UBC Statistics is pleased to announce that PhD student Parham Pishrobat has been awarded the 2025 Rick White Award.
The Rick White Award recognizes undergraduate and graduate students enrolled in a Statistics program who demonstrate excellence in statistical science through collaboration with investigators in other disciplines on a substantial application.
Congratulations to Yuhan Chu on being awarded the 2026 Lorraine Schwartz Prize.
Yuhan has graduated with a B.Sc., Honours in Mathematics (May 2026) and has been awarded the 2026 Lorraine Schwartz Prize in recognition of her exceptional work in mathematics and probability.
The Lorraine Schwartz Prize is awarded in memory of Dr. Lorraine Schwartz, Assistant Professor in the Department of Mathematics from 1960-1965, her friends and colleagues established this prize in 1966. It is awarded annually for distinctions in the fields of statistics and probability to an undergraduate or graduate student upon the recommendation of the Departments of Mathematics and Statistics.
The Department of Statistics is pleased to announce that Professor Daniel McDonald has been awarded the Statistical Society of Canada’s (SSC) 2026 Lise Manchester Award which recognizes excellence in state-of-the-art statistical work on problems of public interest, carried out within the last five years.
Dr. McDonald is a Professor in the Department of Statistics at the University of British Columbia. His research focuses on understanding and measuring the accuracy of predictive models, particularly when dealing with complex or interconnected data. Dr. McDonald’s work has applications spanning a number of fields, including neuroscience, genetics, economics and epidemiology. He has carried out considerable work analyzing epidemiological data, in particular through his efforts to forecast the spread of respiratory illnesses using complex and large-scale data sources. His research has played a key role in improving how prediction risk is estimated and understood, particularly when it comes to public health.
Professor McDonald has been awarded the 2026 Lise Manchester award for his contributions to the evidence-based prediction of the spread of COVID-19, providing public health officials with reliable forecasts that inform public health decision-making. Since 2020, Professor McDonald has been a core member and co-principal investigator with Carnegie Mellon University’s Delphi Research Group, which focuses on improving the detection, tracking and prediction of epidemics in the US, and a member of the now inactive BC COVID-19 Modelling Group, an independent group which worked on rapid response modelling of the COVID-19 pandemic - particularly in BC and Canada. Through his leadership, he created informative data bases and made them easily accessible to other researchers, and he developed state of the art open-source code. Through a series of publications, he has made available his methodological advancements.
UBC Statistics Department congratulates Professor McDonald on this well-deserved award!
The Lise Manchester Award commemorates the late Dr. Lise Manchester, a respected statistician whose work focused on applied statistical methods. Dr. Manchester held an enduring commitment to providing insights into matters of relevance to society at large. More information about the Lise Manchester Award can be found here: https://ssc.ca/en/award/lise-manchester-award.
UBC Statistics is pleased to announce that undergraduate student Wei Lu has been awarded the 2025-2026 Nash Medal. This annual award recognizes an outstanding student in the BSc Statistics program and honours the significant contributions made to the field by Professor Stanley Nash (1915–2001) during his more than forty years at UBC.
On being awarded the 2025-2026 Nash Medal, Wei Lu shared that the award is “not only a recognition of academic achievement but also a reminder to remain passionate and curious about statistics. I hope to carry forward Professor Nash’s spirit of service and dedication to the statistical community.” Wei also expressed his gratitude to the UBC Statistics Department for the support he received throughout his studies.
We are happy to announce that Wei will be joining the UBC Statistics department as an MSc student in fall 2026.
About Professor Stanley Nash
Professor Nash came to UBC in 1950 just after finishing his Ph.D. in statistics at Berkeley. For a great many years, he was the only statistician on the campus and so established himself as the statistical expert. Professor Nash kept an electrical calculator on his desk and rendered consulting advice and service to generations of students and faculty at UBC. He maintained an active interest in the developments, which eventually led to the creation of the Statistical Society of Canada. For that and his other contributions to the development of the statistical sciences, Professor Nash was awarded an honorary membership in the Statistical Society of Canada in 1987.
