Heping Zhang is the Susan Dwight Bliss Professor of Biostatistics at the Yale School of Public Health , with secondary appointments in the Child Study Center , Department of Statistics and Data Science , and Department of Obstetrics, Gynecology, and Reproductive Sciences . He directs the Collaborative Center for Statistics in Science (C²S²) and leads the Reproductive Medicine Network data coordinating center. Education: PhD in Statistics, Stanford University (1991) Postdoctoral Fellow, Mathematical Science Research Institute (1991) Research Focus : Zhang specializes in biostatistical methodology for genomic data analysis , clinical trials , and reproductive medicine . His work bridges genetics , mental health , and maternal-child health through innovative statistical approaches. Awards : 2023 Web of Science Highly Cited Researcher 2023 International Chinese Statistical Association Distinguished Achievement Award 2022 Institute of Mathematical Statistics Neyman Award and Lecture 2011 Royan Institute International Research Award 2011 Institute of Mathematical Statistics Medallion Award 2008 Harvard School of Public Health Myrto Lefokopoulou Distinguished Lecturer Professional Roles : He served as President of the International Chinese Statistical Association (2019) and Former Editor of the Journal of the American Statistical Association - Applications and Case Studies . His lab develops open-source software tools like ABESS , STREE , and modSaRa for genomic and clinical data analysis.
Lee Yong Lim is a Professor of Pharmaceutics at The University of Western Australia (UWA), leading the Laboratory for Drug Delivery. She specializes in innovative drug delivery systems, particularly for pediatric populations and marine aquaculture. Her work focuses on overcoming medication challenges for children through taste-masked formulations and stable drug-loaded scaffolds for ear diseases. She has secured over $4.5 million in research grants from diverse funding bodies. Education: BSc (Pharmacy) Hons, National University of Singapore PhD, University of Manchester Research: Her team developed a patented chocolate-based formulation for bitter drugs and conducts pediatric trials. Collaborations include WA hospitals for safe compounded medicines and international projects in nanotechnology. Key research areas include pediatric medicinal products, veterinary drug delivery, and sustainable drug formulations aligned with UN SDGs. Grants & Funding: Major supporters include NHMRC, ARC, Telethon, and industry partnerships. Current active grants focus on pre-procedural chewables for children and perioperative analytics. Labs/Teams: Heads the Laboratory for Drug Delivery and collaborates with the Centre for Optimisation of Medicines and Institute for Paediatric Perioperative Excellence.
Huiyan Sang is a Professor and Director of the Undergraduate Program in the Department of Statistics at Texas A&M University (College of Arts & Sciences). She earned her Ph.D. in Statistics from Duke University and a B.Sc. in Mathematics and Applied Mathematics from Peking University. Her research focuses on spatial statistics, Bayesian nonparametric methods, machine learning, computational statistics, and applications in environmental sciences, geosciences, urban planning, and biomedical research. Her interdisciplinary work integrates statistical methodologies with real-world challenges, such as analyzing extreme environmental events, optimizing urban infrastructure, and modeling complex systems like human mobility during pandemics. She has contributed to advancing spatio-temporal modeling, Gaussian processes, and Bayesian hierarchical frameworks for large datasets. Recent publications highlight innovations in nonparametric regression, spatial functional data analysis, and stochastic frontier analysis, often leveraging computational efficiency and scalability. Her work addresses critical societal issues, including the impact of community design on public health and environmental monitoring through remote-sensing data. No scientific awards are explicitly listed in the provided texts. She advises no students or grants in the current dataset but collaborates widely on interdisciplinary projects. Her research lab focuses on developing cutting-edge statistical tools with applications in engineering, public health, and environmental science.
Claire Donnat is an Assistant Professor in the Department of Statistics at the University of Chicago, specializing in statistical and machine learning methods for graph-structured and high-dimensional data. Her work bridges theoretical innovation with applications in biomedical research, environmental science, and public health. Education: B.S. and M.S. in Applied Mathematics from Ecole Polytechnique; Ph.D. in Statistics from Stanford University (2020). Her research focuses on three methodological directions: (1) statistical foundations for graph neural networks (GNNs), (2) structured estimation with graph constraints, and (3) multimodal data integration with uncertainty quantification. Key applications include thermotolerance in photosynthetic microbes, family network analysis for child welfare, and spatial transcriptomics. The 15 most recent publications highlight her work in GNNs, CCA, tensor modeling, and epidemic analysis, with keywords spanning statistics, machine learning, and network science. Her methodological contributions address challenges in sparsity, graph topology, and heterogeneous data fusion. Scientific Awards: Facebook Research Award (2021), C3.AI COVID Grand Challenge winner (2020), Lumiata hackathon winner (2020), Stanford Centennial Award (2019), and others. Claire's research group actively recruits postdocs and students for projects involving graph-based modeling, data integration, and biomedical applications. She also provides research consulting in statistical methodology and graph modeling for life sciences.
