A huge congratulations to our MSc students who have won Winton Prizes this year!

Winner of the Winton Prize for Academic Excellence in MSc Data Science and Joint Winner of the Winton Prize for Best Dissertation in MSc Data Science

Michailia Panagiotidi, MSc Data Science 

Winner of the Winton Prize for Best Dissertation in MSc Statistics and Winner of the Royal Statistical Society Prize for Best Graduate from an Accredited MSc Programme 

Sahra Ghalebikesabi, MSc Statistics (Research) 

Sahra told the Department of Statistics that 'I extend my most sincere thanks to Winton for making the award possible. I would have not succeeded without the support of my friends and family and the great supervision by Milan Vojnovic. The months of research I put in writing the dissertation have encouraged me to pursue a PhD in Statistics at the University of Oxford.'

Joint Winner of the Winton Prize for Best Dissertation in MSc Data Science

Jurriaan Parie, MSc Data Science 

Winner of the Winton Prize for Academic Excellence in MSc Statistics

Joel Teo, MSc Statistics (please note that Joel is on the 9 month programme, so he graduated in summer but we only decide the winners after we have the results from the 12 month programme later in the year) 

Professor Chris Skinner was interviewed by the International Statistical Review and he reflects on his career as a statistician. There are wonderful moments in the interview such as when he received his CBE from the Queen at Windsor Castle in 2010. The full interview can be found in the International Statistical Review.   

Please note that this article is only available to institutions that subscribe to the Wiley’s Online Library. 

Huge congratulations to all of our Excellence in Education Award winners! We are very proud of what fantastic educators you are! James Abdey, Beatrice Acciaio, Yining Chen, Angelos Dassios, Clifford Lam, Gelly Mitrodima and George Tzougas all received this award at the Excellence in Education Awards ceremomy at the Shaw Library on 21st November 2019. More information can be found here - http://bit.ly/ExcellenceinEducation19

Designed to support the School’s aspiration of creating ‘a culture where excellence in teaching is valued and rewarded on a level with excellence in research’, the Excellence in Education Awards are made, on the recommendations of Heads of Department, to staff who have demonstrated outstanding teaching contribution and educational leadership in their departments.

Dr Clifford Lam reflects on his experience of being an educator at LSE below.  

Dr Lam was asked - When thinking about your students, what are some of the important things you would like them to learn during their time at our School?  

His answer was - To build up the best foundation possible from their time in LSE, so as to be able to think and learn independently.

A huge congratulations to our Undergraduate and MSc Prize Winners for summer 2019! 

Winner of the Cyril Offord Prize for outstanding BSc performance

Nicolo Grometto 

Winner of the Winton Capital Prize for academic excellence in Statistics with Financial Applications

and the Farr Prize for best performance in final BSc examinations

Natalia Hong

Winner of the Winton Capital Prize  academic excellence in Statistics with Financial Applications 

and the IMA Prize For Outstanding Performance in the Final Year of an Institute of Mathematics and its Applications approved course

Garrick Wan

Winner of the Ranjesh Bhansali Prize for Overall Performance by an Quantitative Methods for Risk Mangement student

Zezhun Chen 

Congratulations to Professor Fiona Steele OBE FBA, who received an honorary DSc degree from the University of Aberdeen. 

Professor Steele, Deputy Head of Department, is an eminent statistician whose principal interests are in methodological research, with applications in demography, education, family psychology and health. 

The honorary degree recognised Professor Steele's achievements and distinction in social science. 

Watch the degree conferment and interview with Prof. Steele. 

Photo credit: University of Aberdeen

We are delighted to announce that Dr Tzougas' research paper, which was produced following last year's internship, has been accepted for publication. Two students Waqar Mustaqeem and Woo Hi Yik, along with Dr George Tzougas produced the paper. 

In particular, it has been accepted for publication by the internationally recognised academic journal Annals of Actuarial Science, that is published by the Institute and Faculty of Actuaries in the UK as part of its objective to advance all matters relevant to Actuarial Science.

Information regarding the summer 2019 Research Internship Scheme will be available soon.

We are delighted that Professor Irini Moustaki has been elected the new President of the Psychometric Society, for the 2020-2021 term.  Irini will also serve on the Society’s Executive Committee for three years.

The Psychometric Society was founded in 1935. The society is devoted to the advancement of quantitative measurement practices in psychology, education and the social sciences. 

Irini Moustaki was Editor-in-Chief for the Journal Psychometrika from November 2014 to December 2018.  

Congratulations to colleagues in the Department for being nominated in the Values in Practice Awards 2018/19. The award recognises colleagues who have shown outstanding commitment and made a significant contribution to the School over the past year. 

A huge well done to colleagues for nominations in the following categories 

• Sarah Mcmanus - Student Experience Ambassador 

• Penny Montague - Exceptional Team Member

• PSS Team - Team of the Year

Congratulations to all of our MSc graduates! A huge well done to the Winton Prize winners -

• Kaifang Zhou for Best Dissertation in MSc Statistics! 

