Baylor University Department of Statistical Science

10/15/2026

09/24/2026

Tomorrow is National Research Administrator Day, and we want to take a moment to recognize the incredible professionals who make research possible.

From proposal development and compliance to grant management and award administration, research administrators are essential partners in every stage of the research journey.

💚 Thank you for your dedication. 💛 Thank you for your expertise. 💚 Thank you for supporting Baylor's research mission.

We ♥ Baylor Research!

09/16/2026

We are very excited to announce the graduate students selected for the 2025-2026 academic year awards.

We have three specific annual honors that celebrate the talent, dedication, and contributions of our graduate students, and the faculty recognize excellence in three award categories: Best New Student, Best Teaching Assistant, and Best Overall. The Best New Student is chosen from among the first year cohort and is based on excellent performance in coursework and collegiality. The Best Teaching Assistant is given to a student to recognize high quality teaching and commitment to student success based on departmental evaluation. Finally, the Best Overall award is given to a graduating student for their exceptional research accomplishments and meaningful, sustained service to the department that will leave a lasting impression.

The students selected by the faculty for these awards are as follows:

Best New Student: Matthew Farnsworth

Matt has excelled in his first year classes and on the written preliminary exams. In spite of beginning this program with very little statistics background, his dedication to learning in method, computational, and theoretical statistics has impressed all of the faculty. He not only sets very high standards for himself, but he is also a collegial addition to the department, willing to help others, and participates in departmental activities.

Best TA: Terry Tsai

Terry does an excellent job of not only presenting the class material but involving the students in the lecture so that their understanding of the material is cemented. As one student noted, "I'd taken stats before, but this class helped me to actually comprehend it, and made everything really clear." Another student said, "He is so helpful and truly wants us to succeed which I appreciate."

Best Overall Student: Caleb Fox

Caleb was an indispensable part of the Consulting team, working independently and as lead collaborator on difficult projects, several of which led to publications. He was first choice for the most challenging and high-visibility funded projects. He was also a mentor for incoming graduate students in the consulting center, and he led the departmental Paper Club for two years. Furthermore, his dissertation research was high quality work as he independently developed new methods for measuring uncertainty in parameter estimation for complicated spatial-temporal self exciting models.

Congratulations to each of you and thank you for your contributions to the quality and excellence of our department.

09/15/2026

Congratulations to Dr. Joon J. Song on a productive and impactful year of scholarship and collaboration on the international stage!

Dr. Song presented "Bayesian Quantile Regression for Misclassified Binary Data" at the 2026 American Statistical Association Joint Statistical Meetings (JSM) in Boston, Massachusetts, alongside collaborators Mohammad Arshad Rahman, You-Mi Chin, and James Stamey.

He also presented the research poster "Win Ratio Approach of Bayesian Power Priors for Placebo Borrowing in Composite Endpoint Analysis" at the 18th World Meeting of the International Society for Bayesian Analysis (ISBA) in Nagoya, Japan, in collaboration with Yurong Chen, Yingdong Feng, Michael Sonksen, and Tuo Wang.

In addition, Dr. Song's students and research collaborators shared their work at JSM 2026, presenting innovative research in treatment-effect estimation, spatial gene expression analysis, toxicology, and placebo borrowing methodologies:

• Estimation of Treatment-Effect through Prediction of Missing Outcomes using Historical Control Data
• A Pathway-Informed Poisson-Lognormal Model for Detecting Spatially Expressed Genes
• A Thinned Double Poisson Framework for Underdispersed Count Data in Toxicology
• A Propensity Score-Integrated Win Ratio Method for Placebo Borrowing

These presentations highlight the strength of collaborative research and mentorship within Baylor's statistical sciences community. Congratulations to Dr. Song and his students on sharing their important research with the global statistics community!

09/08/2026

Dr. Amanda Hering to Serve As New Chair of the Department of Statistical Science in Arts & Sciences
https://artsandsciences.baylor.edu/news/story/2026/dr-amanda-hering-serve-new-chair-department-statistical-science-arts-sciences

08/19/2026

🎓 Congratulations to our August 2026 Ph.D. graduates! 🎓

Please join us in celebrating the incredible achievements of Emmanuel Sarfo Fosu, Kaylee Pascarella, and Sonish Lamsal on earning their Ph.D. degrees. Your hard work, dedication, and perseverance have led you to this remarkable milestone, and we could not be more proud!

A special congratulations also goes to Derik Boonstra, who is not pictured but shares in this outstanding accomplishment.

We wish each of you continued success as you embark on the next chapter of your journey. Congratulations, Doctors! 👏🎉

08/04/2026

The Department of Statistical Science at Baylor University invites applications for a tenure-track faculty position starting in Fall 2027 at the Assistant Professor rank.

07/31/2026

Dr. James Stamey Named Associate Dean for Research in Arts & Sciences

Dr. James Stamey Named Associate Dean for Research in Arts & Sciences by Randy Fiedler, Baylor University College of Arts & Sciences July 31, 2026 Dr. James Stamey James Brockmole, Ph.D., dean of the Baylor University College of Arts & Sciences, has announced that James Stamey, Ph.D., has been appoi...

07/02/2026

🎉 Congratulations to Our 2025 Editor’s Award Winners! 🎉
We are proud to celebrate Prahl, A., Fraze, K., Kannan, A., Grauzer, J., and Sturdivant, R.X. for receiving the 2025 Editor’s Award from the American Journal of Speech-Language Pathology for their outstanding article:
📖 Functional Reading Activities to Motivate and Empower for Young Adults With Intellectual or Developmental Disabilities: A Randomized Pilot Trial
(American Journal of Speech-Language Pathology, 34(5), 2704–2720)
This recognition is one of the highest honors bestowed by the journal, with selection limited to the most impactful works that exemplify excellence in research design, innovation, and scholarly presentation.
Their study highlights the power of functional reading activities to support motivation, independence, and empowerment for young adults with intellectual and developmental disabilities—a contribution with meaningful implications for both research and clinical practice.
👏 Please join us in congratulating the authors on this remarkable achievement!
🔗 Read the issue: https://pubs.asha.org/doi/10.1044/2025_AJSLP-25-00029

Purpose: Reading proficiency is an important life skill that contributes to improved quality of life and becoming an active member in society. Th...

05/20/2026

The Department of Statistical Science at Baylor University was proud to celebrate these three outstanding Ph.D. graduates this past Saturday! 🎉
Please join us in congratulating Dr. Caleb Fox, Dr. Yu (Bel) Zhang, and Dr. Hunter Privett on this remarkable achievement. Your dedication and hard work have led to this milestone, and we are honored to recognize your success.