UC Berkeley Department of Statistics

Chancellor’s Distinguished Professor Bin Yu recently joined The Genetics Podcast, where she discussed her work with the Ashley group at Stanford, finding epistatic gene-gene interactions using low-signal signed iterative random forests (lo-siRF) to prioritize targets for experimental validation. Listen via the link in our bio. #BerkeleyStats

Professor of the Graduate School Peter Bartlett is one of six Berkeley faculty members recently inducted into the National Academy of Sciences in 2026! Read more via the link in our bio. #BerkeleyStats

Assistant Professors Liberty Hamilton and Alex Huth were recently interviewed by the Berkeley College of Letters and Science. Read the interview via the link in our bio #BerkeleyStats

🎓 The countdown is on! Commencement is just around the corner, and whether you're walking the stage or cheering from the crowd, we can't wait to celebrate the Class of 2026. Two CDSS commencement ceremonies will take place at the Hearst Greek Theatre in Berkeley, honoring students graduating with a Bachelor of Arts degree in Computer Science, Data Science, and Statistics. 🎉 First ceremony: 9 a.m. PT 🎉 Second ceremony: 2 p.m. PT Stay tuned for important updates, event tips and ways to make the big day unforgettable. 💙💛 🔗 More details (link in bio): https://bit.ly/48B0FkI 📸: KLC fotos/Marcus Edwards [Image description: A graduate dressed in a cap and gown smiles with arms outstretched and pointing; UC Berkeley College of Computing, Data Science, and Society logo. Text reads: "Commencement season is here!"] @ucberkeleyofficial | @UCB_EECS | @BerkeleyStatistics

The College of Computing, Data Science, and Society kicked off Cal Day at Haas Pavilion with a welcome ceremony for all CDSS admits, prospective students and their families! 💙💛 Dean Jennifer Chayes, Associate Dean for Students Narges Norouzi, and CDSS staff offered insight into the student experience, highlighted college resources, and discussed opportunities for students to explore computing, data science, and statistics at UC Berkeley. We are thrilled to welcome the next generation of innovators to CDSS this fall. Go Bears! 🐻 📸: KLC fotos/Don Collier [Image description: Slide 1: Collage of Jennifer Chayes; Narges Norouzi; Cal Day attendees seated in Haas Pavilion behind a banner that reads: “Welcome to Berkeley. This is bear territory.” Slide 2: Collage of Cal Day attendees smiling and walking to Haas Pavilion; event attendees seated in Haas Pavilion with a view of the basketball court. Slide 3: Three Cal Day attendees seated in Haas Pavilion listening to the program; Jennifer Chayes and Heidi Green in conversation with attendees on the basketball court.] @ucberkeleyofficial | @UCB_EECS | @BerkeleyStatistics

Professor Yun S. Song and alum Jingyi Jessica Li, PhD. ‘13 have been named as 2026 fellows at the International Society for Computational Biology. Song has joint appointments with Statistics and EECS at Berkeley. His research program integrates artificial intelligence, machine learning, and statistical theory to address complex biological questions. He specializes in engineering robust, scalable computational methods that enhance data accessibility for the biomedical field, while maintaining a dedicated focus on the rigorous analysis and functional interpretation of multi-omic datasets. Jingyi Jessica Li currently has appointments at both the Fred Hutch Cancer Center and the University of Washington. She specializes in developing robust, interpretable statistical frameworks to interrogate complex biological systems. Her research centers on the mechanisms of gene function and regulation, prioritizing methodological rigor to extract meaningful insights from noisy or high-bias datasets while ensuring the reproducibility of her findings. Read more via the link in our bio #BerkeleyStats Li photo via Fred Hutch Cancer Center

Professor Rasmus Nielsen is among the 101st class of Guggenheim Fellows. Chosen through a rigorous application and peer-review process from a pool of nearly 5,000 applicants, the Class of 2026 Guggenheim Fellows was tapped based on both prior career achievement and exceptional promise. Each fellow receives a monetary stipend to pursue independent work at the highest level under “the freest possible conditions.” Read more via the link in our bio. #BerkeleyStats