Vladimir Spokoiny is a Professor at the Departments of Mathematics and Economics of the Humboldt University of Berlin and Head of the Research Group "Stochastic Algorithms and Nonparametric Statistics" at the Weierstrass Institute for Applied Analysis and Stochastics (WIAS) in Berlin, Germany. His research spans multiple areas of statistics, machine learning, and financial mathematics, with significant contributions to nonparametric statistics, high-dimensional data analysis, and statistical methods in finance. Spokoiny received his M.Sc. in applied mathematics from the Moscow Institute of Railway Engineering in 1981 and his Ph.D. in mathematics from Lomonosov Moscow State University in 1988. He completed his Habilitation at Humboldt University in 1996. His academic career includes positions at the All-Union Institute of Railway Transport in Moscow, the Institute for Information Transmission Problems in Moscow, and the Institute for Applied Analysis and Statistics in Berlin before joining the Weierstrass Institute and Humboldt University where he has been a professor since 2002. Spokoiny's research focuses on adaptive nonparametric smoothing and hypothesis testing, high dimensional data analysis, statistical methods in finance, image analysis with applications to medicine, classification, and nonlinear time series. His work often addresses the challenges of nonstationarity in time series data and develops innovative methods for volatility estimation and risk management. He has made significant contributions to the development of adaptive weights smoothing procedures, which have applications in image processing, community detection, and manifold learning. His recent work has expanded into high-dimensional statistics, Bayesian inference, and optimization methods for machine learning, with publications demonstrating novel approaches to Gaussian approximation, Laplace methods, and statistical inference in non-Euclidean spaces. Spokoiny has supervised numerous PhD students including Oliver Reiss, Danilo Mercurio, Ying Chen, Elmar Diederichs, and Mstislav Elagin, whose research has focused on mathematical finance, time series analysis, and statistical methods. He serves as an Associate Editor for The Annals of Statistics (since 2004) and Statistics and Decisions (since 2002), and has previously served on the editorial board of the Journal of Statistical Planning and Inference. His professional activities include reviewing for major statistical journals including Annals of Statistics, Bernoulli, Econometrica, and Journal of American Statistical Association, as well as reviewing grant proposals for the National Science Foundation (USA), German Research Foundation, and Netherlands Organisation for Scientific Research. Spokoiny is a member of several professional societies including the International Statistical Institute, American Statistical Association, Institute of Mathematical Statistics, and Bernoulli Society. He is fluent in Russian (mother tongue), English, and German, and has good knowledge of French. His research group at WIAS focuses on developing novel statistical methodologies with applications across various scientific domains, particularly emphasizing adaptivity and robustness in complex data environments. The group's work has significant implications for financial risk management, medical imaging, and machine learning applications, with recent publications addressing fundamental questions in high-dimensional statistics and nonparametric inference.
