UNIVERSITY PARK, PA — Runze Li, Verne M. Willaman Professor of Statistics at Penn State, has been appointed as Holder of the Eberly Family Chair in Statistics, one of the highest honors awarded to faculty members in the Penn State Eberly College of Science. He was appointed to the chair by the Office of the President, based on the recommendations of colleagues and the dean, in recognition of his national and international reputation for excellence in research and teaching.
Li's research involves several fields of statistics, including high-dimensional data analysis, variable selection, and longitudinal data analysis. Li also studies various statistical applications such as design and modeling for behavioral science, computer experiments, genetic-data analysis, and brain-image analysis.
Li is an elected Fellow of the American Association for the Advancement of Science, the Institute of Mathematical Statistics, and the American Statistical Association and was named a Highly Cited Researcher in Mathematics by Clarivate (formerly Thomson Reuters) in 2014, 2015, 2016, and 2017. He has received various awards and honors, including the Distinguished Achievement Award of the International Chinese Statistical Association in 2017, the United Nations' World Meteorological Organization Norbert Gerbier-MUMM International Award for 2012 and a National Science Foundation Career Award in 2004.
Li has co-authored a book, "Design and Modeling for Computer Experiments," and he has authored over 150 scientific papers in journals such as The Annals of Statistics, Biometrika, the Journal of the American Statistical Association, and the Journal of the Royal Statistical Society B. He currently serves as an associate editor for the Journal of the American Statistical Association and the Annals of Mathematical Sciences and Applications. He previously served as co-editor-in-chief and as an associate editor of the Annals of Statistics and as an associate editor of Statistica Sinica.
Li earned a doctoral degree in statistics at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill in 2000. He joined the faculty at Penn State in 2000, was promoted to associate professor in 2005 and to professor in 2008. He served as the chair of the graduate program in statistics at Penn State from 2007 to 2012, was named Distinguished Professor of Statistics at Penn State in 2012, and was named Verne M. Willman Professor of Statistics at Penn State in 2014.