The School of Mathematics and Statistics at Yunnan University hosted the Symposium on Foundations for Statistical Science on July 25–26, 2025, in Kunming, China, to honour the remarkable career of Professor Jiahua Chen on the occasion of his 65th birthday.

Professor Chen, who was a former guest professor at Yunnan University, was celebrated for his profound contributions to statistical science. The symposium brought together leading researchers and scholars from around the world to explore foundational topics in statistics.

The scientific program featured keynote and invited talks covering a wide range of topics on foundations for statistical science, including areas for which Professor Chen has made fundamental research contributions, such as finite mixture models, Bayesian information theory, experimental design, and survey sampling.

The conference was also an appreciation of Professor Chen’s service to the statistics profession, including the roles of Editor-in-Chief of The Canadian Journal of Statistics and the 2005 President of the International Chinese Statistical Association (ICSA).

UBC Statistics welcomes Charles Margossian as an Assistant Professor, beginning August 1, 2025.

Charles received his Ph.D. in Statistics from Columbia University in 2022 and brings three years of research experience as a Research Fellow at the Flatiron Institute. His research broadly focuses on Bayesian modeling and probabilistic machine learning. This work bridges theory, computation, and application through the development of probabilistic programming languages, such as Stan.

Charles has published extensively in the areas of Bayesian computation and analysis, demonstrating both depth and breadth in his scholarship. He has also had fruitful collaborations in the sciences and has published in the areas of medicine, public health, and astrophysics. In addition to his research contributions, he brings teaching experience, particularly in short-course format, and has taught tutorials at a dozen conferences and summer schools. He is also a driving force behind several open-source software packages, underscoring his commitment to building accessible and impactful tools for the broader statistical and data science community.

In a statement published on Charles' website, he shared, "It is a considerable honour to receive a professorship at UBC, and it is a position I approach with optimism, awe, and gravity."

Welcome to UBC, Charles!

UBC Statistics extends a warm welcome to Grace Tompkins who joins our department as an Assistant Professor of Teaching! 

Grace comes to us with an impressive background, having earned her Ph.D. in Statistics with a specialization in Biostatistics from the University of Waterloo in 2025. She's not just an expert in her field; she brings valuable experience in teaching assistant (TA) training, along with a strong commitment to mentorship and community building.

Her research interests are fascinating, focusing on irregular longitudinal data and causal inference, particularly weighting methods to account for biases. During her graduate studies, Grace was a graduate consultant at the Statistical Consulting and Collaborative Research Unit and an active member of the Health Data Science Lab at the University of Waterloo. This diverse experience means she's perfectly poised to teach both traditional statistical methodologies and emerging topics in data science. 

Grace is incredibly enthusiastic about her new role at UBC. She shared:

"I feel so grateful to be in a position where I can positively impact statistics and data science education. I look forward to connecting with undergraduate and graduate students, and making statistical education more fun and accessible at UBC with my unique approach to teaching!"

We are excited to see the positive impact she'll have on our students and the broader community.

We’re thrilled to share that the Statistical Society of Canada (SSC) has named Assistant Professor of Teaching Katie Burak as the recipient of this year’s New Investigator Presentation Award.

The New Investigator Presentation Award is presented annually by the SSC to recognize outstanding contributed talks, judged on the quality of both the presentation and the underlying research. Katie received the award for her talk titled “Authentic Data Science Assessments in a Computer-Based Testing Environment.”

To learn more about the SSC New Investigator Presentation Award, please visit: https://ssc.ca/en/ssc-awards

Congratulations, Katie, on this well-deserved recognition!

In a recent announcement on the Statistical Society of Canada (SSC)'s website, our Statistics Associate Professor of Teaching, Melissa Lee, was awarded the SSC Early Career Educator Award for 2025. This award recognizes excellence in teaching statistics by early career SSC members, through commitment to evidence-based pedagogy and in contributions to statistical education in Canada. Such excellence may be demonstrated through contributions to the scholarship of teaching and learning, attention to accessibility and inclusivity of learning environments, or innovation in development and/or implementation of new courses, curricula or programs.

Melissa has received this award “for her leadership role in curriculum development and in resource development and assessment; for her curiosity and creativity in exploring new pedagogical methods; for her mentoring and support of the teaching of both faculty and teaching assistants; and for her ability to create a respectful, effective, and enjoyable teaching and learning environment for all.”

We’re grateful for Melissa’s dedication to teaching and proud of her accomplishments.

Congratulations, Melissa!

Read about Melissa’s full teaching contributions: https://ssc.ca/en/awards/2025/melissa-lee-ssc-early-career-educator-award-2025-0

To learn more about the SSC Early Career Educator Award, visit: https://ssc.ca/en/award/ssc-early-career-educator-award

The Nash Medal in Statistics is given each year to the most outstanding graduating student in the B.Sc. program in Statistics. The medal recognizes the great service to Statistics given by Professor Stanley Nash (1915-2001) over his more than 40 years at UBC.

