SMU Department of Statistical Science

Departments
Statistical Science
People

People

Browse faculty by expertise

Faculty
Graduate Students
Administration
Emeriti and Retired faculty
In Memorium

Ronald W. Butler, Ph.D.

C.F. Frensley Professor of Mathematical Sciences

rbutler@smu.edu

Daniel F. Heitjan, Ph.D.

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

dheitjan@smu.edu

Charles South, Ph.D.

Professor of Practice and Director of the SMU Statistical Consulting Center

csouth@smu.edu

Raanju R. Sundararajan

Assistant Professor

rsundararajan@smu.edu

Graduate Students

Name	Email
Biostatistics Ph.D.
Ms. Mary Lena Bleile	mbliele@smu.edu
Ms. Emily Berry	eaberry@smu.edu
Mr. Xiaofei Chen	xiaofeic@smu.edu
Mr. Yunpeng Gao	yunpengg@smu.edu
Ms. Shuang Jiang	shuangi@smu.edu
Ms. Xi Jiang	xij@smu.edu
Ms. Hang Nguyen	hangnguyen@smu.edu
Ms. Jenny Park	jennyp@smu.edu
Ms. Rong Rong	rrong@smu.edu
Ms. Yanqiu Shao	yanqius@smu.edu
Mr. Micah Thornton	mathornton@smu.edu
Ms. Danyi Xiong	dxiong@smu.edu
Mr. Sen Yang	senyang@smu.edu
Mr. Shen Yin	syin@smu.edu

Statistical Science Ph.D.
1st Year
Mr. Jackson Barth	jbarth@smu.edu
Ms. Duwani Katumullage	dkatumullage@smu.edu
Mr. Yifan Lu	yvanl@smu.edu
Mr. Makanjuola Ogunleye	mogunleye@smu.edu
Mr. Chenyu Yang	chenyuy@smu.edu
Mr. Ming Zhang	mingz@smu.edu

2nd Year
Ms. Jinyu Du	jinyud@smu.edu
Ms. Bianca Luedeker	bluedeker@smu.edu
Mr. Louis Vazquez	lcvazquez@smu.edu
Ms. (Lucy) Yiqing Wang	yiqianw@smu.edu

3rd Year
Mr. Yuzhou Chen	yuzhouc@smu.edu
Ms. Jingjing Qu	jingjingq@smu.edu
Ms. Can Xu	canx@smu.edu

4th +
Mr. Heng Chen	hengc@smu.edu
Mr. (Charlie) Zhaoce Liu	haocel@smu.edu
Mr. (Spike) Xiangwen Shang	xiangwens@smu.edu
Ms. Guanshen Wang	guanshenw@smu.edu
Ms. Yang Yu	yuyang@smu.edu
Mr. Jaehyeon Yun	jaehyeony@smu.edu
Ms. Shalima Zalsha	szalsha@smu.edu
Ms. (Jasmine) Xiaojie Zhu	xiaojiez@smu.edu

MASDA Students
1st Year
Mr. Yi-Chien (Jason) Chou	ychou@smu.edu
Mr. Thomas DeLuca	tdeluca@smu.edu
Mr. Hank Dorsey	hdorsey@smu.edu
Mr. Cornelius Du Plessis	cduplessis@smu.edu
Ms. Claire Gillman	cgillman@smu.edu
Ms. (Stella) Shijie Huang	shijieh@smu.edu
Mr. Zhenli Jin	zhenlij@smu.edu
Mr. (David) Jingchen Liang	jingchenl@smu.edu
Mr. (Blake) Zherui Lin	jheuil@smu.edu
Mr. Tim Morales	moralest@smu.edu
Ms. (Penny) Peixin Pan	ppan@smu.edu
Mr. Rob Pruette	rpruette@smu.edu
Ms. (Michelle) Jinghong Wang	jinghong@smu.edu
Mr. Yifei Wang	ywang@smu.edu
Mr. Jordan Wegner	jwegner@smu.edu
Mr. Garrett West	gkwest@smu.edu