Former UBC Statistics PhD student Xiaoting Li has been awarded the 2026 Statistical Society of Canada’s Pierre Robillard Award, which recognizes the best PhD thesis in probability or statistics defended at a Canadian university.
Xiaoting’s thesis titled “Multivariate Extreme Value Inference Based on Tail Expansions of Copulas with Applications to Systemic Risk Analysis” was completed under the supervision of UBC Statistics Professor Harry Joe.
Reflecting on the award, Xioating shared: "It means so much to have my PhD research on copulas and extreme value theory recognized, especially as I finish my studies and transition into the next stage of my academic career. I’ve been incredibly fortunate to work with my supervisor, Professor Harry Joe. His approach to research has profoundly shaped how I view and conduct my work. I hope to carry forward that same spirit in my own research and mentorship."
While completing her PhD at UBC, Xioating was awarded the 2025 Marshall Price for Excellence in Statistics and the Lorraine Schwartz Prize in Probability. She is currently an Assistant Professor in the Department of Statistics at the University of Manitoba.
Congratulations to Dr. Geoff Pleiss and his students on being awarded the AISTATS 2026 Best Student Paper Award.
The paper, “We Still Don’t Understand High-Dimensional Bayesian Optimization,” was authored by Dr. Pleiss, his former research intern Colin Dumont, his current computer science student Donney Fan, and other collaborators.
Dr. Pleiss shared: "This paper was one of the most exciting I’ve ever worked on, and I’m honoured that the community found it impactful as well. I'm especially excited for my trainees who made this project possible through their hard work."
Congratulations to Rachel Lobay on being awarded a 2025 Graduate Teaching Award!
Rachel is currently a PhD Student in the department of Statistics. In addition to this award, she is the recipient of a Killam Graduate Teaching Assistant Award (2025 - 2026) and a Rick White Award (2024 - 2025).
The Graduate Teaching Award recognizes Rachel's commitment to teaching and the positive impact she has had on students.
Congratulations to PhD student Gian Carlo Diluvi on receiving a 2025 Graduate Teaching Assistant Award.
Gian Carlo is currently pursuing his PhD in Statistics at UBC, having previously completed his MSc in Statistics at UBC in 2021.
Since joining the department in 2019, he has contributed extensively as a teaching assistant, and from 2021 to 2024 he has also served as a teaching assistant trainer.
This award recognizes Gian Carlo’s outstanding commitment to teaching and his meaningful impact on student learning.
Congratulations to UBC Statistics PhD student Rachel Lobay on receiving the 2025–2026 Killam Graduate Teaching Assistant Award!
This award highlights the outstanding impact that graduate teaching assistants have on teaching and learning at UBC. Each year, up to nineteen graduate teaching assistants are selected for this honour — this year, Rachel is one of them.
Please join us in celebrating Rachel for this truly well‑earned achievement!
Congratulations to Nikola Surjanovic on being awarded the 2025-2026 Marshall Prize.
Nikola is in his final year at UBC and will be graduating with a PhD in Statistics under the supervision of Dr. Alexandre Bouchard-Côté and Dr. Trevor Campbell. While completing his PhD, Nikola has taken on the role of Applied Scientist II (ML/AI) at Amazon, working on the supply chain optimization Technologies team.
Among his many achievements, Nikola was a core contributor and founding member of the Pigeons software project, which offers assistance with sampling and integration problems. He was also a co-chair and founding member of the Student Committee of the Western North American Region of the International Biometric Society. His academic excellence has been recognized through several distinctions, including the Alexander Graham Bell Canada Graduate Scholarship (Master’s level) from NSERC and the Governor General’s Silver Medal.
The Marshall Prize honours Professor Albert Marshall for his seminal work in the theory of statistical reliability and for his contributions to the development of statistics at UBC. The prize is awarded to an outstanding M.Sc. or Ph.D. student in the Department of Statistics who has demonstrated excellence in the discipline of statistics as demonstrated by strength in the development and application of statistical methodology.
