Statistics PhD students, Wei Han and Xinming Yang selected along with eight other competitors from across the nation for the 2020 Section on Bayesian Statistical Science (SBSS) Student Paper Award sponsored by the American Statistical Association (ASA). The total of ten winners were selected from a record number of 60 entrants this year. Professor Yun Yang advises Wei Han and Professor Naveen Narisetty advises Xinming Yang.
In addition, Wei Han has been selected as the winner of the prestigious Laplace Award, which is given to the best student paper submitted to the SBSS Student Paper Award competition. The Laplace Award will be presented to Wei Han at the 2020 Joint Statistical Meeting (JSM) in Philadelphia later this year.
The SBSS student paper competition is for research on Bayesian methodology, which includes applied, computational, or theoretical work on completed research. Students are required to submit a manuscript suitable for journal submission in order to be eligible for the competition. The selection criteria included the novelty in theory/methods/applications, significance, and potential impact of the research.
Winners of the SBSS student paper competition will receive travel funds and will be presented with a certificate at the 2020 JSM.
From the ASA Section on Bayesian Statistical Science website: The Section on Bayesian Statistical Science (SBSS) of the ASA provides a forum for statisticians and people who have interest in the Bayesian paradigm. The broad objectives of the Section are: to encourage research on theory and methods of statistical inference and decision making associated with Bayes' theorem and to encourage the application and proper use of Bayesian procedures in the behavioral, biological, managerial, engineering, environmental, legal, medical, pharmaceutical, physical, and social sciences.
The complete list of winners is as follows:
Wei Han (University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign)
Xinming Yang (University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign)
Bradley Hupf (Florida State)
Chang Liu (North Carolina State)
Masoero Lorenzo (MIT)
Jennifer Starling (University of Texas at Austin)
Fangting Zhou (Texas A&M)
Fan Bu (Duke University)
Xu Chen (Duke University)
Zhehui Chen (Georgia Institute of Technology)