The SOA President-Elect: Congratulations, Professor Ian Duncan!
Ian Duncan, an adjunct professor in the Department of Statistics and Applied Probability at UC Santa Barbara, has been named the 2025-26 president-elect of the Society of Actuaries (SOA). Tracing its history to 1889, the SOA is the world’s largest professional organization for actuaries, with more than 34,000 members.
Congratulations on IFoA Peter Clark Prize: 2024
Congratulations, Dr. Nahn Hynh and Professor Mike Ludkovski, on receiving the Institute and Faculty of Actuaries (IFoA) Peter Clark Prize 2024!
Also, congratulations, Professors Gareth W. Peters, Mantana Chudtong and Andrea De Gaetano, on receiving the IFoA Peter Clark Prize 2023!
Continue Reading Congratulations on IFoA Peter Clark Prize: 2024
Welcome three outstanding new faculty members
The PSTAT Department is delighted to welcome three outstanding new faculty members—Dr. Annie Qu, Dr. Kathryn Grace, and Dr. Tianyu Zhang—who will be joining us in the 2025–26 academic year.
Meet our new colleagues:
Continue Reading Welcome three outstanding new faculty membersFaculty Research Spotlight Seminar
Abstract: Three faculty members (Alex Franks, Wendy Meiring, Yuedong Wang) will introduce their research projects. This seminar is intended to introduce research directions / projects of some PSTAT faculties and help junior graduate students to find interesting research topics. Therefore, we would highly encourage all junior graduate students to attend the seminar.
Bio of the speakers (from their websites):
Trans-Glasso: A Transfer Learning Approach to Precision Matrix Estimation
Abstract:
Many real-world systems—ranging from gene regulatory interactions in biology to financial asset dependencies—can be represented by networks, whose edges correspond to conditional relationships among variables. These relationships are succinctly captured by the precision matrix of a multivariate distribution. Estimating the precision matrix is thus fundamental to uncovering the underlying network structure. However, this task can be challenging when the available data for the target domain are limited, undermining accurate inference.
Continue Reading Trans-Glasso: A Transfer Learning Approach to Precision Matrix EstimationYuting Ma awarded Runner Up in 2025 Grad Slam Final Round
Second year PSTAT PhD student, Yuting Ma, was awarded 2nd place in the 2025 Grad Slam Final Round. Yuting presented a 3-min lightning talk titled "Will the Lights Stay on: Forecasting Electricity Demand in a Warmer California." The Runner Up finalist is awared a $2000 prize.
Congratulations, Yuting on this incredible accomplishment!
Continue Reading Yuting Ma awarded Runner Up in 2025 Grad Slam Final Round
Longevity science and the Center for Aging and Longevity at UCSB: Potential opportunities for collaboration in aging research
Abstract
Continue Reading Longevity science and the Center for Aging and Longevity at UCSB: Potential opportunities for collaboration in aging research