Texas A&M University statistician Dr. Huiyan Sang has been elected as a 2024 Fellow of the American Statistical Association (ASA), the largest community of statisticians in the world.
Sang, a professor of statistics and member of the Texas A&M Department of Statistics since 2008, earned selection for her pathbreaking contributions to the development of methodology, computation and applications in spatial and Bayesian statistics, exemplary leadership and service to the profession, and excellence in teaching and mentoring. She is among 47 new ASA Fellows who will be inducted during the Joint Statistical Meetings, set for August 3-8 in Portland, Oregon.
Known as the "Big Tent for Statistics," the ASA was founded in 1839 in Boston and is the second-oldest, continuously operating professional association in the country. ASA Fellows have been designated for nearly 100 years, and only up to one-third of 1% of the total association membership can be elected as Fellows each year.
Sang earned her Ph.D. in statistics from Duke University in 2008 after receiving her bachelor of science in mathematics and applied mathematics from Peking University in 2004. At Texas A&M, she leads an innovative and comprehensive research program underpinned by her extensive expertise in spatial statistics, extreme values, multilevel models and computational methods for large data sets that impacts interdisciplinary areas spanning the environmental sciences, geosciences, economics and biomedical sectors.
During the past decade and a half, Sang has made numerous contributions to the theory and practice of spatial and environmental statistics, machine learning methods and high dimensional data analysis. Her work has broad applications, ranging from satellite data analyses, global climate studies and environmental sciences to urban and traffic planning, medical image processing and public health. In addition to her research accomplishments, Sang currently serves as director of the undergraduate program in Texas A&M Statistics and is a well-respected educator and mentor at both the undergraduate and graduate levels. She also has research experience in educational evaluation.
“Dr. Sang's research accomplishments have positioned her as a leader in the field of Bayesian statistics and spatial statistics,” said Dr. Bani K. Mallick, a distinguished professor of statistics and holder of the Susan M. Arseven ’75 Chair in Data Science and Computational Statistics who nominated Sang for the honor. “She is outstanding and certainly at or near the top compared to others at her level. This recognition is very well deserved!”
A member of ASA, the International Statistical Institute (ISI) and the International Society for Bayesian Analysis (ISBA), Sang’s previous awards include an ASA Section on Statistics and the Environment (ENVR) Early Investigator Award in 2018, an ISBA Young Researcher Award from Google in 2012 and a National Science Foundation Isaac Newton Institute Workshop Travel Award in 2008.
Learn more about Sang and her teaching, research and professional service or the American Statistical Association and related award programs.