The Department of Statistics at UBC announces the appointment of two new tenure-track faculty—Katie Burak and G. Alexi Rodríguez-Arelis.

Both Katie and Alexi will begin their roles as assistant professor of teaching with a primary focus on the Master of Data Science (MDS) program on July 1, 2023.

Get to know our new colleagues

Katie Burak

Katie will take up her appointment on July 1, 2023.

Katie earned her BSc in mathematics from MacEwan University and MSc in statistics from the University of Calgary. She recently completed her PhD in statistics at the University of Alberta, where she focused on increasing the computational efficiency of bootstrapping by approaching it using concentration of measure.

During her PhD, she developed a passion for statistical outreach and promoting women in data science. She has previously organized a variety of outreach events for her community such as data science workshops and hopes to continue doing so at UBC. Additionally, she is interested in investigating modern pedagogical methods and best teaching practices in the field of data science.

G. Alexi Rodríguez-Arelis

Alexi will begin his role on July 1, 2023.

Alexi received a BSc in industrial engineering and a master's degree in applied statistics from Tecnológico de Monterrey. After completing his PhD in statistics at UBC, Alexi continued contributing to the department by teaching as a postdoctoral teaching and learning fellow, jointly with the UBC Master of Data Science (MDS) program.

Alexi’s academic work is mostly focused on computer experiments that emulate scientific and engineering systems via Gaussian stochastic processes. He has developed modelling reformulations that seek to improve output prediction accuracy while relying on dimensional analysis and statistical principles from the first half of the 20th century. He is also incredibly passionate about teaching statistical topics in a data science context while approaching real-life data-related projects for social good.