Alan Agresti MS’70, PhD’72, distinguished professor emeritus of statistics at the University of Florida (UFL), has spent his career proving that data holds the key to some of the most compelling questions of our time, from the social sciences to the biomedical industry. In fact, he wrote a book on it. His seminal Categorical Data …
Over the course of his influential career, Hermann Habermann MS’70, PhD’75 has shaped how governments around the world understand their data, their people, and their economies. As former chief statistician of the United States and director of the United Nations Statistical Division, he helped build the statistical systems and standards that inform decision-making at the …
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 …
Claudia Solis-Lemus PhD’15 and her lab bring statistical rigor to far-reaching biological questions. By Thomas Jilk When Claudia Solís-Lemus PhD’15 began her Statistics graduate program, she was leaning toward focusing on financial statistics. Then she attended a guest lecture from Professor and current Statistics Chair Bret Larget, showing how probability models could uncover new patterns in the evolution of life, using DNA as data. “Lightning hit my brain,” Solís-Lemus said. “It …
A Department of Statistics-affiliated team was named one of three finalists of the 2026 NFL Big Data Bowl. Jack Sullivan ’25, who recently completed a degree in Data Science and Economics, and Shekhar Shah x’27, a Computer Sciences and Statistics double major, took home a $9,000 prize and earned an exclusive invitation to present their …
What does it take for humans to learn how machines learn? By Thomas Jilk First, a firm understanding of statistics and computing is required, as Statistics Teaching Faculty John Gillett knows. He brings that understanding — along with healthy doses of humor and humility — to his courses, where he shapes how thousands of UW–Madison students first encounter machine learning. “It turns out I’m a good …
Michael Harding‘s path to graduate school didn’t follow a linear model. After earning mathematics and statistics degrees from Boston University, he landed at Lehigh Valley Health Network in Pennsylvania for a stint as a data scientist, in the midst of the COVID-19 pandemic. Building disease models to predict case surges, he found himself diving deeper into the research literature, an …