Professor Ryan Tibshirani was named the 2023 COPSS Presidents' Award winner at the Joint Statistical Meeting in Toronto, ON.

The Committee of Presidents of Statistical Societies (COPSS) sponsors and presents the COPSS Presidents' Award annually to a young member of the statistical community in recognition of outstanding contributions to the profession of statistics. The COPSS Presidents' Award is generally regarded as one of the highest honors in the field of statistics.

“Huge congratulations to Ryan!” noted Chair Haiyan Huang. “This is a well-deserved recognition of his significant accomplishments and contributions to the field and community of Statistics!”

Tibshirani's research focuses on high-dimensional statistics, nonparametric estimation, distribution-free inference, machine learning, convex optimization, numerical methods, tracking and forecasting epidemics.

The citation for Tibshirani's award reads: "For deep contributions to theoretical statistics including nonparametric estimation, high dimensional inference, spline theory and distribution-free inference; For the development of new methodology, including trend filtering and post-selection inference; For contributions at the interface of statistics and optimization; and for the development of methods for epidemic tracking and forecasting and co-leading the Delphi Research Group during the COVID pandemic."

“It was humbling to be up on stage, but it was nice to share the spotlight with my awesome Berkeley colleagues,” noted Tibshirani. Berkeley Statistics was widely recognized at 2023’s Joint Statistical Meeting. Distinguished Professor Bin Yu delivered the COPSS Distinguished Achievement Award and Lecture (DAAL) (formerly Fisher Lecture), while Statistics Associate Professors Peng Ding and Avi Feller won the 2023 Emerging Leader Awards. 

Past Berkeley Statistics affiliated faculty to the COPPS Presidents' Award include Professor Martin Wainwright in 2014 and Distinguished Professor Mark J. van der Laan in 2005. Professor Emeritus and Professor of the Graduate School Peter Bickel won the inaugural  Presidents' Award in 1979.

It is also noteworthy that Tibshirani accepted the award in his native of Toronto, and his father, Rob Tibshirani won the COPSS Presidents' Award in 1996. 

-Alex Coughlin