Distinguished Professor Philip B. Stark has been awarded the 2025 Chancellor’s Award for Research in the Public Interest. The award honors research by faculty that addresses critical needs and issues affecting local, state, national, or global communities.

“Philip is a pillar of our community here in Statistics as well as all of UC Berkeley,” said Chair Haiyan Huang. ”Philip’s recognition by the Chancellor is richly deserved by a scholar who has dedicated over 35 years of his career to the mission of public higher education.” 

His research and service contributions serve a vast population: students, faculty, and alums, as well as the underserved populations and the broader public in democracies throughout the world. 

Stark’s efforts around election integrity are wide-reaching and have a tremendous impact on the strength and longevity of democratic elections. He led the country’s first statewide risk-limiting election audit in 2021, and now over 15 states require or authorize risk-limiting audits, which have also been piloted in Denmark. Stark is a global expert in the area of election integrity, and his research and impact have an incalculable effect on citizens across the world and the integrity of democracy. 

In the aftermath of the 2020 presidential election, Stark’s work included: “on-the-ground” auditing election outcomes and testifying in litigation, building software to support audits, developing new theory for election audits and nonparametric inference, doing public outreach, including op-eds, public letters to election officials and legislators, and collaboration with election officials, serving on the program committee of three international conferences on election security), and serving for the federal government and nonprofits. Stark continues to serve on the Board of Advisors of the U.S. Election Assistance Commission, to which Nancy Pelosi appointed him.

He has also been a champion of issues around equity and fairness in higher education. As a prime example, Stark brought his research expertise to the crucial issue of the statistical validity of teaching evaluations, along with attention to possible issues of bias (e.g., based on gender, foreign vs. native speakers). Based on his research, he revised how teaching was assessed for all merits and promotions while serving as department chair in 2012-15. 

Stark’s research on student evaluations of teaching (SET) has also greatly benefited the academic community outside of UC Berkeley. For instance, the Report of the Ontario Confederation of University Faculty Associations draws heavily on his work. The American Sociological Association cites his work in its position statement on student evaluations. His work and testimony are cited in a landmark arbitration in Canada for Ryerson University. Stark also testified in one civil case and at least five binding arbitrations regarding discrimination against faculty due to reliance on SET. Stark has also actively served to advise university administrators and faculty committees at other schools, including UCSD, UCLA, USC School of Law, Colorado State, Simon Fraser, Denison, and Austin Community College.

The current and 12th Chancellor of the University, Richard K. Lyons, will recognize winners at a ceremony on May 12th. 

Statistics Professor Emerita and Professor of the Graduate School Deborah Nolan won the 2016 Chancellor’s Award for Community-Engaged Teaching. 

-Alex Coughlin