New Head at UBC Statistics

Professor Nancy Heckman--internationally recognized for her work in non-parametric, or smoothing, regression--has been named head of the UBC Department of Statistics.

Heckman joined the University as an assistant professor in 1984, and earned her PhD at the University of Michigan, Ann Arbor. She has been involved in the Faculty of Science's working climate initiatives, and in efforts to transform the department's largest introductory course as part of the Carl Wieman Science Education Initiative.

"I'm very much looking forward to working with Dr. Heckman to advance statistics at UBC, which includes not only our Department of Statistics, but also statistics groups in the broader UBC community," noted UBC Science Dean Simon Peacock.

A fellow of both the Institute of Mathematical Statistics (2003) and the American Statistical Association (2001), Heckman was elected to the International Statistical Institute in 1999 in recognition of her contributions to the theory of function estimation.

She takes over as head of Statistics from Professor William Welch, who provided five years of excellent leadership to the department.

Heckman was elected to the International Statistical Institute in 1999 in recognition of her contributions to the theory of function estimation.