Nati Srebro is a Professor at the Toyota Technological Institute at Chicago with a cross-appointment as a Part-Time Professor in the Department of Computer Science and Committee on Computational and Applied Mathematics at the University of Chicago. He earned his PhD from MIT in 2004 and has held previous positions including post-doctoral fellow at the University of Toronto, Visiting Scientist at IBM, and Associate Professor at the Technion. Professor Srebro's research focuses on methodological, statistical and computational aspects of Machine Learning and Optimization. His work spans foundational contributions to learning theory, matrix reconstruction, and optimization techniques. He is particularly known for introducing the use of nuclear norm for machine learning, work on wider Markov networks, and advancing our understanding of the relationship between learning and optimization. His current research interests include understanding deep learning through optimization, distributed and federated learning systems, algorithmic fairness, and practical adaptive data analysis. His publication record shows consistent contributions to core machine learning conferences and workshops, with recent work focusing on symmetric and asymmetric hashing techniques, matrix parameter learning, and optimization methods. The publications demonstrate a strong theoretical foundation with practical applications across various machine learning domains. Professor Srebro has been actively involved in several research programs including the Federated and Collaborative Learning program (Spring 2026, as Visiting Scientist and Program Organizer), Modern Paradigms in Generalization (Fall 2024), and multiple summer clusters on Deep Learning Theory and Fairness. His program participation reflects his leadership in emerging areas of machine learning research. Contact: nati@ttic.edu | (773) 834-7493 | Toyota Technological Institute at Chicago, 6045 S. Kenwood Ave., Chicago, IL 60637
S. Yaser Samadi is an Associate Professor in the Department of Mathematics at the School of Mathematical and Statistical Sciences, Southern Illinois University Carbondale. He holds a Ph.D. in Statistics from the University of Georgia (2014) and maintains an active research program in advanced statistical methodologies. Education: Ph.D. in Statistics, University of Georgia, 2014 Research Interests: Dr. Samadi specializes in multivariate time series analysis, high-dimensional statistical inference, and tensor data analysis. His work addresses critical challenges in big data, symbolic data, and dimension reduction for time series through Bayesian analysis and sequential methods for dependent and independent data, yielding robust models for complex data structures. Publication Trends: His recent publications (2014-2023) emphasize time series analysis, dimension reduction, and innovative approaches for interval-valued and matrix-valued data. Key contributions include envelope models for vector autoregression, copula-based count data modeling, and sequential analysis techniques, bridging theoretical statistics with econometrics and data science applications. Scientific Awards: Outstanding Teacher of the Year, School of Mathematical and Statistical Sciences (2021) Advising: Dr. Samadi has mentored four Ph.D. students to completion: Rukayya Ibrahim (Assistant Professor, Penn State Harrisburg), Wiranthe Herath (Assistant Professor, Drake University), Tharindu De Alwis (Postdoctoral Fellow, WPI), and Hadi Safari Katesari (Teaching Assistant Professor, Stevens Institute of Technology). His Master's students Samira Zaroudi (CUNY) and Reginald Ziedzor (Amplify) have also achieved notable career placements.
Scientia Professor Robert Kohn is a distinguished academic at the University of New South Wales, holding a position in the School of Economics within the UNSW Business School. With a career spanning several decades, Professor Kohn has established himself as a leading expert in statistical methodology and econometric modeling. His research has significantly contributed to Bayesian statistics and computational methods for complex data analysis. Professor Kohn's research focuses on advanced statistical methodologies including Bayesian methodology, variable selection and model averaging, nonparametric regression models, time series modeling, multivariate Gaussian and non-Gaussian regression, and Markov chain Monte Carlo simulation algorithms. His work bridges theoretical statistics with practical applications across economics, finance, and cognitive science. His research demonstrates a consistent trajectory toward developing more efficient computational methods for complex statistical models, with recent work emphasizing variational Bayesian methods, particle filtering techniques, and applications to time series analysis. Analysis of his recent publications (2022-2025) reveals a strong focus on advancing computational statistical methods, particularly in Bayesian inference for complex models. His work shows increasing integration of machine learning techniques with traditional statistical methods, especially in handling high-dimensional data and complex time series structures. Professor Kohn has made significant contributions to variational inference methods, particle-based computational techniques, and applications to financial time series and cognitive modeling. Professor Kohn has maintained an exceptionally productive research career with continuous publication output since the 1970s, demonstrating remarkable longevity and adaptability in his research focus as statistical methodologies have evolved. His work shows strong international collaboration, particularly with researchers in Australia, the United States, and Europe, reflecting his standing in the global statistical community.
Frederick Eberhardt is a Professor of Philosophy at the California Institute of Technology (Caltech) since 2013. He holds a B.S. from the London School of Economics (2002), an M.S. from Carnegie Mellon University (2005), and a Ph.D. from Carnegie Mellon (2007). His research focuses on the intersection of philosophy of science, machine learning, and cognitive science, emphasizing causal discovery from data, experimental methods in causality, and foundational issues in probability and causality. He also explores computational models in psychology and historical work on Hans Reichenbach's philosophy. Recent publications span topics like causal emergence, Reichenbachian probability coordination, and causal mapping in neuroscience. His work bridges formal philosophy with empirical applications in cognitive science and computational methods. Education: B.S., London School of Economics, 2002 M.S., Carnegie Mellon University, 2005 Ph.D., Carnegie Mellon University, 2007 Research interests include formal philosophy of science, causal inference techniques, machine learning applications to causal discovery, and the philosophical underpinnings of probability. His work on causal abstraction and computational models in cognitive science highlights interdisciplinary approaches to understanding causal mechanisms. Recent publications emphasize integrating experimental and observational data for causal discovery, with applications in neuroscience and psychology. Publications reflect a focus on advancing causal reasoning methods, from theoretical frameworks to empirical validation. No scientific awards are explicitly listed in the provided text. Advising and grants details are not available here. Eberhardt is affiliated with Caltech’s Philosophy Department and contributes to theoretical and applied research in causality and its implications across disciplines.
