Tianwen Tony Cai (; born March, 1967) is a Chinese

statistician A statistician is a person who works with Theory, theoretical or applied statistics. The profession exists in both the private sector, private and public sectors. It is common to combine statistical knowledge with expertise in other subjects, a ...

. He is the Daniel H. Silberberg Professor of Statistics and Vice Dean at the

Wharton School of the University of Pennsylvania The Wharton School ( ) is the business school of the University of Pennsylvania, a private Ivy League research university in Philadelphia. Established in 1881 through a donation from Joseph Wharton, a co-founder of Bethlehem Steel, the Wharton ...

. He is also professor of Applied Math & Computational Science Graduate Group, and associate scholar at the Department of Biostatistics, Epidemiology & Informatics, Perelman School of Medicine, University of Pennsylvania. In 2008 Cai received 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 Statistics (from German language, Ger ...

Early life and education

Cai was born in

Rui'an Rui'an is a city in Wenzhou, Zhejiang Province, China. It has a population of 200,000 people and covers a land area of , when including water area. Natives of the city speak the Rui'an dialect of Wu Chinese. Rui'an was recognized as the fourteen ...

Wenzhou Wenzhou; Chinese postal romanization, historically known as Wenchow is a prefecture-level city in China's Zhejiang province. Wenzhou is located at the extreme southeast of Zhejiang, bordering Lishui, Zhejiang, Lishui to the west, Taizhou, Zheji ...

Zhejiang ) , translit_lang1_type2 = , translit_lang1_info2 = ( Hangzhounese) ( Ningbonese) (Wenzhounese) , image_skyline = 玉甑峰全貌 - panoramio.jpg , image_caption = View of the Yandang Mountains , image_map = Zhejiang i ...

, China. In 1986, he graduated from the Department of Mathematics,

Hangzhou University Hangzhou University (HZU; ) was a public university in Hangzhou, Zhejiang, China. The institute was merged into Zhejiang University in 1998. The university was founded as Zhejiang Teachers College () in 1952 by merging the departments of humanit ...

(previous and current Department of Mathematics,

Zhejiang University Zhejiang University (ZJU) is a public university, public research university in Hangzhou, Zhejiang, China. It is affiliated with the Ministry of Education (China), Ministry of Education. The university is part of Project 211, Project 985, and D ...

), at 18 years old. In 1989, he received an M.Sc. from

Shanghai Jiao Tong University Shanghai Jiao Tong University (SJTU) is a public university in Shanghai, China. It is affiliated with the Ministry of Education of the People's Republic of China, Ministry of Education of China. The university is part of Project 211, Project 98 ...

and in 1996, earned a PhD from

Cornell University Cornell University is a Private university, private Ivy League research university based in Ithaca, New York, United States. The university was co-founded by American philanthropist Ezra Cornell and historian and educator Andrew Dickson W ...

Career

Cai was appointed the Dorothy Silberberg Professor at the

from July 1, 2007 to July 31, 2018 and has been the Daniel H. Silberberg Professor at Wharton since August 1, 2018. Cai has been the Vice Dean of the Wharton School since August 1, 2017. Cai's research focuses on high-dimensional statistics, statistical machine learning, large-scale inference, nonparametric function estimation, functional data analysis, and

statistical decision theory Decision theory or the theory of rational choice is a branch of probability, economics, and analytic philosophy that uses expected utility and probability to model how individuals would behave rationally under uncertainty. It differs from the co ...

, and applications to genomics, compressed sensing, chemical identification,

medical imaging Medical imaging is the technique and process of imaging the interior of a body for clinical analysis and medical intervention, as well as visual representation of the function of some organs or tissues (physiology). Medical imaging seeks to revea ...

, and financial engineering. In 2017, Cai was elected to the presidency of International Chinese Statistical Association (ICSA).

Additional affiliations and memberships

Cai was a co-editor of the

Annals of Statistics The ''Annals of Statistics'' is a peer-reviewed statistics journal published by the Institute of Mathematical Statistics. It was started in 1973 as a continuation in part of the '' Annals of Mathematical Statistics (1930)'', which was split into ...

from 2010 to 2012. He has also served on editorial boards of several other journals, including Journal of the American Statistical Association (JASA), Journal of the Royal Statistical Society Series B (JRSSB), '' Statistics Surveys'', ''and Statistica Sinica.''

Honors and awards

* 2009 Medallion Lecturer,

Institute of Mathematical Statistics The Institute of Mathematical Statistics is an international professional and scholarly society devoted to the development, dissemination, and application of statistics and probability. The Institute currently has about 4,000 members in all parts ...

* 2008

* 2006 Fellow, Institute of Mathematical StatisticsIntroducing the 2006 IMS Fellows.
IMS Bulletin, vol. 35, no. 7, August/September 2006, p. 6 Election citation: ''for pioneering contributions to the theory and practice of nonparametric function estimation; for the introduction of innovative blockthresholding schemes; and for important contributions to the theory of adaptive inference''.

Personal life

Cai has four brothers and one sister. His sister Tianxi Cai is the John Rock Professor of Population and Translational Data Sciences in the Department of Biostatistics at the Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health. She is also a professor at Harvard Medical School. His brother Tianwu Michael Cai, majored in

physics Physics is the scientific study of matter, its Elementary particle, fundamental constituents, its motion and behavior through space and time, and the related entities of energy and force. "Physical science is that department of knowledge whi ...

(PhD, Rochester) is a

vice-president A vice president or vice-president, also director in British English, is an officer in government or business who is below the president (chief executive officer) in rank. It can also refer to executive vice presidents, signifying that the vi ...

Goldman Sachs The Goldman Sachs Group, Inc. ( ) is an American multinational investment bank and financial services company. Founded in 1869, Goldman Sachs is headquartered in Lower Manhattan in New York City, with regional headquarters in many internationa ...

. Tony Cai has two children, a son and daughter.

External links

T. Tony Cai's homepage at the Wharton School of University of Pennsylvania

校友蔡天文荣获国际统计学“考普斯”奖 (Zhejiang University (ZJU) news: Alumnus T.Tony Cai wins 2008 COPSS Presidents' Award)

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Cai, T. Tony 1967 births Living people Scientists from Wenzhou Zhejiang University alumni Hangzhou University alumni Cornell University alumni Wharton School of the University of Pennsylvania faculty Shanghai Jiao Tong University alumni Fellows of the Institute of Mathematical Statistics People from Rui'an Chinese statisticians Chinese emigrants to the United States American statisticians Mathematicians from Zhejiang Educators from Wenzhou Purdue University faculty Annals of Statistics editors Mathematical statisticians