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The Founders of Statistics Prize for Contemporary Research Contributions

Elsevier

The Founders of Statistics Prize for Contemporary Research Contributions in collaboration with Elsevier Publishers is given in honor of the Founders of Statistics. It recognises a research contribution that has had profound influence on statistical theory, methodology, practice, or applications. The contribution must be a research article or book published within the last three decades. The prize is presented at the ISI World Statistics Congress (WSC).

This prize is formerly known as The Karl Pearson Prize. 

The prize comprises

  • A monetary award of 5,000 euros, and the winner presents the Founders of Statistics Session at the World Statistics Congress. If the contribution has multiple authors, the cash prize will be divided equally,
  • An economy round trip airfare to the ISI World Statistics Congress. Travel support will only be provided for one of the authors to attend the World Statistics Congress and present the lecture.
  • Per diem to cover accommodation, meal and incidental expenses.
  • Complementary registration fee is part of the prize.

Timeline

Call for nominations opens: 28 March 2024
Call for nominations closes: 13 September 2024
Announcement of Results: 2 December 2024

Criteria

  • The article or book must have been published within the last 30 years (1990 or later).
  • For books the first edition establishes the relevant publication date.
  • The publication must be in English.
  • It must be a stand-alone research contribution that has had major influence and impact in one or more of the following:
    • Statistical theory
    • Statistical methodology
    • Statistical practice
    • Application areas

Past Recipients of the Founders of Statistics Prize for Contemporary Research (2021 – 2023)

 

2023 Recipient

Michael L. Stein

Professor Michael L. Stein

Michael L. Stein, a distinguished professor has been awarded the 2023 Founders of Statistics Prize for Contemporary Research.

Stein’s book, “Interpolation of Spatial Data: Some Theory for Kriging" published by Springer Series in Statistics in 1999, has had and continues to have a profound impact on spatial statistics, most prominently in theory, but also methodology and applications. Its influence extends beyond spatial statistics into other areas in which Gaussian processes are prominently used, including machine learning and computer experiments. Despite being published over 20 years ago, references to the book, currently more than 4000 citations, are at their peak and have even increased in each of the last 4 years. It is broadly cited not just in the statistics and machine learning literatures, but also in a wide range of scholarly journals in disciplines including the geosciences, physics, chemistry, engineering, marketing, ecology and epidemiology. This book has fundamentally transformed spatial statistics and statistical applications of Gaussian processes, and its far-reaching impact will continue for years to come. It richly deserves the recognition of ISI Founders of Statistics Prize.

The Prize is awarded every two years through the sponsorship of Elsevier Publishers. The Founders of Statistics Prize for Contemporary Research Contributions is given in honour of the Founders of Statistics. It recognises a research contribution that has had profound influence on statistical theory, methodology, practice, or applications. The contribution must be a research article or book published within the last three decades. 

Michael L. Stein received the prize in July 2023 at the 64 the International Statistical Institute World Statistics Congress in Ottawa, Canada.

 

2021 Recipient

Robert Tibshirani

Professor Robert Tibshirani

Professor Robert Tibshirani is selected as the recipient of the 2021 ISI Founders of Statistics Prize for his 1996 paper on ‘Regression Shrinkage and Selection via the LASSO’, published in the Journal of the Royal Statistical Society Series B, pp. 267-288. Robert Tibshirani is Professor of Biomedical Science and Statistics at Stanford University.

The Lasso paper (Tibshirani, 1996) has had 37,360 citations as of late January 2021 indicating its wide influence across statistics, data science, computer science and broadly in Science, Business and Economics. As we are faced with large and more complex data sets, the Lasso will continue to provide the basic underpinning for developments to handle such data. One reason for the paper’s impact is the clarity with which the paper is written with thorough and clear explanations of the method both analytically and geometrically. In statistics, biostatistics and machine learning, the Lasso (least absolute shrinkage and selection operator) is a regression analysis method that performs both variable selection and regularization in order to enhance the prediction accuracy and interpretability of the resulting statistical model. The Lasso is really the cornerstone of many modern methods of statistics and data science.

The contribution recognized by the Founders of Statistics Prize must be a research article or book published within the last three decades. Each Founders of Statistics (formerly known as Karl Pearson Prize) Award selection committee comprises renowned statisticians from across the world. The prize is given biennially, at the ISI World Statistics Congress (WSC), starting with the WSC in Hong Kong in August 2013. ISI is grateful to Elsevier Publishers for their ongoing sponsorship of the Prize.