Chien-Fu Jeff Wu (born 1949) is a Taiwanese-American statistician. He is the Coca-Cola Chair in Engineering Statistics and Professor in the H. Milton Stewart School of Industrial and Systems Engineering at the

Georgia Institute of Technology The Georgia Institute of Technology, commonly referred to as Georgia Tech or, in the state of Georgia, as Tech or The Institute, is a public research university and institute of technology in Atlanta, Georgia. Established in 1885, it is part of ...

. He is known for his work on the convergence of the EM algorithm, resampling methods such as the bootstrap and jackknife, and industrial statistics, including design of experiments, and robust parameter design (

Taguchi methods Taguchi methods ( ja, タグチメソッド) are statistical methods, sometimes called robust design methods, developed by Genichi Taguchi to improve the quality of manufactured goods, and more recently also applied to engineering, biotechnology, ...

Biography

Born in Taiwan, Wu earned a B.S. in Mathematics from National Taiwan University in 1971, and a Ph.D. in Statistics from University of California, Berkeley in 1976. He has been a faculty member at the University of Wisconsin, Madison (1977–1988), the University of Waterloo (1988–1993; GM-NSERC chair in quality and productivity), the University of Michigan (1995–2003; chair of Department of Statistics 1995–98; H.C. Carver professor of statistics, 1997–2003) and currently the Georgia Institute of Technology. He has supervised 50 Ph.D. students and published around 185 peer-reviewed articles and two books. He has received several awards, including the

COPSS Presidents' Award The COPSS Presidents' Award is given annually by the Committee of Presidents of Statistical Societies to a young statistician in recognition of outstanding contributions to the profession of statistics. The COPSS Presidents' Award is generally ...

in 1987, the Shewhart Medal in 2008, the COPSS R. A. Fisher Lectureship in 2011, and the Deming Lecturer Award in 2012."American Statistical Association Deming Lecturer Award", American Statistical Association, accessed September 25, 2012,http://www.amstat.org/awards/deminglectureraward.cfm . He gave the inaugural Akaike Memorial Lecture in 2016."Akaike Memorial Lecture of The Institute of Statistical Mathematics and the Japan Statistical Society", The Institute of Statistical Mathematics, accessed September 24, 2016,http://www.ism.ac.jp/events/2016/meeting0905e.html. He has been elected as a fellow of the American Statistical Association, the Institute of Mathematical Statistics, the American Society for Quality and the Institute for Operations Research and the Management Sciences. In 2000 he was elected as a member of

Academia Sinica Academia Sinica (AS, la, 1=Academia Sinica, 3=Chinese Academy; ), headquartered in Nangang, Taipei, is the national academy of Taiwan. Founded in Nanking, the academy supports research activities in a wide variety of disciplines, ranging from ...

. In 2004, he was elected as a member of the National Academy of Engineering. He received the Shewhart Medal of the American Society for Quality and an honorary degree from the University of Waterloo in 2008. In 1985, in a lecture given to the Chinese Academy of Sciences in Beijing, he used the term

Data Science Data science is an interdisciplinary field that uses scientific methods, processes, algorithms and systems to extract or extrapolate knowledge and insights from noisy, structured and unstructured data, and apply knowledge from data across a br ...

for the first time as an alternative name for statistics. Later, in November 1997, he gave the inaugural lecture entitled "Statistics = Data Science?" for his appointment to the H. C. Carver Professorship at the University of Michigan. He popularized the term "data science" and advocated that statistics be renamed

data science Data science is an interdisciplinary field that uses scientific methods, processes, algorithms and systems to extract or extrapolate knowledge and insights from noisy, structured and unstructured data, and apply knowledge from data across a br ...

and statisticians data scientists. He also presented his lecture entitled "Statistics = Data Science?" as the first of his 1998 P.C. Mahalanobis Memorial Lectures. These lectures honor Prasanta Chandra Mahalanobis, an Indian scientist and statistician and founder of the Indian Statistical Institute. In Mile, Yunnan, China, a conference was held in July 2014 celebrating Professor Wu's 65th birthday. In 2014 he gave the Bradley Lecture at the University of Georgia. In 2016 he was the inaugural recipient of the

Akaike Memorial Lecture Award is a Japanese surname and location name. Akaike may also refer to: * Akaike information criterion statistical formula People *, Japanese statistician *, Japanese politician *, medieval Japanese warlord Places *Akaike, Fukuoka, former town *Akai ...

. In 2017 Jeff Wu received the

George Box Medal The George Box Medal is an insignia of an award named after the statistician George Box. It is awarded annually by the European Network for Business and Industrial Statistics (ENBIS) in recognition of outstanding work in the development and the ap ...

from ENBIS. In 2020, Jeff Wu received Georgia Institute of Technology’s highest award given to a faculty member: the Class of 1934 Distinguished Professor Award. In the same year, he also got the Sigma Xi’s Monie A. Ferst Award which, since 1977, has honored science and engineering teachers who have inspired their students to significant research achievements. In 2020 he delivered the CANSSI/Fields Distinguished Lectures Series in Statistical Sciences.

References

External links

Interview with Jeff Wu, ICSA Bulletin
(pages 36–45)
Convergence of the EM algorithm

Personal page at Georgia Tech

Recognition of Jeff Wu by Academia Sinica
{{DEFAULTSORT:Wu, C. F. Jeff 1949 births Living people American people of Taiwanese descent University of Wisconsin–Madison faculty University of Michigan faculty Academic staff of the University of Waterloo Georgia Tech faculty Fellows of the American Statistical Association Fellows of the Institute for Operations Research and the Management Sciences Members of the United States National Academy of Engineering Members of Academia Sinica Taiwanese statisticians American mathematical statisticians