People

Department of Statistics and Data Science Directory.

Ronald butler

Ronald W. Butler, Ph.D.

C.F. Frensley Professor of Mathematical Sciences

rbutler@smu.edu

Dan heitjan portrait

Daniel F. Heitjan, Ph.D.

Professor, Director of the Biostatistics Program (joint with UTSW) and Chair

dheitjan@smu.edu

Chul moon portrait

Chul Moon

Assistant Professor

chulm@smu.edu

Charles south

Charles South, Ph.D.

Professor of Practice and Director of the SMU Statistical Consulting Center

csouth@smu.edu

Graduate Students

Biostatistics Ph.D.
Mr. Aiden Berry 
Ms. Emily Berry
Ms. Mary Lena Bleile
Ms. Wen Fan
Ms. Xi Jiang
Ms. Hang Nguyen
Ms. Jenny Park
Ms. Caroline Pennington
Ms. Rong Rong
Mr. Artit Taychameekiatchai
Mr. Sen Yang
 
Statistical Science Ph.D.
1st Year 
Mr. Hunter Schuler
Mr. Li Yuan
Mr. Duleepa Sembukutti Liyanage
 
2nd Year
Mr. Yu-Hyeon Jang
Mr. Timothy Stubblefield
Mr. Kaiwen (Kevin) Wang
Mr. Yifei Wang
Mr. Yifei Wang
Ms. Zichang Xiang

Ms. Jingwen Yan

 
3rd Year
Ms. Yaofang Hu
Mr. Zeyu Lu 
Ms. Zifang
 
4th + 
Mr. Yifan Lu
Mr. Chenyu (Devon) Yang
Mr. Ming Zhang 
Ms. Duwani Katumullage
Mr. Jackson Barth
Ms. Jinyu Du
Ms. Bianca Luedeker
Mr. Louis Vazquez 
Ms. Yiqing (Lucy) Wang
Ms. Jingjing Qu 
 

MASDA Students

 

First Year

Mr. (Roy) Myung Hyun Pyo

Mr. Dhakshin Subbauah

Mrs. Allison King

Ms. Nicole Ng

Mr. Will Schneider

 

Second Year

Ms. Yining Tong

Mr. Payton Howard

Ms. Kirstin Pruitt

Ms. Anna Zhu

 

4+1 & Part-Time

Mr. Alex Ramirez

Mr. Billy Yang

Ms. Emily Fashenpour

Ms. Delaney Helgeson

Ms. Sydney Holder

Administration

      Office      Phone      Email     
 Chair      
   Dan Heitjan 142 Heroy  214-768-3062 dheitjan@smu.edu
 Director of Undergraduate Studies                         
    Ian Harris 103 Heroy 214-768-2454 iharris@smu.edu
 Director of Graduate Studies      
   Jing Cao 105 Heroy     214-768-2451 jcao@smu.edu

 

Office Staff

 General Inquiries:      
   Sheila Crain, Department                               144 Heroy           214-768-1426     scrain@smu.edu        

Retired Professors

Alan Elliott

Alan Elliott

Senior Lecturer and Director of the Consulting Center

Email: acelliott@smu.edu 

Professor Emeritus

Wayne Woodward

Wayne A. Woodward, Ph.D.

waynew@smu.edu | Website | Faculty Site

Professor

Texas Tech University, 1974

Research Interests: Time Series, Robust Estimation, Statistical Analysis 

Richard F. Gunst, Ph.D.

rgunst@smu.edu | Website | Faculty Site

Professor

Southern Methodist University, 1972

Research Interests: Regression Analysis, Linear Models, Statistical Analysis, Statistical Methods

William R. Schucany

William R. Schucany, Ph.D.

schucany@smu.edu | Website 

Professor Emeritus

Southern Methodist University, 1970

Special Recognitions: Fellow ASA; Founders Award ASA

Research Interests: Data analysis in biomedical research, gene expression and association studies, rank tests for trend Nonparametric curve estimation, local linear and kernels, adaptive bandwidths, wavelets resampling methodologies including jackknife, bootstrap, and randomization tests analysis of medical imaging data. 

