Faculty Promotions

We are pleased to announce the promotions of several faculty members at the School of Statistics. 

Charles Doss has been promoted to Associate Professor. In recent years, Professor Doss has served as a mentor with the Math Alliance, supporting the study of mathematical sciences by student populations that are typically underrepresented in the field. He has also helped the School of Statistics and the Minnesota Center for Financial and Actuarial Mathematics (MCFAM) to organize Run the World, a machine learning summer day camp for high school juniors and seniors. 

Birgit Grund has been promoted to Full Professor. Professor Grund specializes in design and analysis of clinical trials, AIDS research, nonparametric curve estimation, and smoothing methods. Recently, she has been serving on a National Institutes of Health panel that is responsible for setting treatment guidelines for COVID-19. The panel’s work was recently featured in the New York Times.

Nathaniel Helwig—who shares a joint appointment with the School of Statistics and the Department of Psychology--has been promoted to Associate Professor. Professor Helwig’s research on smiles and facial expressions has been featured in mainstream publications including Science Magazine, Popular Science, The Guardian, and the Daily Mail, among others. Additional areas of focus include alcohol consumption trends, climate science, gait and locomotion, neuroscience (EEG and fMRI), self-esteem, and social media trends.