CAREER GUIDE
Age: 28
Title: Assistant
Professor of Statistics
Employer:
University of
California, Berkeley
Alma Mater:
Indian Statistical
Institute, Calcutta
What do you hate most about
your profession?
A pessimistic feeling that the honesty and thorough-
ness mentioned in the answer to the previous ques-
Research Interests:
tion is slowly being replaced by other, less sustain-
Probability theory, theoretical statistics, statistical
able ideals borrowed from other, younger disciplines.
physics. I am more comfortable with theoretical
issues, rather than applied ones. Mathematically,
What was the best career advice you
I’m better at analytical thinking than combinato-
were given?
rics. Currently, I’m working on a number of top-
“Everyone is insecure. If you don’t feel insecure,
ics in probability, including spin glasses, random
look at Gauss, and you will.” — From my adviser,
matrices, and concentration of measure.
Persi Diaconis
Name a statistician you admire and
What is one web site/blog you
tell us why.
can’t go a day without visiting?
Charles Stein. I have very little understanding or
Wikipedia. It’s addictive.
intuition about applied statistics, and how can I
idolize someone whose work I cannot understand
What is something your friends would be
at a deep level? So that precludes applied statisti-
surprised to learn about you?
cians. If I have to choose a theoretical statistician,
I have only a few friends, and they know almost
Charles Stein’s name is the first that comes to mind.
everything that there is to know about me. So, no
First, because I am more familiar with his work
big surprises. Still, here’s a small one: When I was
than that of other towering figures in theoreti-
young, I used to spend hours and hours trying to
cal statistics. Second, because his work is extraor-
figure out how to spin a cricket ball. Never played
dinarily deep and beautiful. Whether it had any
cricket, though.
significant impact on data analysis is a moot point.
What do you love most about
your profession?
A degree of honesty and thoroughness unmatched
by almost any other branch of the applied math-
ematical sciences. I think that’s part of our legacy,
and I hope we don’t lose that.
52 AMSTAT NEWS SEPTEMBER 2008
SEPTEMBER AMSTAT FINAL.indd 52 8/20/08 2:27:06 PM
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