George H. Chen is an Associate Professor at Carnegie Mellon University , with dual affiliations in the Heinz College of Information Systems and Public Policy and the Machine Learning Department . His research focuses on trustworthy machine learning methods for temporal reasoning , particularly in health applications such as time-to-event prediction (survival analysis) and electronic health records analysis . He has extensive experience in nonparametric methods requiring minimal data assumptions. Educational Background PhD in Electrical Engineering and Computer Science, MIT (2015) SM in Electrical Engineering and Computer Science, MIT (2012) BS in Electrical Engineering and Computer Sciences & Engineering Mathematics and Statistics, UC Berkeley (2010) His work spans survival analysis , deep learning , and time series modeling , with applications in neurological prognostication , medical adherence , and health equity . He has developed self-contained educational resources including a 2024 monograph on deep survival analysis and tutorials at CHIL and SIGMETRICS. His 2025 course 95-865: Unstructured Data Analytics focuses on practical unstructured data analysis techniques. Notable projects include advising the AgriTech startup CoolCrop , which provides cold storage and market forecasts for Indian farmers serving 9,000+ farmers across 7 states. His Google Scholar publications reveal a strong focus on temporal modeling in healthcare, with recent advancements in neural survival analysis and fairness-aware temporal prediction.
Dr. Jianguo Wang is a Professor in the Department of Earth and Space Science Engineering at York University's Lassonde School of Engineering. He has been a faculty member since 2006 and is a founding member of the Lassonde School. With over 35 years of academic and industrial experience, he specializes in multisensor integration, GNSS technology, and precision engineering surveying. He holds a Dr.-Ing. in Geomatics Engineering from Universität der Bundeswehr München, Germany, alongside Bachelor’s and Master’s degrees from Wuhan Technical University of Surveying and Mapping (WTUSM). His research focuses on advanced data processing methodologies, including Kalman filtering, error analysis, and LiDAR systems. He has authored/co-authored over 60 publications, including textbooks like Error Theory and Foundation of Surveying Adjustment and Foundation of Geodesy . He is a Fellow of Engineers Canada and licensed as a Professional Engineer in Ontario. Education: Dr.-Ing., Geomatics Engineering, Universität der Bundeswehr München (Germany) M.Sc., Surveying Engineering, Wuhan Technical University of Surveying and Mapping B.Sc., Surveying Engineering, Wuhan Technical University of Surveying and Mapping Dr. Wang teaches courses such as Advanced Optimization and Applications , GNSS , and Global Geophysics and Geodesy . He leads the Earth Observation Laboratory (PSE 432), focusing on multisensor integration for navigation and positioning. His work explores innovative solutions for sensor calibration, data fusion, and geospatial applications. Grants & Labs: Active in lab-based research with collaborators like Baoxin Hu, his laboratory integrates GNSS, IMUs, LiDAR, and cameras for precision navigation. His recent work addresses challenges in sensor error calibration, LiDAR point cloud accuracy, and Kalman filter enhancements.
Quoc Thong Le Gia is an Associate Professor in the School of Mathematics & Statistics at the University of New South Wales (UNSW), Sydney. He holds a PhD in Mathematics from Texas A&M University (2003), an MS in Mathematics from Texas A&M University (2000), and a BSc in Mathematics and Computer Science from UNSW (1998). His research focuses on Numerical Analysis , Approximation Theory , Partial Differential Equations , and Stochastic Processes , with particular expertise in problems on spherical domains. His work bridges theoretical mathematics with practical applications in computational science, data science, and machine learning. Le Gia's recent publications demonstrate a strong focus on numerical methods for PDEs on spheres, stochastic analysis, and machine learning applications. His work shows consistent progression from theoretical foundations to practical implementations, with increasing interdisciplinary applications in recent years. L. F. Guseman Prize in Mathematics, Texas A&M University (2003) As a dedicated academic mentor, Le Gia has supervised numerous PhD, Master's, and Honours students across computational mathematics and data science topics. He has secured significant research funding through ARC Discovery Projects including DP220101811 (2022-2024) and DP180100506 (2018-2020). Professionally, he serves as External Associate Editor for Frontiers in Applied Mathematics and Statistics , Secretary for ANZIAM's Computational Mathematics Group, and Co-chair of Mathematics of Computation and Optimisation (AustMS Special Interest Group).
