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 Systems engineering is an interdisciplinary field of engineering and engineering management that focuses on how to design, integrate, and manage complex systems over their Enterprise life cycle, life cycles. At its core, systems engineering uti ...

at the

Georgia Institute of Technology The Georgia Institute of Technology (commonly referred to as Georgia Tech, GT, and simply Tech or the Institute) is a public university, public research university and Institute of technology (United States), institute of technology in Atlanta, ...

. He is known for his work on the convergence of the

EM algorithm EM, Em or em may refer to: Arts and entertainment Music * Em, the E minor musical scale * Em, the E minor chord * Electronic music, music that employs electronic musical instruments and electronic music technology in its production * Encyclopedia ...

, resampling methods such as the bootstrap and jackknife, and industrial statistics, including

design of experiments The design of experiments (DOE), also known as experiment design or experimental design, is the design of any task that aims to describe and explain the variation of information under conditions that are hypothesized to reflect the variation. ...

, and robust parameter design (

Taguchi methods Taguchi methods () 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, marketing and advertising. ...

Biography

Born in Taiwan, Wu earned a B.S. in mathematics from

National Taiwan University National Taiwan University (NTU; zh, t=國立臺灣大學, poj=Kok-li̍p Tâi-oân Tāi-ha̍k, p=, s=) is a National university, national Public university, public research university in Taipei, Taiwan. Founded in 1928 during Taiwan under J ...

in 1971, and a Ph.D. in statistics from the

University of California, Berkeley The University of California, Berkeley (UC Berkeley, Berkeley, Cal, or California), is a Public university, public Land-grant university, land-grant research university in Berkeley, California, United States. Founded in 1868 and named after t ...

, in 1976. He has been a faculty member at the

University of Wisconsin A university () is an institution of tertiary education and research which awards academic degrees in several academic disciplines. ''University'' is derived from the Latin phrase , which roughly means "community of teachers and scholars". Uni ...

, Madison (1977–1988), the

University of Waterloo The University of Waterloo (UWaterloo, UW, or Waterloo) is a Public university, public research university located in Waterloo, Ontario, Canada. The main campus is on of land adjacent to uptown Waterloo and Waterloo Park. The university also op ...

(1988–1993; GM-NSERC chair in quality and productivity), the

University of Michigan The University of Michigan (U-M, U of M, or Michigan) is a public university, public research university in Ann Arbor, Michigan, United States. Founded in 1817, it is the oldest institution of higher education in the state. The University of Mi ...

(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 Statistics (from German language, Ger ...

in 1987, the

Shewhart Medal The Shewhart Medal, named in honour of Walter A. Shewhart, is awarded annually by the American Society for Quality for ''...outstanding technical leadership in the field of modern quality control, especially through the development to its theory, ...

in 2008, the COPSS

R. A. Fisher Lectureship The COPSS Distinguished Achievement Award and Lectureship (formerly known as R. A. Fisher Award and Lectureship) is a very high recognition of achievement and scholarship in statistical science that recognizes the highly significant impact of stati ...

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 American Statistical Association (ASA) is the main professional organization for statisticians and related professionals in the United States. It was founded in Boston, Massachusetts, on November 27, 1839, and is the second-oldest continuous ...

, the

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 ...

, the

American Society for Quality The American Society for Quality (ASQ), formerly the American Society for Quality Control (ASQC), is a society of quality professionals, with more than 30,000 members, in more than 140 countries. History ASQC was established on 16 February ...

and the

Institute for Operations Research and the Management Sciences The Institute for Operations Research and the Management Sciences (INFORMS) is an international society for practitioners in the fields of operations research Operations research () (U.S. Air Force Specialty Code: Operations Analysis), often s ...

. In 2000 he was elected as a member of

Academia Sinica Academia Sinica (AS, ; zh, t=中央研究院) is the national academy of the Taiwan, Republic of China. It is headquartered in Nangang District, Taipei, Nangang, Taipei. Founded in Nanjing, the academy supports research activities in mathemat ...

. In 2004, he was elected as a member of the

National Academy of Engineering The National Academy of Engineering (NAE) is an American Nonprofit organization, nonprofit, NGO, non-governmental organization. It is part of the National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine (NASEM), along with the National Academ ...

. He received the

of the American Society for Quality and an honorary degree from the

in 2008. In 1985, in a lecture given to the

Chinese Academy of Sciences The Chinese Academy of Sciences (CAS; ) is the national academy for natural sciences and the highest consultancy for science and technology of the People's Republic of China. It is the world's largest research organization, with 106 research i ...

in Beijing, he used the term

Data Science Data science is an interdisciplinary academic field that uses statistics, scientific computing, scientific methods, processing, scientific visualization, algorithms and systems to extract or extrapolate knowledge from potentially noisy, stru ...

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 academic field that uses statistics, scientific computing, scientific methods, processing, scientific visualization, algorithms and systems to extract or extrapolate knowledge from potentially noisy, stru ...

and statisticians

data scientists Data science is an interdisciplinary academic field that uses statistics, scientific computing, scientific methods, processing, scientific visualization, algorithms and systems to extract or extrapolate knowledge from potentially noisy, structu ...

. 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 Prasanta Chandra Mahalanobis OBE, FNA, FASc, FRS (29 June 1893 – 28 June 1972) was an Indian scientist and statistician. He is best remembered for the Mahalanobis distance, a statistical measure, and for being one of the members of the fi ...

, an Indian scientist and statistician and founder of the

Indian Statistical Institute The Indian Statistical Institute (ISI) is a public research university headquartered in Kolkata, India with centers in New Delhi, Bengaluru, Chennai and Tezpur. It was declared an Institute of National Importance by the Government of India und ...

. 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 The University of Georgia (UGA or Georgia) is a Public university, public Land-grant university, land-grant research university with its main campus in Athens, Georgia, United States. Chartered in 1785, it is the oldest public university in th ...

. In 2016 he was the inaugural recipient of the Akaike Memorial Lecture Award. In 2017 Jeff Wu received the George Box Medal 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 Sigma Xi, The Scientific Research Honor Society () is an international non-profit honor society for scientists and engineers. Sigma Xi was founded at Cornell University by a faculty member and graduate students in 1886 and is one of the oldest ...

’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