The Department wishes to congratulate its second class of Mu Sigma Rho inductees. The following students will be inducted at 2:30 on April 29th:

Undergraduate Level Inductees:
John Averick, Jessica Floyd, Alexander Lyford, Stephen Morris, Julia Orr, Jamaal Parker, Zachary Robbins, Neeraj Sriram, Christopher Tenza, Nathan Ulrich

Graduate Level Inductees:
Ashley Askew, Andy Bartlett, Huanyao Gao, Qianying Hong, Siyan Hu, Adam Jaeger, Leopold Matamba, David Nelson, Chris O'Neal, Eugine Song, Junqi Yin, Guannan Wang, Xuedong Wu

The Department would like to congratulate Dr. Mandal on being a recipient of the 2011-2012 Sarah Moss Fellowship. Dr. Mandal will use his award in further pursuit of collaborative research at the University of Illinois at Chicago.

Adam Jaeger has earned an Honorable Mention for his recent proposal submitted to the NSF's Graduate Research Fellowship Program. From the Program Solicitation, "The NSF accords Honorable Mention to meritorious applicants who do not receive fellowship awards. This is considered a significant national academic achievement." Adam is in his second year of the graduate program, will earn his MS degree in Statistics in May, and will continue on in the PhD program with TN Sriram as his research advisor. Great job, Adam!

The Department wishes to congratulate Adam Jaeger and Andrew Hoss on receiving Outstanding Teaching Assistant Awards. This recognition is given to those TAs whose teaching performance ranks in the top ten percent of all TAs serving the University. Well done, Adam and Andrew!

The Department wishes to congratulate statistics undergraduate student, Julia Orr, on being elected to Phi Beta Kappa, the nation’s oldest and most widely-known academic honorary society. An invitation for induction to Phi Beta Kappa is only offered to the most outstanding arts and sciences students, of which Julia is well deserving. Great job, Julia!

The department is pleased to announce the promotion of Xiangrong Yin to full professor, and the promotions of Abhyuday Mandal and Cheolwoo Park to associate professor with tenure. They have all been true assets to the department and we are confident that they will continue to excel! Congratulations!

Chris Franklin was the recipient of the Mu Sigma Rho National Statistical Education Award for her contribution to statistical education. This award was presented to her on August 8, 2006 at the Joint Statistical Meetings in Seattle, Washington. Mu Sigma Rho is the national honorary society for statistics. Its purpose is the promotion and encouragement of scholarly activity in statistics, and the recognition of outstanding achievement among the students and instructional staff in academic institutions.

Nicole Lazar, who joined the Department in 2004 at the rank of Associate Professor, was awarded tenure starting in August of 2006. In her short period at UGA, Nicole has already made many significant contributions to both the graduate and undergraduate program, and the Department looks forward to her continued contributions.

The Department was successful and fortunate in attracting two excellent new faculty members. We are delighted to welcome Jeongyoun Ahn and Yehua Li, who have both started their position as Assistant Professor in August of 2006. Jeongyoun received her PhD in 2006 from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, where she worked under the supervision of Steve Marron. Yehua, also a 2006 PhD recipient, joined us from Texas A&M University where he worked under the supervision of Ray Carroll and Tailen Hsing.

Gauri S. Datta was named Fellow of the American Statistical Association on August 8, 2006, during the annual awards ceremony at the Joint Statistical Meetings in Seattle, Washington. Datta earned a Bachelor's degree at Calcutta University in 1983, a Master's degree at Calcutta University in 1985, and a Doctorate at the University of Florida in 1990. He joined the American Statistical Association in 1991. The official Fellow award citation reads as follows: "Gauri S.