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50 Years
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BYU Statistics Today

Recent Accomplishments

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Shane Reese appointed new BYU president

In a campus devotional held on March 21, 2023, Elder Jeffery R. Holland announced that C. Shane Reese would be the new president of BYU, succeeding President Kevin J. Worthen and becoming the 14th president of Brigham Young University.

President Reese began his BYU career as an undergraduate student. He graduated from BYU with bachelor's and master's degrees in statistics and went on to receive a doctoral degree in statistics from Texas A&M University. He returned to BYU in 2001 as a new member of the BYU statistics faculty. He served as the dean of the College of Physical and Mathematical Sciences from 2017 to 2019 and then was appointed to be the BYU academic vice president. He served in this capacity until his service as university president officially began on May 1, 2023.
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BYU Statistics Club reinstated in fall 2022


The club is the official student chapter of the American Statistical Association at Brigham Young University. They strive to promote unity within the BYU Statistics Department and foster a lifelong study of statistics. They accomplish this by providing its members additional opportunities to meet other passionate statistics students, improve their knowledge and skills, and achieve professional goals.

For students interested in joining Stats Club, click here for more information.
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2021 recipient of the CAS University Award


This award is the highest recognition given by the Casualty Actuarial Society. It is awarded to only 3-4 schools per year to celebrate the innovative and exemplary ways they are preparing students for careers in property and casualty insurance. Along with recognition for excellence, each recipient school is awarded $5,000 to further their actuarial programs.
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Summer Institute of Applied Statistics resumes after two-year hiatus


Every year, statisticians from around the world are invited to attend the Summer Institute of Applied Statistics to expand their ever-growing knowledge on the subject. In the summer of 2024, the BYU statistics department will be hosting the institute. The event will feature Dr. Chris Wickle from the University of Missouri.
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Statistics department moves to new building


Beginning in 2020, the statistics department moved from the Talmage Building to the new West View Building. The new building offers more lab, meeting, and office space for the statistics students, faculty, and staff.

The West View Building is located where the old faculty office building stood. It is directly west of the Talmage and Joseph F. Smith Buildings. The Department of Statistics shares the building with the College of Family, Home, and Social Sciences' Department of Economics and the Neal A. Maxwell Institute for Religious Scholarship.
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Statistics 121 curriculum revised


Dr. Matthew Heaton received a grant from the College of Physical and Mathematical Sciences to help improve the "Principles of Statistics" class, STAT 121. This class is a requirement for all Statistics majors as well as many other business and communications degrees. As part of the changes, Dr. Heaton and his students developed an R Shiny App that guides students through data analysis processes. It also is designed to help students understand difficult concepts such as Central Limit Theorem. Click here to explore the app!
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New classes offered fall 2023


STAT 220 Stat Modeling for Data Science
STAT 281 Data Visualization
STAT 286 Data Science Ecosystems
STAT 344 Long-term Actuarial Math
STAT 348 Predictive Analytics
STAT 386 Data Science Process
STAT 486 Machine Learning
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BYU Actuarial Science is recognized by the Society of Actuaries as a Center of Excellence

Our Actuarial Science program is a certified SOA Center of Actuarial Excellence (CAE). This is the highest recognition by the SOA, and we are one of only 13 centers in the US. In order to become a Center of Excellence, programs must maintain eight specific requirements related to degree, curriculum, graduate count, faculty composition, graduate quality, appropriate academic integration, connection to industry, and research/scholarship.
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Current Enrollments

424 Undergraduates

25 Master's Students

105 Minors

Degrees Offered

BS Statistics: Statistical Science

BS Statistics: Biostatistics

BS Statistics: Applied Statistics & Analytics

BS Statistics: Data Science

BS Actuarial Science

MS Statistics

Research Highlights

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Statistical Process Control- Using Data to Monitor the Quality of Process Output

Dr. Scott Grimshaw
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Bayesian Model-Based Clustering

Dr. Garritt Page
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Mixture Modeling, Time Series, and Sparse Signal Recovery

Dr. Matthew Heiner
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Computational Health Science

Dr. Shannon Tass
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Developing Intrinsic Data Models for Analysis of Real Word Processes

Dr. Dennis Tolley
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Click here to read more about their research in the most recent edition of the Y-Distribution.

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Current Chair

Dr. David Dahl

In July 2022, David Dahl became the new department chairman of the BYU statistics department. He joined the BYU faculty in 2012 after starting his academic career at Texas A&M University. He received B.S. and M.S. degrees from Brigham Young University and went on to receive a Ph.D. in Statistics at the University of Wisconsin-Madison.

Recent Retirees

Dr. Lynne Nielsen

Dr. Lynne Nielsen retired from the Department of Statistics in July 2022. She taught the introductory statistics course from 2000-2022. She also taught and mentored hundreds of teaching assistants in the statistics department.

Dr. Dennis Eggett

Dr. Dennis Eggett retired from his position as statistics research professor in August 2023. In addition to teaching, he has been the director of the Consulting Center since 1997.

Prof. Pete Dotson

Pete Dotson retired from his position as a staff member of the statistics department in August of 2022. He worked for 22 years as the department's Computer Support Representative (CSR).

Ruth Dauwalder

Ruth Dauwalder retired from her position as the department's administrative manager in November 2019. As part of her staff position, she also had special stewardship over department finances and career services for students.

In Memory of

Dr. Howard Nielsen

Recently Passed Away

Dr. Howard Nielsen was the founder of the BYU statistics department. He began teaching at BYU in 1957 and aided in the department's creation in 1960. After retiring from academia, he began his political career as a congressman representing Utah in the U.S. House of Representatives for four terms. He passed away of natural causes on May 20, 2020, at the age of 95.

For more information about the Statistics department and additional resources, visit their department website!

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