Thomas Bäck is a Professor at the Leiden Institute of Advanced Computer Science (LIACS) , Leiden University , Netherlands, and a member of the interdisciplinary programme Society, Artificial Intelligence and Life Sciences (SAILS) . His academic career spans roles at Leiden University (1996–present) and leadership positions at the Center for Applied Systems Analysis in Dortmund (1994–2000). Education : Diplom-Informatiker (Computer Science), Technische Universität Dortmund (1990) Dr. rer. nat. (Computer Science), Technische Universität Dortmund (1994) Research Interests : Dr. Bäck specializes in evolutionary computation , machine learning , and their applications in sustainable smart industry and healthcare . Recent work focuses on integrating large language models (LLMs) and quantum computing into optimization frameworks, with projects like CIMPLO (predictive maintenance), ECOLE (experience-based optimization), and SAPPAO (airline operations optimization). Scientific Contributions : His 526+ publications cover evolutionary algorithms, quantum optimization, and LLM-driven design, with recent trends including: Quantum computing (e.g., quantum approximate optimization, quantum advantage challenges) LLM integration (e.g., hyperparameter tuning, mutation control, code evolution graphs) Healthcare and industry (e.g., predictive maintenance, anomaly detection, melt quality prediction) Algorithm benchmarking (e.g., IOHprofiler, MA-BBOB, explainable benchmarking) Scientific Awards : IEEE Fellow (2022) Royal Netherlands Academy of Arts and Sciences (KNAW) member (2021) Academia Europaea member (2022) IEEE Computational Intelligence Society Evolutionary Computation Pioneer Award (2015) Fellow, International Society of Genetic and Evolutionary Computation (2003) Best Ph.D. thesis award, German Society of Computer Science (GI) (1995) Advising and Grants : He supervises Ph.D. candidates in evolutionary computation and machine learning and has secured 7 major grants from organizations like the Dutch Research Council , European Commission , and The Research Council of Norway . His editorial roles include Editor-in-Chief of the Evolutionary Computation Journal and associate editorships in leading AI journals.
Xiaofeng Shao is a Professor of Statistics & Data Science at Washington University in St. Louis, with a joint appointment in the Department of Economics. He holds a PhD from the University of Chicago and previously served at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign for 18 years. He is a Fellow of the Institute of Mathematical Statistics and the American Statistical Association. His research focuses on econometrics, time series analysis, change-point detection, high-dimensional statistics, nonparametric methods, and functional data analysis. Recent work emphasizes object-valued time series modeling and machine learning applications in high-dimensional and imaging data. Notable contributions include the dependent wild bootstrap method and self-normalization techniques for time series inference. Key awards include Fellowships from leading statistical societies. His publications span over 20 years, addressing topics like change-point detection in climate projections, statistical methods for COVID-19 infection trends, and high-dimensional dependence testing.
Debdeep Pati is a Professor in the Department of Statistics at the University of Wisconsin-Madison, affiliated with the School of Computer, Data & Information Sciences. His research focuses on Bayesian methods, high-dimensional data analysis, machine learning, and computational statistics, with applications in health data and network analysis. He has contributed to approximate Bayesian computation, graphical models, and fair algorithms. Key research interests include Bayes theory in high dimensions, hierarchical modeling, efficient Bayesian computation, and real-time tracking algorithms. His work bridges theoretical advancements with practical applications in areas like electronic health records and nuclear physics constraints. Recent work emphasizes Wasserstein-guided nonparametric Bayes, fair clustering algorithms, and variational inference in singular models. He has developed software for covariate-dependent Gaussian graphical modeling, published in ACM Transactions on Mathematical Software . Grants: NSF proposal on Wasserstein-guided nonparametric Bayes, NIH R01/R21 grants on periodontal disease and diabetes comorbidity. Advising: No named advisees listed but actively supervising research in Bayesian computation and high-dimensional statistics. Awards: 2024 JASA reproducibility award for 'Covariate-Assisted Bayesian Graph Learning.' He is an Associate Editor for Journal of Computational and Graphical Statistics and has organized workshops at Banff International Research Station (BIRS) and the Institute for Mathematics and its Applications (IMSI).
