This past Sunday, July 31st, 2017, we held our 5th annual JSM UC Berkeley Statistics Department Alumni reunion and cocktail mixer. We are very thankful to all the alumni, faculty, and current students who were able to attend. Each year, this is a unique way for the UC Berkeley Statistics community to come together, reconnect, and meet new friends, whether it is new alumni, new faculty, or new students.
This year's JSM is right around the corner, July 29th - August 3rd, 2017, in Baltimore. There are sure to be many wonderful presenters, insightful roundtables, and myriad opportunities for professional development. Be sure to see UC Berkeley Statistics professor Martin J. Wainwright, a featured speaker, on Monday, July 31st at 10:30 am.
World renowned mathematician Maryam Mirzakhani died on July 14, 2017. Maryam was the first and only woman to win the highest prize in mathematics, the Fields Medal. An Iranian-American, she served as a reminder of the international character of research and scholarship. Maryam Mirzakhani left us in the prime of her life, and her passing is a great loss to the scientific community.
Alon Daks, Nishant Desai, Lisa Goldberg*
May 30, 2017
The true believer in the law of small numbers commits his multitude of sins against the logic of statistical inference in good faith.
Amos Tversky and Daniel Kahneman, “Belief in the Law of Small Numbers”
The NSF CAREER Award recognizes the best and brightest young researchers in Science in the US.
DJ Khaled's surprise performance at Commencement 2017 was featured in a blog post at SB Nation.
#DJCalEd
On Saturday April 29th, 2017 at the 154th annual meeting of the National Academy of Science, professor Steve Evans was one of six new members selected to present during the event's research briefings.
I am soon to finish my term as chair of the Department of Statistics (this summer July 1st), turning the reins over to Deb Nolan, for her second tour of duty.
From the announcement:
The Trust awards an annual Prize for young probabilists and has benefited from the continuing association with the Davidson family.
Prof. Sun was awarded, "for her achievements in probability theory and specifically on the random k-SAT conjecture."
From the article:
As Fall 2016 winds to a close, UC Berkeley’s Data Science education program reached new heights and is poised for further growth in 2017. Approximately 500 students enrolled this semester in the entry-level course, Foundations of Data Science, and hundreds more in connector courses spanning topics ranging from neuroscience to media studies.
We invite applications for a pool of part-time, non-tenure track lecturer positions.
From the article:
With diverse research backgrounds and experiences, the new fellows will help lead our community in driving data science innovations and enhancing collaborations across UC Berkeley and beyond.
Professor Ching-Shui Cheng has been elected Member of Academia Sinica (Taiwan) as one of the new 2016 Academicians. From the announcement:
From the article:
Tamara Broderick received two awards at the 2016 World Meeting of the International Society for Bayesian Analysis (ISBA) that took place in June 2016 in Sardinia. ISBA is the largest scientific society devoted to the development and promotion of Bayesian methods and their analysis.
Ryan Lovett, SCF Systems Administration Manager has been selected as one of this year’s recipients of the Staff Achievement Award for his outstanding contributions in support of the educational and research mission of the campus.
From Prof. Michael Mahoney, in the article:
Steve Evans was one of six UC Berkeley faculty elected to the National Academy of Sciences this year. From the article:
Laura Slakey, the MSO of the Statistics Department, was selected to receive an Excellence in Management 2015-2016 award from the Berkeley Staff Assembly committee. Congratulations Laura! Here is the opening paragraph from the staff's nomination packet:
