Jiaming Liu, a fourth-year graduate student mentored by Meng Li, Noah Harding Associate Professor in Statistics at the George R. Brown School of Engineering and Computing, has been recognized by the American Statistical Association (ASA), the world’s largest community of statisticians.
“This award is a significant achievement for graduate students in Statistics and many of its past recipients are now leading researchers in the field,” said Li, Liu’s doctoral thesis mentor. “Jiaming joined my group six months ago and has demonstrated remarkable resilience overall during his four years of graduate studies. This award is a testimony to his hard work, dedication, and growing expertise in Bayesian statistics research.”
Liu was selected for this award by ASA’s Section on Bayesian Statistical Science (SBSS) for his research paper on variational (Bayesian) inference, a statistical method widely used in machine learning and artificial intelligence (AI) for analyzing large-scale and high-dimensional data.
Variational Bayes, widely used in AI and other fields, predicts future trends in data sets and the likelihood of potential outcomes by incorporating past data. While this method is accurate for point estimates, it produces overly narrow interval estimates, leading to inaccurate estimation of uncertainty. "By generating a solid theoretical foundation for calculating variational Bayes and developing innovative algorithms, Jiaming's research has found a novel way to reliably quantify uncertainty," Li said. "This work is a significant advancement in statistics research that will make all Bayesian predictions more trustworthy and will be particularly important for improving our confidence in AI-based applications."
Liu will receive partial travel support to attend and present his work at the Joint Statistical Meeting (JSM 2025), one of the largest statistical conferences in the world with over 5,000 attendees. During the SBSS reception at JSM, he will also receive a certificate acknowledging his achievement. “I am very thankful to ASA and SBSS for this prestigious award. I am excited for this amazing opportunity to present my work at JSM and network with leading statisticians from all over the world,” said Liu.