Latest news

Bin Yu and Ben Brown's grant is featured in the news release:

The university made an exciting announcement that a new dorm will be named after Emeritus Statistics Professor David Blackwell. Professor Blackwell was the first African-American tenured faculty member at UC Berkeley. The Statistics Department is happy to share that his memory will live on and incoming students will learn about him by living in a building named after him.

The Bayesian Statistical Science Section announced the outcome of their 2018 student paper competition.  They had forty entrants and UCB Statistics Ph.D. student Ryan Giordano was one of ten who was selected to receive a travel award to attend the JSM in Vancouver this coming July.

After Citadel's nationwide datathon series last year, winners from 20 different universities were invited to take part in a week long finale. The group from UC Berkeley, which included two Statistics Department PhD students Soeren Kuenzel and Jake Soloff, were chosen as the winners!

Lecturer Department of Statistics University of California, Berkeley

The Department of Statistics at UC Berkeley invites applications for a pool of qualified temporary instructors to teach the following courses should an opening arise. Screening of applicants is ongoing and will continue as needed. The number of positions varies from semester to semester, depending upon the needs of the Department. Positions may range from 33% to 100% time.

UC Berkeley has been awarded a grant to create a new Foundations of Data Analysis (FODA) Institute. The FODA Institute is part of the NSF TRIPODS program, and it is designed to bring together core research communities in theoretical statistics, applied mathematics, and theoretical computer science to address foundational questions at the heart of data science.

In case you missed it, World Statistics Day was October 20th! Check out this interesting post written by the UCB Statistics Department's own Professor Bin Yu for the National Academy of Sciences. Her post discusses the key statistical components which influence and impact the emerging field of data science and some interesting historical events that first combine the fields of statistics and computer science.

We're excited to share that Statistics professor Nicholas P. Jewell is one of 80 individuals to be elected to the prestigious National Academy of Medicine. Being elected to the National Academy of Medicine is viewed as one of the greatest honors in the fields of medicine and health. Those elected have shown exceptional professional achievement and dedication to service.

UC Berkeley has been leading the charge in making data science accessible by creating courses which allow students from all fields to learn how data science can help and impact their work. The foundational Data 8 course, created by an interdepartmental faculty team including Statistics faculty Ani Adhikari, Mike Jordan, and Deb Nolan, is the fastest-growing course in UC Berkeley's history.

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.

Strength in Numbers In Search of the Warriors’ Hot Hand

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."