The 2002 CRM-SSC Prize is awarded
to Larry Wasserman

  November 8, 2002 conference

The 2002 CRM-SSC Prize in Statistics has been awarded to Dr Larry A. Wasserman of Carnegie Mellon University, Pittsburgh, for the breadth and originality of his contributions to statistical theory and his influence in the development and application of Bayesian methodology. The announcement was made at the Annual Meeting of the Statistical Society of Canada (SSC), held in Hamilton, Ontario, May 26-29, 2002. This prestigious award, jointly sponsored by the SSC and the Centre de recherches mathématiques de Montréal (CRM), is given each year to a Canadian statistician in recognition of outstanding contributions to the discipline during the recipientÕs first 15 years after earning a doctorate. 1983; M.Sc., 1985; Ph.D., 1988). He has since been affiliated with Carnegie Mellon University, where he is now Professor of Statistics. The author or co-author of more than 60 scientific articles, he is widely recognized as one of the current leaders in Bayesian inference. He has brought his expertise to bear on the foundations of statistics and on numerous aspects of modern statistical theory, including sampling, mixture models, multiple testing, goodness-of-fit and robustness issues, and both nonparametric and causal inference. In addition, Larry maintains active collaborations with astrophysicists and statistical geneticists.

Larry Wasserman's pathbreaking work has already earned him several distinctions. Winner of the SSCÕs Pierre Robillard Award for the best thesis in probability or statistics defended at a Canadian university in 1988, he was made a Fellow of the American Statistical Association and of the Institute of Mathematical Statistics in 1996. He is also the 1999 winner of the Presidents' Award, given each year by the Committee of Presidents of Statistical Societies to an outstanding researcher under the age of 40. He has been an Associate Editor for The Canadian Journal of Statistics and the Journal of Statistical Planning and Inference. He continues to serve in that capacity for The Annals of Statistics and the Journal of the American Statistical Association.

Larry is married to an Italian statistician, Isabella Verdinelli. In his spare time, he enjoys reading novels, drinking wine, and hanging out in Rome. Larry Wasserman is the fourth recipient of the CRM-SSC Prize. Previous winners of the award are Colleen D. Cutler (University of Waterloo, 2001), Robert J. Tibshirani (Stanford University, 2000) and Christian Genest (UniversitŽ Laval, 1999).

Christian Genest, Chair CRM-SSC Prize Committee