As of June 2025, the Department of Statistics and Data Science (SDS) has become home to over 120 undergraduate majors, with expectations of further growth in the coming years. By Fall 2025, the number of PhD students is projected to approach 30, underscoring the department's robust expansion. This continued growth in both research and education programs will be further enhanced by the arrival of four new Assistant Professors.
Chao Cheng (PhD, Yale School of Public Health) completed his degree in Biostatistics, and his current research focuses on three core areas: causal mediation analysis, quantile causal inference, and measurement error correction. Broadly, his work aims to enhance the robustness and efficiency of associational and causal effect estimation through semiparametric inference. Beyond his methodological expertise, he is also passionate about applying innovative statistical tools to address complex challenges in health science. Reflecting on his new appointment, Cheng shared: “I’m very excited to join the Department of Statistics and Data Science at WashU. I deeply appreciate the department’s commitment to fostering interdisciplinary collaboration and bridging statistics and data science with social, health, and medical sciences. I look forward to working with our students and colleagues to advance the education, dissemination, and development of statistical tools.”
Apratim Dey (PhD, Stanford University) will join the Department of Statistics and Data Science as an Assistant Professor in Fall 2026, following a one-year postdoctoral appointment at Stanford. His research interests include compressed sensing, digital twins, foundational issues in deep learning, and generative model training.
Joe Feldman (PhD, Rice University) comes to WashU from the Department of Statistical Science at Duke University, where he was a Postdoctoral Scholar. His research spans multiple topics in Bayesian statistics, including data privacy, missing data, causal inference, and variable selection in quantile regression. More recently, he has been developing methods for integrating external information explicitly into statistical models, which enables more accurate inferences when data are incomplete or not representative of the population under study. Feldman shared, “I’m excited to be joining a department that promotes the vital role of statistics in the modern landscape of data science. I also can’t wait to work with the talented students and faculty at WashU to advance research and pedagogy on such an important topic.”
Mengxin (Maxine) Yu, (PhD, Princeton University), previously a Postdoctoral Research Fellow in the Department of Statistics and Data Science at the Wharton School, University of Pennsylvania, will join SDS in July. Her research focuses on statistical estimation, inference, and decision-making, with applications spanning social science, machine learning, operations research, and public health. Yu has received several honors for her work, including the IMS New Researcher Travel Award and the ASA Best Student Paper Award. When asked about her move to St. Louis, Yu shared "I found it to be a lovely city—compact, convenient, and easy to get around. The WashU campus is beautiful, and I’m truly excited to join the SDS family. The department has grown rapidly over the past two years and offers many exciting interdisciplinary opportunities across the university. Moreover, the senior faculty in the department are very supportive of junior colleagues... I feel fortunate to have the opportunity to work alongside so many outstanding colleagues and to explore interdisciplinary collaboration."
Cheng, Dey, Feldman, and Yu will join the existing faculty in the Department of Statistics and Data Science. Xuming He, the Kotzubei-Beckmann Distinguished Professor and Inaugural Chair of Statistics and Data Science, shared his enthusiasm for this year’s faculty search: “I am ready to welcome our new faculty to the Danforth campus this summer. We owe our success in faculty recruitment to a dedicated faculty search committee, our highly engaging faculty, staff, and students, and strong support from the school administration. From a deep pool of over 290 applicants for our faculty positions this year, we have successfully recruited some of the brightest young scholars. They will bring their research and passion for cutting-edge interdisciplinary areas in statistics and data science. Their addition will be critical for our department to grow and to fulfill our ambition of becoming a premier statistics department in the nation and the data science hub for WashU.”
To learn more about our faculty, visit our People page.
