Li receives Institute of Mathematical Statistics’ 2024 Carver Medal

Runze Li, Eberly Family Chair Professor in Statistics, has been selected to receive the Harry C. Carver Medal from the Institute of Mathematical Statistics.

The Harry C. Carver Medal is awarded annually to members of the IMS for their exceptional service. The award was created in 2002 to honor Harry C. Carver, the founding editor of the journal Annals of Mathematical Statistics and one of the founders of the IMS.

Li received the award for his guidance to the journal Annals of Statistics’ editorial board as the co-editor and then editor during a long period of difficult times due to unexpected circumstances. He has also contributed as program chair of joint meetings of the IMS and several different Pacific Rim statistical associations.

Li’s previous honors and awards include the NSF Career Award in 2004. In 2012, he received the United Nations' World Meteorological Organization Gerbier-Mumm International Award. He is a fellow of IMS, ASA, and AAAS. He was co-editor of the journal Annals of Statistics and served as associate editor of Annals of Statistics and the journal Statistica Sinica. He currently serves as associate editor of the Journal of the American Statistical Association and the Journal of Multivariate Analysis. Li was also honored with the Penn State Eberly College of Science’s Distinguished Mentoring Award in 2023.

Before joining the faculty at Penn State, Li earned a doctoral degree in statistics at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill in 2000. He joined the faculty at Penn State in 2000 and was promoted to associate professor in 2005 and to professor in 2008. He served as the chair of Penn State’s graduate program in statistics from 2007 to 2012, was named distinguished professor of statistics in 2012, and was named Verne M. Willaman Professor of Statistics in 2014. Since 2018, he has been the Eberly Family Chair Professor of Statistics.