The University of Alberta is happy to welcome four new colleagues to their statistics group.

Yafei Wang (Tenure-Track Assistant Professor)

Yafei joined the University of Alberta as an assistant professor on July 1, 2023. Yafei received her PhD in statistics from the Beijing University of Technology. Prior to joining the University of Alberta, Yafei was a postdoctoral researcher at the University of Alberta (Nov 2019–Oct 2022) and worked as a lecturer at the University of Essex (Nov 2022–Jun 2023).

Yafei's academic work is mainly related to complex and structured massive data analysis, specifically the development of methods for robust estimation, optimal design, hypothesis testing for functional data analysis and its application to brain imaging data analysis, and stochastic optimization with an initial focus on the algorithmic and theoretical foundations for solving data-driven decision problems with convex objectives. She is also interested in the investigation of the statistical inference of reinforcement learning while opening up the "black box" for understanding and interoperability.

Wenlu (Lucy) Tang (Max Wyman Assistant Professor)

Lucy holds a PhD in statistics from the Chinese University of Hong Kong and a BSc in mathematics and economics from Sichuan University in China. Prior to joining us, she served as a research assistant professor at Hong Kong Polytechnic University.

Lucy's research interests lie in the areas of high-dimensional data analysis, statistical machine learning, semi-parametric inference, and biostatistics. Her work centres on the analysis of heterogeneous and imbalanced data, and she is keen to share and explore new statistical methods in the future. In addition to her research pursuits, Lucy is also passionate about teaching statistical topics in a data science context while working on real-life data-related projects for social good.

Sharandeep Pandher (Assistant Lecturer)

Sharandeep received his MSc in mathematics from Guru Nanak Dev University and his first PhD in optimization techniques from Punjabi University Patiala. He recently completed his second PhD in statistics at the University of Regina.

Sharandeep's research work is mostly focused on time series with statistical inference using a shrinkage estimation strategy. He developed the model specification, parameter estimation, and simulation study for linear regression and generalized linear model with time series models. The usefulness of new development implemented on data sets S&P 500 return index and clinical trials.

Andy McCormack (Tenure-Track Assistant Professor)

Andy completed his BSc in mathematics at the University of Toronto. Subsequently, he completed his PhD in statistics at Duke University under the supervision of Peter Hoff. Andy is currently working as a postdoctoral researcher at the Technical University of Munich, where he will join the faculty at the University of Alberta in 2024.

A focus of Andy's research is on wrangling complex data, such as tensor and manifold-valued data. Ideas from geometry are utilized in his work to provide new insights into the structure of data. He also enjoys thinking about foundational questions in statistics, and what implications that these questions have for decision-making in science and society.