  Kaifang said: 

  "It was a great honor for me to win the Winton Prize for the Best Dissertation. Firstly, I would like to express my deepest appreciation to my supervisor, Professor Milan Vojnovic ́, who spent a lot of his precious time in guiding me to write this dissertation. Without his guidance and dedication I would not have finished this dissertation and won the Winton Prize. Secondly, I would also like to thank Doctor Se-Young Yun for his insightful discussions. Thirdly, I would also like to thank my family and friends, especially my parents and grandparents, who despite my busy schedule with this dissertation constantly supported me through this journey. Last but not least, I always consider myself lucky to be a part of Department of Statistics at LSE throughout my undergraduate and MSc studies, I love this department with many reasons. Therefore, I would like to take this opportunity to thank Department of Statistics and Winton Capital for providing me with this unforgettable experience, which will give me huge confidence to continue my PhD studies at LSE."

• Shuhan Yang for Academic Excellence in MSc Statistics!

  Shuhan said: 

  "It is my great honour to receive the Winton Prize for Academic Excellence. I would like to show my thanks to Winton for giving me this honour and to all the department staff for offering us a productive study environment. Also, I would like to express my appreciation to all my lecturers for the well-organized courses and attractive teaching styles that have broadened my horizon on financial statistics and aroused my curiosity to further study the time series. I am now planning to apply for a PhD"

• Kevin Beck Hwai Boon for being jointly awarded the Best Dissertation in MSc Data Science

• Luis Alonso Ma Takeshita for being jointly awarded the Best Dissertation in MSc Data Science. 

  Luis Alonso said: "I would like to thank both Winton and all department members for this great honour. Particularly, I would like to extend my thanks to my supervisors, Dr. Yining Chen and Dr. Xinghao Qiao for their continuous support and guidance. I greatly enjoyed this past year and am very pleased with the solid foundation in Data Science, theoretical and practical, that I received and has undoubtedly contributed deeply to my career development."

   At the moment, I'm working as Senior Data Scientist at the Analytics department from BCP (the largest bank in Peru)."

• Yihuang Gu for being jointly awarded the Best Dissertation in MSc Data Science. 

• Zhiyu Liu for Academic Excellence in MSc Data Science

  Zhiyu said: “It is my great honour to be awarded the Winton Prize for Academic Excellence. I would like to take this opportunity to thank the department for their immense support. I would also like to express my sincerest appreciation to Winton for giving me this honor. During the past one year, I was introduced to advanced statistical methods, hands-on programming exercises and cutting-edge researches. I really enjoy my time at LSE.”

  In terms of what I’ll be doing after my graduate, I plan to work as a data analyst in the Internet industry. Luckily, I have received several offers from companies in China but I haven’t yet made the final decision of which to join."

The Royal Statistical Society announced that Professor Jouni Kuha is the new Joint Editor of Series A of the journals. 

Prof. Kuha's methodological research focuses on latent variable modelling, analysis of survey data, problems with measurement error and missing data, and other areas that are motivated by applications of statistics in the social sciences. Jouni's has also been a mmember of the Government Statistical Service Methodology Advisory Committee and the analysis team of the exit poll for UK general elections. 

Jouni was a member of the Series C editorial panel (2009–2012), and the Social Statistics Section’s committee (2006 2012, as chair in 2010–2012).

A huge congratulations to Karim Senouni for winning the Sir Worcester Prize for Exceptional Academic Performance! This is a part of  LSE100, which is the flagship interdisciplinary course for undergraduate students. 

Karim pictured (far right) with fellow prize winners

Karim - "It's great to be recognised for my work on LSE100 by receiving this prestigious award.  I found the course extremely refreshing and beneficial for developing new skills, even gaining an interest in Game Theory which I have taken up in my third year. I'd personally stress the importance of persistence and curiosity as the key determinant of success, in both LSE100 and beyond! In my oinion, there are very few things that can stand in the way of a can-do attitude and a strong focus on what output you want to be associated with." 

Congratulations to Pauline Barrieu winner of the prestigious Louis Bachelier Prize, in recognition for her contributions to the fields of pricing, risk management and insurance.

Pictured with Jean Cheval, Senior Adviser, and Michel Crouhy,  President of the Foundation Natixis. Professor Barrieu is the current Head of Department for the Department of Statistics, and Co-Director for the Centre for the Analysis of Time Series.

Professor Barrieu - "I feel extremely honoured to receive this award from such a distinguished jury and to join a prestigious list of recipients. Throughout my career, I have been very privileged to have met many researchers from different areas, happy to collaborate and share ideas. I am grateful to work at the intersection of fields and just enjoy learning to understand how things work, to live research as a human experience and as an exchange."