Statistics Fall 2026 Newsletter
Letter from the chair
Friends of UF Department of Statistics,
I wanted to provide you all an update of what is currently going on with the department.
I am happy to report that we hired 3 new assistant professors (one of which won’t join UF until Fall 2027) and 2 new lecturers. Find their bios in the below story.
The statistics major and data science major remain very popular among UF undergraduates. Combined, we now have over 500 majors. And the undergraduate degree in data science was ranked #6 in TechGuide’s 2026 Best Bachelor’s in Data Science Program. Explore the full 2026 rankings.
Our graduates at the undergraduate and graduate level have accepted top positions in graduate school and industry (for the former) and academia and industry (for the latter). Companies include Bank of America, Capital One, Deloitte, DraftKings, TD (Toronto-Dominion), Walmart, Darden Restaurants, Davies North America and AKIO AI. And graduate programs at the following universities: University of Florida, Johns Hopkins University, Duke University, Yale University and University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign (UIUC). Ph.D. graduates ended up in academia, teaching position at TAMU, postdoc at MDACC, Yale, Nanyang Tech (Singapore), pharma Johnson & Johnson and government math stat at FDA, postdoc at NCI.
Our undergraduate scholarship, the Joe Glover Scholarship for Data Science, was awarded for the third time this year. The recipient was Mallory Tyler.
Data science and computer science majors walked away with six awards spanning multiple competition tracks and sponsor challenges at Hacklytics, Georgia Tech’s annual data science competition. Congratulations to them! More details in the Hacklytics story.
And we continue to have support from Pfizer who gifted the department another Pfizer fellowship. The continuing awardee will be third year student, Haidyn Sekeres. And UF will be hosting the annual Pfizer symposium in Fall 2027. Details on this year’s symposium can be found on the 2026 symposium page.
Professor Khare started his term as president of the International Indian Statistical Association (IISA) in January 2026. He was also awarded a prestigious UF Research Foundation (UFRF) Professorship.
On the professional service side, Professor Hani Doss continued his term as co-editor of the Journal of the Royal Statistical Society Series B, Professor Khare continued as editor of Sankhya A and I continued as co-editor of Bayesian Analysis.
Faculty continue to be successful with external funding with several new grants from NSF.
The 2026 Winter Workshop (partially funded by Infotech and NSF) focused on frontiers in learning under data heterogeneity. It was co-organized by Satarupa Bhattacharjee and Sohom Bhattacharya. Further details can be found in the story below.
Our Challis Lecturer this past fall was Nancy Reid from the University of Toronto. Details can be found in the Challis Lecture story.
I look forward to hearing from you. Let me know the next time you are in Gainesville.
Go Gators!
Best regards,
Mike D
Welcoming our newest faculty
Changwoo Lee
Changwoo Lee joined the Department of Statistics as an assistant professor in fall 2026. Prior to this, he was a postdoctoral associate in the Department of Statistical Science at Duke University, where he worked with Professor David Dunson. Changwoo earned his Ph.D. in statistics from Texas A&M University in 2024 under the supervision of Professor Huiyan Sang. He holds bachelor’s degrees in mathematics education and statistics from Korea University. His research interests include statistical machine learning, spatial statistics, Bayesian computation, nonparametric Bayes, cluster analysis and applied statistical methods for environmental epidemiology and ecology. Outside of academia, he enjoys spending time with his wife and two young children and exploring nature.
Yuki Ohnishi
Yuki Ohnishi joined the Department of Statistics as an assistant professor in fall 2026. Before joining the department, he was a postdoctoral scholar working with Professor Fan Li at Yale University from August 2024 to July 2026. In 2024, Yuki earned his Ph.D. in statistics from Purdue University, where he was advised by Professors Jordan Awan and Arman Sabbaghi. His research focuses on developing theory and methods for causal inference under complex data structures, including cluster-randomized and sequential trials. His specific interests include post-treatment confounding, interference and spillovers, heterogeneous treatment effects, mediation analysis, time-to-event outcomes and privacy-preserving analysis. In his free time, Yuki enjoys cooking, coffee, reading and spending time with his family.
Anh Nguyen
Anh (pronounced “Ann”) Nguyen joined the Department of Statistics as a lecturer in fall 2026. She earned her Ph.D. in statistics from the University of Iowa under Aixin Tan, where her research focused on developing online Bayesian methods for streaming data. Her work helps models update in real time as new data arrives, with applications in areas such as education. Before pursuing her doctorate, she earned a bachelor’s degree in mathematics education in Vietnam. Outside of academia, Anh enjoys spending time with her family, trying out new pastry recipes, perfecting her Vietnamese cooking, traveling and making memes out of her two cats.
Jacob Martin
Jacob Martin joined the Department of Statistics as a lecturer in fall 2026. Previously, he taught statistics and data science at the University of Vermont and at the University of Georgia, where he earned his Ph.D. in statistics. Jacob’s research interests include categorical data, sports analytics and statistics education. In his free time, Jacob enjoys cycling, jelly making and tabletop games.
Alum spotlight
Bryant Davis studied under Jim Hobert as a graduate student in the department. He began his career in baseball with the Tampa Bay Rays, moved to the Dallas Cowboys, and now leads the Baseball Research department of the Miami Marlins.
Challis lecture
The 2025-2026 Challis Lecturer was Professor Nancy Reid from the University of Toronto. Nancy Reid studied at the University of Waterloo (B.Math. 1974), the University of British Columbia (M.Sc. 1976), Stanford University (Ph.D. 1979) and Imperial College, London (PDF 1980). She joined the University of Toronto in 1986 from the University of British Columbia. She has held several leadership roles in statistical science including chair of the department (1997–2002) and scientific director of the Canadian Statistical Sciences Institute (2015–2019). Nancy is a fellow of the Royal Society, the Royal Society of Canada, the Royal Society of Edinburgh and a foreign associate of the National Academy of Sciences. In 2015 she was appointed officer of the Order of Canada.
Abstracts and the recordings of the talks are on the 2025 Challis Lecture page.
Workshops, teaching and competitions
2026 Statistics Annual Winter Workshop
The 2026 workshop (partially funded by Infotech and NSF) focused on frontiers in learning under data heterogeneity. It was co-organized by Satarupa Bhattacharjee and Sohom Bhattacharya. Details are on the 2026 Winter Workshop page.
Electronic Conference on Teaching Statistics (eCOTS) at UF
This past summer, Megan Mocko (former faculty member) and Beth Johnson (current faculty member) hosted the North Florida Regional Conference in connection with eCOTS (Electronic Conference on Teaching Statistics). Details are in the eCOTS 2026 story.
UF and Hacklytics
Earlier this year, the Data Science & Informatics Student Organization (DSI) coordinated with Beyond120 and the Department of Statistics to fund 56 students to compete at Hacklytics, Georgia Tech’s annual data science competition. Details are in the Hacklytics story.
Finding the story in the numbers: data science at UF
Our department was featured in the latest issue of Ytori, the magazine for the College of Liberal Arts and Sciences.
Read the data science storyRead the full issue