Department Awards

Our Awardees

The Department of Statistics & Data Science presents awards to both Undergraduate and Graduate students each year, near the end of the Spring semester.

Our Spring 2026 Awardees:

Outstanding Qualifiers Performance: Yiqiao Jin

Outstanding AI Award: Jacob Antici and Hangcen Zou

Graduate Service and Leadership Award: Alexandra Sabrio and Hangcen Zou

Graduate Service and Leadership Award, Honorable Mentions: Yiqiao Jin and Yi Luo

Senior Academic Excellence Award in Statistics & Data Science: Peter Peng and Mike Tan

Junior Academic Excellence Award in Statistics & Data Science: Bella Dai, Logan Fox, Grace Lin, Emily Liu, Muqing Niu

High Distinction: Cindy Nan, Stephanie Yang

Distinction: Sarah He, Joshua Romero, Heidi Tamm

Our Fall 2025 Awardees:

Outstanding Master's Student Award in Statistics & Data Science: Yutian Han and Ran Hu

Outstanding Master's Student Award in Statistics & Data Science, Honorable Mentions: Zekai Jin and Zhaoxuan Wang

Our Spring 2025 Awardees:

Senior Academic Excellence Award in Statistics & Data Science: Thomas Li (High Distinction), Thomas Mueller (Distinction), Vedul Palavajjhala (Highest Distinction), Yizhuo (Leah) Qin (High Distinction)

Junior Academic Excellence Award in Statistics & Data Science: Riley Herron, Jimin Lee, Peter Peng, Mike Tan, Brian Wei

Undergraduate Awards

Arts & Sciences’ Department of Statistics and Data Science is proud to present awards for Senior Academic Excellence and Junior Academic Excellence. The recipients are chosen for these awards based on a combination of criteria that included high GPA, completion of an Honors Thesis, high number of upper-level SDS courses, faculty nominations, and service to the department.

We also recognize our Senior students who achieve Academic Distinctions: Distinction, High Distinction, and Highest Distinction. To be eligible for Academic Distinctions, students must maintain a 3.65 or better GPA throughout their education at Washington University and complete a list of required courses with GPA requirements that vary based on which Distinction the student has earned, 3.7 or higher. To achieve High Distinction or Highest Distinction, the student must also complete an Honors Thesis.

Graduate Awards

First presented in Fall 2025, the Department of Statistics & Data Science presents the Outstanding Master's Student Award each Fall semester. This award recognizes strong academic performance and research capabilities, as demonstrated through excellent coursework and significant potential in research projects.

In the Spring 2026 semester, the Department of Statistics & Data Science first presented the awards for Outstanding Assistant in Instruction (AI), Outstanding Qualifiers Performance, and Graduate Service and Leadership (including Honorable Mentions).

The Outstanding Assistant in Instruction Award is given to graduate students who have demonstrated outstanding ability as teachers and have made exceptional contributions to the Statistics and Data Science department by classroom teaching, leading discussion sections, or assisting faculty members with teaching responsibilities. 

The Award for Outstanding Qualifiers Performance is presented to the student who obtained the highest marks in the qualifier exams.

The Graduate Service and Leadership Award recognizes SDS graduate students who during their time at WashU have shown outstanding service to the department, other fellow students, and the statistics profession due to demonstrated leadership roles and/or volunteering and organizational activities.

Winners of our graduate student awards receive a commemorative diploma at our annual Awards Ceremony that takes place in the Spring.