History OverviewThe Statistics (STAT) program at King Abdullah University of Science and Technology (KAUST) was established in the Fall of 2017 with Prof. Marc Genton as the Founding Chair.Preparation of the STAT Program started with the arrival at KAUST of Prof. Marc Genton in Fall 2012 and the support of Prof. Elmootazbellah Elnozahy as the new Dean at that time of the Computer, Electrical and Mathematical Sciences and Engineering (CEMSE) Division. Statistics first developed as a track in the Applied Mathematics and Computational Science (AMCS) program and only in Fall 2017 became the 4th program of CEMSE. Prof. Ying Sun joined in Summer 2014 and Prof. Raphael Huser in Spring 2015. Later, in Spring 2017, Prof. Haavard Rue and Prof. Hernando Ombao joined as well. Prof. Joaquin Ortega Sanchez and Prof. David Bolin joined in Fall 2019. Prof. Paula Moraga joined in Fall 2020. The core STAT faculty are complemented by affiliated faculty from the three other programs in CEMSE.5 years anniversary of STAT program: history slidesSTAT program Chairs:2023-202x: Prof. Haavard Rue, Chair2020-2022: Prof. Hernando Ombao, Chair2017-2020: Prof. Marc Genton, Founding ChairSTAT core faculty joining KAUST:2020.09.01 Prof. Paula Moraga2019.11.01 Prof. David Bolin2019.08.01 Prof. Joaquin Ortega Sanchez2017.03.24 Prof. Hernando Ombao2017.01.01 Prof. Haavard Rue2015.03.15 Prof. Raphael Huser2014.06.11 Prof. Ying Sun2012.10.16 Prof. Marc GentonThe STAT program "logo" was proposed by Prof. Marc Genton in Fall 2017 and designed by Marta Golemiec. It represents a date palm tree whose branches have the KAUST colors and whose brown trunk is a symmetric boxplot, a key tool for statistics data visualization. On top of the palm, five outliers with different magnitudes have been detected and visualized. The date palm tree represents vitality and growth, whereas the boxplot represents statistics.