2nd Year
Mr. Yifan Ding	yifand@smu.edu
Mr. Won Ha Gonzalez	whgonzalez@smu.edu
Mr. Grey Leonard	greyl@smu.edu
Ms. (Kathy) Xuechen Li	xuechen@smu.edu
Mr. Shen (Owen) Lin	owenl@smu.edu
Ms. Wenquisi (Lydia) Pan	wenqisip@smu.edu
Mr. Zekai Wang	zekaiw@smu.edu

4+1 & Part time
Mr. Jiarui Chen	jiaruic@smu.edu
Mr. Guanqing Chen	quanqinqc@smu.edu
Ms. Sara Cavey	scavey@smu.edu
Mr. Manuel Corona
Mr. Aktan Eminoski	aeminovski@smu.edu
Ms. Alexis Gambino
Ms. Sarah Beth Luckey	sluckey@smu.edu
Ms. (Vivian) Xiaoyingzi Liu	xiaoyingza1@smu.edu
Ms. Caroline Mahaviet	cmhavier@smu.edu
Mr. Matt McMichael
Ms. Yiyao Qian	yiyaoq@smu.edu
Mr. Brian Salerno	brianr@smu.edu
Mr. Nihar Varanasi	nvaranasi@smu.edu
Ms. Yijun Wu
Mr. Yifu Zhang

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
Ginny Diaz, MASDA Program	131 Heroy	214-768-3034	ginnyd@smu.edu

Retired Professors

Alan Elliott

Senior Lecturer and Director of the Consulting Center

Email: acelliott@smu.edu

Professor Emeritus

	Wayne A. Woodward, Ph.D. waynew@smu.edu \| Website \| Faculty Site Professor Texas Tech University, 1974 Research Interests: Time Series, Robust Estimation, Statistical Analysis
	U. Narayan Bhat, Ph.D. nbhat@smu.edu \| Faculty Site Professor Emeritus The University of Western Australia, 1964. Special Recognitions: Fellow ASA and Member ISI.
	Henry L. Gray, Ph.D. hgray@smu.edu \| Faculty Site Professor Emeritus University of Texas (Austin), 1966 Special Recognitions: Fellow ASA
	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, 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

U. 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.

Dr. C.H. Kapadia

It is with great sadness that we write to inform you that Dr. C.H. Kapadia passed 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. We send our heartfelt condolences to the family and friends of Dr. Kapadia.

Alumni

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.

	Wayne A. Woodward, Ph.D. waynew@smu.edu \| Website \| Faculty Site Professor Texas Tech University, 1974 Research Interests: Time Series, Robust Estimation, Statistical Analysis
	U. Narayan Bhat, Ph.D. nbhat@smu.edu \| Faculty Site Professor Emeritus The University of Western Australia, 1964. Special Recognitions: Fellow ASA and Member ISI.
	Henry L. Gray, Ph.D. hgray@smu.edu \| Faculty Site Professor Emeritus University of Texas (Austin), 1966 Special Recognitions: Fellow ASA
	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, 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.

People

Ronald W. Butler, Ph.D.

Jing Cao, Ph.D.

Mahesh Fernando, Ph.D.

Ian Richard Harris, Ph.D.

Daniel F. Heitjan, Ph.D.

Monnie McGee, Ph.D.

Chul Moon

Hon Keung "Tony" Ng, Ph.D.

Stephen Robertson, Ph.D.

Charles South, Ph.D.

S. Lynne Stokes, Ph.D

Raanju R. Sundararajan

Runmin Wang

Xinlei (Sherry) Wang, Ph.D.

Jessica Wickersham

Graduate Students

MASDA Students

Administration

Office Staff

Retired Professors

Alan Elliott

Professor Emeritus

Wayne A. Woodward, Ph.D.

U. Narayan Bhat, Ph.D.

Henry L. Gray, Ph.D.

Richard F. Gunst, Ph.D.

William R. Schucany, Ph.D.

In Memorium