The Nash Medal in Statistics for the 2024-2025 academic year is awarded to Chenyue Qian, who graduates with a BSc Major in Statistics. Chenyue's grades in upper-level Statistics and Math courses are consistently in the high 90s or even 100%; across all subjects, he achieved an extraordinary average of 93%, and often higher, in every session of study at UBC. Chenyue won two Petkau scholarships, one in 2023 as a fourth-year student and another in 2022 upon entering his third year, further reflecting his academic excellence. He will pursue a Master's in Statistics next. 

The Nash Medal is supported by the Statistics Fund for Excellence.

Learn more about the Medal (https://www.stat.ubc.ca/nash-medal) and the Fund (https://www.stat.ubc.ca/statistics-fund-excellence).

The 42nd Greater Vancouver Regional Science Fair (GVRSF), hosted at the University of British Columbia, featured 250 projects spanning life, environmental, and physical sciences. Over 400 students from grades 7-12 showcased their research. On April 11th, participants also had the opportunity to tour UBC’s science labs, sparking further interest in pursuing careers in science.

The Department of Statistics sponsored the UBC Statistics Award, recognizing exceptional use of statistical methods. This year’s winners included Michael Skrypnyk (Prince of Wales Secondary), Ziling Zhang (Crofton House), and Elaine Lyu (Collingwood School).

Support from UBC's faculties and research centres made the event a success, inspiring the next generation of scientists.

For more information about the GVRSF, visit: https://gvrsf.ca/

To view the list of 2025 award winners, visit: https://gvrsf.ca/2025/04/21/2025-award-winners/

We are thrilled to announce that Marie Auger-Méthé, Associate Professor in Statistics and the Institute for the Oceans and Fisheries, has been named one of the new members of the College of New Scholars, Artists, and Scientists by the Royal Society of Canada (RSC). This prestigious recognition honours the emerging generation of Canadian intellectual leadership across various disciplines.

The RSC’s announcement highlights Marie’s groundbreaking interdisciplinary research:

“Marie Auger-Méthé is a highly original interdisciplinary researcher whose work in the development and application of novel statistical methods provides impactful insights into the ecology, movement, health, and behaviour of animals. Her research advances fundamental scientific knowledge crucial for effective wildlife management and conservation policies. Her contributions offer new perspectives on how ecologically important species, particularly charismatic marine species, respond to global environmental changes.”

Marie will be officially welcomed into the RSC as a 2024 member at the RSC Celebration of Excellence and Engagement in November.

Congratulations, Marie!

If you’d like to read more about Marie’s wonderful news, please see the following:

https://research.ubc.ca/fifteen-ubc-faculty-members-elected-royal-society-canada

https://rsc-src.ca/en/news/royal-society-canada-announces-its-2024-cohort-fellows-and-college-members

https://rsc-src.ca/sites/default/files/24_New%20Members_EN_0.pdf

This year’s recipients of the Dr. John and Barbara Petkau Scholarships are Jessie Liang and Jade Bouchard!

Jessie Liang is a third-year Statistics major student, excelling in her academic performance and having received multiple scholarships, including Outstanding International Student Award in 2022 and J. Fred Muir Memorial Scholarship in Science in 2023. Jessie completed four courses in the summer of 2023 to fulfill the pre-requisites for Statistics 3^rd year courses. During the 2023-24 academic year, she took six courses in both Term 1 and 2. By the end of her second year at UBC, she had successfully completed the core requirements for her third year. Her grades are consistently excellent, with nearly all A+ grades.

Jade Bouchard, a fourth-year Statistics major, is in the co-op program and has finished most of her 4^th year STAT requirements with grades that are almost uniformly A+. During her co-op terms at STEMCELL Technologies as a Pricing Operations Intern and at Borealis AI (RBC) as a Machine Learning Software Engineering Intern, she gained valuable experience in building scalable data pipelines. Jade looks forward to returning to RBC in 2025 as a Machine Learning Engineer.

About the Dr. John and Barbara Petkau Scholarships

In 2016, John and Barbara Petkau endowed two scholarships to recognize the academic merit of the next generation of statisticians and the impact these statisticians will have on solving world problems. One scholarship is for a student entering third year, and the other is for a student entering fourth year.

John Petkau, a professor emeritus in the Department, has contributed in many ways to the Department and the discipline with his vision and leadership, statistical expertise, generosity of time, and his mentoring of undergraduate and graduate students. John’s wife, Barbara, deserves special thanks, for generously sharing John's time with us.

See a list of previous recipients of the scholarships here.