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KAUST Assistant Professor of Statistics Ying Sun won the 2016 Abdel El-Shaarawi Young Researcher (AEYR) Award from the International Environmetrics Society (TIES) in June. The society was founded by El-Shaarawi, an Egyptian-born and Canadian-trained statistician, and the award was established by the board of TIES in 2002 to honor young statisticians who have made excellent contributions to the development of statistical and/or quantitative methods for environmental science research.

Sun received the award on July 18 at the 26th Annual Conference of the International Environmetrics Society in Edinburgh, Scotland, where she also gave a plenary talk.

TIES stated she was given the award for her “outstanding contributions to environmental statistics, in particular in the areas of spatio-temporal statistics, functional data analysis, visualization, and for her distinguished service to the profession.”

“The award is given at most yearly to a single individual below the age of 41,” said Marc Genton, KAUST professor of applied mathematics and computation science and principal investigator of the University’s Spatio-Temporal Statistics & Data Analysis research group. “Usually it is awarded to full or associate professors, and rarely goes to assistant professors except in exceptional cases.”

“Sun’s strong accomplishment reflects the excellent work she is doing at KAUST,” stated Mootaz Elnozahy, dean of the University’s Computer, Electrical and Mathematical Science and Engineering (CEMSE) Division.​

“The award is a significant recognition of my research in environmental statistics at KAUST,” Sun said. “I am very grateful for all the support and guidance I have received.”

- By Caitlin Clark, KAUST News