In Memorium

Faculty

Narayan BhatU. Narayan Bhat (1933-2021) 

It is with great sadness that we write to inform you that Dr. U. Narayan Bhat passed away on Saturday, March 13, 2021.  Dr. Bhat served SMU for 38 years, beginning in June 1969 as associate professor, Statistical Science and Operations Research in Dedman College of Humanities & Sciences. He was promoted to full Professor in 1971 and served as department chair in multiple academic areas. Dr. Bhat’s administrative roles include associate dean of the School of Engineering, Vice Provost and Dean of Graduate Studies, Acting Dean and Dean ad interim, Dedman College, and Dean of Research and Graduate Studies. Dr. Bhat authored“Elements of Applied Stochastic Processes”(1972), second edition (1984) and the third edition (2002) which was used for many years as a textbook here for our graduate students in stochastic processes class. He retired in June 2007 as Professor Emeritus of Statistical Science and Operations Research. We send our heartfelt condolences to the family and friends of Dr. Bhat. 

In lieu of flowers, the family requests that gifts be made to the Statistical Science department at Southern Methodist University in Dedman College. To make a gift online, please follow this link. For gifts by check, please make payable to Southern Methodist University and in the memo line add “Statistical Science/Bhat” to ensure that your gift is placed in the appropriate account. Checks can be mailed to:  SMU | Dedman College, Attn: Clayton Ellis, P O Box 750235, Dallas, Texas 75275.

 

Henry Gray

Henry L. Gray, Ph.D. 

Professor Emeritus

University of Texas (Austin), 1966

Special Recognitions: Fellow ASA 

Faculty Site

 

Dr. C.H. Kapadia

It is with great sadness that we write to inform you that Dr. C.H. Kapadiapassed away on Sunday, September 13, 2020.  Dr. Kapadia served SMU for 38 years, beginning in June 1963 as Assistant Professor, Statistics Department at Dedman College of Humanities & Sciences.  In 1965, he became Associate Professor, Full Professor in 1980, served as Chair Ad Interim of the department in 1996, and retired in May 2001 as Professor Emeritus of Statistical Science.  Wesend our heartfelt condolences to the family and friends of Dr. Kapadia.

 

Alumni

Carol Etzel

Carol Etzel passed away on August 19, 2022 at the age of 52 after a battle with cancer.

She graduated from Southern Methodist University with a Ph.D. in Statistics in 1999 and was also an alumnus of Baylor University where she received her Master’s Degree. She began her career at M.D. Anderson, Department of Epidemiology and went on to CorEvitas (formerly Corrona), BioPharma Registry Data in Boston.

She was a woman who encouraged others and fought for the underdog. She should have been a stand-up comedian. She had many, many friends at every institution and employer she was at.

She will be deeply missed by her family, friends and co-workers.


Ranil Samaratunga

Ranil Samaratunga (1972 - 2017) was a native of Sri Lanka. Ranil received his Ph.D. in December 2015 from the Department of Statistical Science at SMU under the direction of Professor Cornelis Potgieter. He came to SMU in 2010 after receiving a Master's degree from Sam Houston State in Hunstville, TX.  His dissertation  "Two New Methods for Estimating the Stability Index of a Stable Distribution," was the first directed by Dr. Potgieter.

Ranil was the husband of Melani Abeyakoon, and the proud father of their two beautiful children. He was a brave and gentle person who will be greatly missed.

 

Jim Hess

Jim Hess (1951 - 2017) of  Carthage Mo., received his B.S. degree in mathematics at University of Missouri, Rolla, and his masters and PhD from the Department of Statistical Science at SMU. After graduating, Jim taught statistics at Kansas State University, was a statistician for E.I. Dupont Co. for 15 years, then moved his family back to Carthage, where he worked for Leggett & Platt for 17 years, retiring in 2012. He volunteered to spend a year with us to revitalize our Consulting Center pro bono. He spent the 2015 calendar year in the department.  The experience he brought to both the Center and to our students through his lectures and mentoring were invaluable.

Jim is survived by his wife Sue, three sons and a daughter, and eight grandchildren.  

Ke Wang

Ke Wang (1978 – 2019) was a native of mainland China. Ke received his Ph.D. in 2012 from the Department of Statistical Science at SMU under the direction of Profession Sherry Wang. His dissertation work, titled “Estimating Cumulative Distribution Functions from JPS Data with Empty Strata and Analyzing High-Throughput Data via Hierarchical Bayesian Spatial Modeling”, led to a publication in Biometrics with Prof. Wang, exhibiting a high-level academic achievement and passion in Statistics. Ke is remembered by his SMU friends for his selfless and dedicated efforts on always helping his classmates succeed in their graduate studies. Ke was the husband of Fang Duan, and the proud father of their son. He was kind, athletic, full of energy, and lived his life with infectious passion. He will be greatly missed.