Kung-Sik Chan has been formally appointed as the Robert V. Hogg Professor, from July 1, 2017 through June 30, 2022.   Congratulations, Kung-Sik!

Kung-Sik’s extraordinary research, teaching, and service contributions make him a very deserving Hogg Professor, as was his predecessor, Dale Zimmerman, the first Hogg Professor.    

For those fortunate enough to have known Bob Hogg, you know how much he admired “true scholars,” those folks who had a positive impact on so many lives and were in this business for all the right reasons. Bob was a true scholar and now we have another true scholar as the Hogg Professor.   I know that Bob would be very proud of Kung-Sik. 

To get an idea of just how well qualified Kung-Sik is to be Hogg Professor, let me paraphrase from his nomination letter…

Just since 2010, Professor Chan has published 70 peer-reviewed articles with over 100 co-authors, many of whom are, or were, his students or post docs.  These co-authors are from a variety of disciplines, including statistics, data science, actuarial science, business, economics, biology, radiology, ecology, environmental science, epidemiology, physics, marine science, genetics, and hydrology.  That there are over 100 co-authors is especially impressive given that the majority of his papers had relatively few co-authors.   This work has appeared in subject-matter journals as well as top statistics journals, including Statistical Science, J. of Royal Statistical Society Series B, Biometrika, Annals of Applied Statistics, Computational Statistics and Data Analysis, Statistica Sinica, and the J. of the American Statistical Association.   Professor Chan’s most recent research has also been well supported by several funding agencies, such as NIH, NSF, DNR, and NOAA, to name a few.  He lists 10 grants and contracts since 2010.     He has been invited to present his work at 8 research conferences since 2010, and this does not include all of the presentations by his co-authors.  This post-2010 research record combined with his impactful earlier work makes it clear that Professor Chan has earned his international reputation as an outstanding statistician and scientist.

In summary, Professor Chan is an excellent and eminently qualified choice for the Hogg Professorship.  He is an elected member of the International Statistical Institute, an elected fellow of both the ASA and IMS, and he is a UI Faculty Scholar Award recipient (1996-9).   His service to the profession, university, and department is admirable, and he is a talented teacher and an outstanding mentor who has positively impacted the lives of his many PhD students and post docs.  In short, he is an extremely valued and well-respected member of the department, the university, and the international scientific community.   I enthusiastically endorse Professor Chan’s nomination, and I know that Bob Hogg would as well.

https://clas.uiowa.edu/news/chan-named-robert-v-hogg-professor