fudan University. I became interested in probability and statistics, as probability provides a rigorous, mathematical framework for modeling stochasticity, whereas statistics enables one to sort through large amounts of data to make discoveries. During my PhD in the Department of Statistics at the University of Washington, I was also in the Statistical Genetics program and was fascinated by the technological advances in modern biology and genomics, which began to produce what we now call ‘big data’. After PhD I did my first postdoc at the University of Cambridge, working with fly biologists and developing Bayesian clustering methods and bioinformatic pipelines for microarray gene expression and protein binding data. I then moved to the University (continued on page 7)
Welcome to our latest edition of the Statistics Newsletter! There are many exciting things happening in the department, including new faculty, promotions for faculty, new research initiatives, and reports on current and future programs. Our newest faculty member, Dr. Audrey Fu, started this September. Dr. Fu was hired a year ago in the summer of 2014 from postdoctoral work at the University of Chicago, but she then was awarded a prestigious NIH Pathway to Independence Award and NIH/NHGRI, 2014 that allowed her to extend her postdoctoral work for another year at Chicago and Stanford. We are very excited that she is now here in Moscow with us! We also have two new affiliate faculty members: Dr. Chris Remien and Dr. Berna Devezer. Dr. Remien is an Assistant Professor in the Mathematics Department, and Dr. Devezer is an Assistant Professor in the College of Business. In recent promotion news, Dr. Michelle Wiest was granted tenure and promoted to Associate Professor while Dr. Tim Johnson was promoted to Full Professor.
Letter from the Chair
1
Interview with Dr. Fu
1
Our Faculty
2
Everson Fellowship
3
Our Graduate Students
4
Consulting Center
5
Student Assist. Center
6
Alumni News
6
Internships
7
Several members of the department have key roles in a new $10.6 million NIH grant with Dr. Holly Wichman of the Biological Sciences department as Principal Investigator. Drs. Erkan Buzbas, Audrey Fu, Chris Remien, and Michelle Wiest all play important roles in this project. This award has created a new center, the Center for Modeling Complex Interactions (CMCI), which will facilitate interdisciplinary research across the UI campus. One new development with this grant is that the Statistical Consulting Center (SCC) will move from Brink Hall into the new IRIC building in Fall 2016 when it is finished, to coordinate services to aid interdisciplinary researchers. Our online version of the MS degree in Statistics, which has only been available for a few years, has already had 4 graduates and now has 13 students. Combined with our 16 MS Statistics students in residence at Moscow, our Master's program is bigger than it has ever been. A new initiative that is underway is the development of an Analytics Certificate, which will be available both on the Moscow campus and via distance. Drs. Stephen Lee, Michelle Wiest, and I have worked with (continued on page 2) (continued from page 1)