UNIVERSITY PARK, Pa. — The Penn State Department of Statistics will host the 2017 Rao Prize Conference on Friday, May 12, in 102 Thomas Building on the Penn State University Park campus. This one-day conference, which is free and open to the public, begins with registration at 8 a.m., followed by the award ceremony and lectures continuing throughout the day until 5:20 p.m. The full schedule of events is available online.
One of the highlights of the conference is the award of the 2017 Rao Prize to Donald B. Rubin, the John L. Loeb Professor of Statistics at Harvard University. Rubin is one of the most highly cited authors in the world in both mathematics and economics, according to ISI Science Watch and Highly Cited Economists.
Rubin is an elected fellow/member/honorary member of: the Woodrow Wilson Society, John Simon Guggenheim Memorial Foundation, Alexander von Humbolt Foundation, American Statistical Association, Institute of Mathematical Statistics, International Statistical Institute, American Association for the Advancement of Science, American Academy of Arts and Sciences, European Association of Methodology, British Academy, and the U.S. National Academy of Sciences. Rubin received the Samuel S. Wilks Medal from the American Statistical Association, the Parzen Prize for Statistical Innovation, the Fisher Lectureship, and the George W. Snedecor Award of the Committee of Presidents of Statistical Societies.
The conference also honors two distinguished statisticians: Satish Iyengar, professor of statistics at the University of Pittsburgh, who will present the P. R. Krishnaiah Lecture; and Paul R. Rosenbaum, the Robert G. Putzel Professor of Statistics at the Wharton School, who will present the C. G. Khatri Lecture.
The conference program consists of the three plenary speakers, four invited speakers, and a poster presentation by graduate students. The three plenary speakers are Professors Rubin, Iyengar and Rosenbaum. The four invited speakers are Samuel Kou, professor of statistics at Harvard University; Kari Lock Morgan, assistant professor of statistics at Penn State; Joseph Schafer, statistical researcher at the U.S. Census Bureau; and Dylan Small, the Class of 1965 Wharton Professor of Statistics at The Wharton School. Abstracts of all the presentations are available online.
The C.R. and Bhargavi Rao Prize was established to honor and recognize outstanding and influential innovations in the theory and practice of mathematical statistics, international leadership in directing statistics research, and pioneering contributions by a recognized leader in the field of statistics. The C.G. Khatri Memorial Lectureship and P.R. Krishnaiah Memorial Lectureship honor the memory of C.G. Khatri and P. R. Krishnaiah by inviting outstanding researchers in statistics to deliver lectures at Penn State.