José Ramírez MS’85, PhD’89 has built a career helping people make sense of data, whether to improve semiconductor manufacturing or advance T-cell therapies that attack cancer. That applied impact, rooted in a collaborative philosophy he traces back to UW–Madison, makes him a fitting recipient of a 2026 CDIS Distinguished Achievement Award.
The groundwork for Ramírez’s career was laid in the Department of Statistics, under the mentorship of the department’s founder, Professor George E.P. Box. “Being accepted as a student of Professor Box — that was one of the highlights of my career,” he said. Those years offered him technical training, a lifelong community, and an identity as a collaborative statistician who bridges fields to help solve pressing problems and push the field forward.
A transformative graduate experience
Ramírez arrived at UW–Madison to pursue his PhD in the mid-1980s and quickly found himself immersed in the Statistical Laboratory, a consulting and training hub that exposed him to practical problems across disciplines. There, he co-authored his first technical report, Monitoring Ground Water Quality: A Bayesian Approach — foreshadowing a career of applied work ahead.
A turning point came when he worked up the courage to seek out a new PhD advisor during a break at an evening seminar. “I just approached Professor Box in the hallway and said, ‘I would love to be your student,’” Ramírez recalled. Box (whose friends knew him as “Pel,” short for Pelham, his second middle name), brought Ramírez on as a research assistant, and the relationship turned out to be both professionally formative and personally meaningful. “Apart from being my advisor, he became a good friend,” Ramírez added.
He also fondly remembers joining the department’s legendary “Monday Night Beer and Statistics” evening gatherings at Box’s home, where students and faculty heard visitors present problems from engineering, agriculture, and beyond. “You’d hang out in his family room, listen to talks, and get material for your research,” Ramírez said. Those sessions taught him how statisticians can collaborate with experts across fields, a theme that would anchor his entire career.
Impact across industries
After completing his coursework, Ramírez began working in the semiconductor industry before defending his dissertation. He was in the early stages of a career that would span Digital Equipment Corporation, Intel, W.L. Gore and Associates, Amgen, and now Kite Pharma, a Gilead Company, where he currently serves as Chief Statistician and Statistical Advisor. “What I do for a living is help people make sense of data,” he said.
Along the way, he earned two patents and co-wrote two books to help engineers and scientists interpret data, among them Analyzing and Interpreting Continuous Data Using JMP, which won multiple awards including the Society for Technical Communications’ International Award of Excellence.
Today, at Kite Pharma, Ramírez works on cutting-edge cancer therapies, focused on immune cells called T-cells, that he describes as almost unbelievable in their sophistication. “The technology is beyond science fiction. You go inside the T-cell and bioengineer it to recognize targets that are present on the surface of cancer cells, then activate the T-cell to attack those cancer cells,” he said. His work in this area is a reminder that statisticians and data scientists are pivotal players in pushing the frontiers of science, including life-saving medical research.
A philosophy rooted in partnership
Throughout his career, Ramírez has championed a view of statisticians not as merely consultants, but as collaborators. “As statisticians, we are usually trained to be consultants. But as consultants, we create a separation, a distance,” he wrote. “We need to be collaborators, equal and strategic partners to the people we work with.” He traces this outlook directly to Box’s philosophy: “To collaborate effectively, you have to learn their language — the science, the engineering. That’s how you become an equal.”
In 2019, Ramírez tapped into the network he forged and maintained at UW–Madison, in service of honoring his mentor, George Box. He organized the Accidental Statistician Centenary Celebration, honoring what would have been Box’s 100th birthday. Former students, colleagues, and family gathered in Madison for a day of talks and gratitude. “For me, it was a way to pay tribute, to give back for everything I got from George,” Ramírez explained.
For a career spent crossing boundaries — between engineering and science, industry and academia, data and medicine — José Ramírez is a deserving recipient of the CDIS Distinguished Achievement Award.
Meet all eight of the 2026 CDIS Distinguished Achievement Award winners.