Michael Jordan will speak at the UC Berkeley College of Computing, Data Science, and Society undergraduate commencement ceremonies on May 22. Jordan is the Pehong Chen Distinguished Professor Emeritus in the Department of Electrical Engineering and Computer Sciences and the Department of Statistics at UC Berkeley. The commencement ceremonies will take place at the Hearst Greek Theatre in Berkeley, honoring students graduating with a Bachelor of Arts degree in Computer Science, Data Science, and Statistics. 🎉 First ceremony: 9:00 a.m. PT 🎉 Second ceremony: 2:00 p.m. PT 🔗 Read more about Jordan’s accomplishments and connections to CDSS (link in bio): https://bit.ly/3OwVL1l [Image description: Michael I. Jordan.] @UCB_EECS | @BerkeleyStatistics | @ucberkeleyofficial

Congrats to Ida Sim, Ahmed Alaa, Irene Chen, Maya Petersen, and Fernando Perez from UCSF & UC Berkeley Computational Precision Health and the Berkeley Institute for Data Science (BIDS), recipients of a Laude Institute Moonshots seed grant in support of Edge Medicine, an initiative to bring intelligent, always-on AI tools to frontline healthcare aimed to improve patients’ everyday lives! Edge Medicine was selected under the program’s Frontline Healthcare domain, which focuses on AI applications to support diagnosis, treatment and patient care. The initiative will receive a $250,000 seed grant to fund six months of focused work toward a fully scoped proposal for a multi-year Moonshot lab and additional funding. Edge Medicine is one of eight projects selected for a seed grant from Laude Institute, a nonprofit that helps university-based computer science researchers bring their breakthroughs out of the lab and into the world. 🔗 Learn more (link in bio): https://bit.ly/48R0Gkq 📸: Brittany Hosea-Small [Image description: Edge Medicine team (left to right): Ahmed Alaa, Irene Chen, Fernando Pérez, Maya Petersen, and Ida Sim. Text reads: “Edge Medicine initiative awarded Laude Moonshots seed grant.”] @BerkeleyStatistics | @ucjointcph | @ucberkeleyofficial | @UCSF

UC Berkeley graduate programs earned high marks in the latest U.S. News & World Report rankings. Berkeley’s graduate programs were ranked: #1 in computer engineering and electrical engineering #2 in statistics #4 in computer science Go Bears! 🐻 🔗 Read more (link in bio): https://bit.ly/41W4j4F [Image description: Group of smiling students in UC Berkeley College of Computing, Data Science, and Society t-shirts under a dark blue layer with the UC Berkeley College of Computing, Data Science, and Society logo at the bottom. Text reads: "Graduate Program Rankings. #1 computer engineering; #1 electrical engineering; #2 statistics; #4 computer science. 2026 U.S. News and World Report."] @ucb_EECS | @BerkeleyStatistics | @ucberkeleyofficial

New Berkeley Statistics Research Digest! In keeping with the longstanding Berkeley tradition, dating back to Neyman and our other founders, we continue to hold a very broad appreciation for what research looks like in statistics --- from applied, to methodological, to theoretical statistics, and even to directions which don't neatly fit into any of these areas, yet aim to advance the frontiers across the computational and data sciences. This research digest features new research from our faculty Fernando Pérez, Liberty Hamilton, Ryan Tibshirani, and Aditya Guntuboyina. Read the Research Digest via the link in our bio. #BerkeleyStats

Assistant Professor Alex Huth was recently quoted in a Nature article about "mind captioning," a non-invasive AI that translates brain activity into descriptive text, accurately detailing what a person is seeing or imagining. By analyzing fMRI scans, the system uses a deep language model to decode complex mental representations into well-structured sentences without requiring surgical implants. This technology holds significant potential for helping individuals with language impairments communicate, and other neuroscientific conditions. Read the article wih the link in our bio.