Chien-Fu Jeff Wu (; born 1949) is a Taiwanese-American statistician. He is the X. Q. Deng Presidential Chair Professorship in the School of Data Science at the Chinese University of Hong Kong, Shenzhen. He is known for his work on the convergence of the EM algorithm, resampling methods such as the bootstrap and jackknife, and industrial statistics, including design of experiments, and robust parameter design (Taguchi methods).
Biography Born in Taiwan, Wu earned a B.S. in mathematics from National Taiwan University in 1971, and a Ph.D. in statistics from the University of California, Berkeley, in 1976. He has been a faculty member at the University of Wisconsin, Madison (1977–1988), the University of Waterloo (1988–1993; GM-NSERC chair in quality and productivity), the University of Michigan (1995–2003; chair of Department of Statistics 1995–98; H.C. Carver professor of statistics, 1997–2003) and the Coca-Cola Chair in Engineering Statistics and Professor in the H. Milton Stewart School of Industrial and Systems Engineering at the Georgia Institute of Technology (2003-2024). He has supervised more than 50 Ph.D. students"Chien-Fu Jeff Wu", Mathematics Genealogy Project, accessed October 11, 2014 https://genealogy.math.ndsu.nodak.edu/id.php?id=34328 and published around 185 peer-reviewed articles and two books."Experiments: Planning, Analysis, and Optimization, 2nd Edition", by C. F. J. Wu and M. S. Hamada, John Wiley & Sons, , accessed April 9, 2012, http://www.wiley.com/WileyCDA/WileyTitle/productCd-0471699462.html"A Modern Theory of Factorial Design", by Rahul Mukerjee and C. F. J. Wu, Springer-Verlag, , accessed April 9, 2012, https://www.springer.com/statistics/statistical+theory+and+methods/book/978-0-387-31991-9
He has received several awards, including the COPSS Presidents' Award in 1987,"Committee of Presidents of Statistical Societies: Presidents' Award: Past Award Recipients," National Institute of Statistical Sciences, accessed April 5, 2012, http://nisla05.niss.org/copss/PastAwardsPresidents.pdf . the Shewhart Medal in 2008,"Shewhart Metal," American Society for Quality, accessed October 10, 2014, http://asq.org/about-asq/awards/shewhart.html . the COPSS R. A. Fisher Lectureship in 2011,"Committee of Presidents of Statistical Societies: Fisher Lecture: Past Award Recipients", National Institute of Statistical Sciences, accessed April 5, 2012, http://nisla05.niss.org/copss/PastAwardsFisher.pdf . and the Deming Lecturer Award in 2012."American Statistical Association Deming Lecturer Award", American Statistical Association, accessed September 25, 2012, http://www.amstat.org/awards/deminglectureraward.cfm . He gave the inaugural Akaike Memorial Lecture in 2016."Akaike Memorial Lecture of The Institute of Statistical Mathematics and the Japan Statistical Society", The Institute of Statistical Mathematics, accessed September 24, 2016, http://www.ism.ac.jp/events/2016/meeting0905e.html. He has been elected as a fellow of the American Statistical Association,"Fellows of the ASA", accessed April 5, 2012 http://www.amstat.org/awards/fellowslist.cfm the Institute of Mathematical Statistics,"IMS Fellows", Institute of Mathematical Statistics, accessed April 5, 2012 http://www.imstat.org/awards/honored_fellows.htm the American Society for Quality and the Institute for Operations Research and the Management Sciences."INFORMS Fellows: Class of 2009", INFORMS online, accessed April 5, 2012 http://www.informs.org/Connect-with-People/Fellows/INFORMS-Fellows-Class-of-20092 In 2000 he was elected as a member of Academia Sinica."Council of Academia Sinica", Academia Sinica, accessed 18 April 2012 http://academicians.sinica.edu.tw/03.php In 2004, he was elected as a member of the National Academy of Engineering."NAE Members: Dr. Chien-Fu Jeff Wu", National Academy of Engineering, accessed, April 8, 2012 http://www.nae.edu/MembersSection/Directory20412/30848.aspx He received the Shewhart Medal of the American Society for Quality"Shewart Medalists", American Society for Quality, accessed April 8, 2012 http://asq.org/about-asq/awards/honors/shewhart.html and an honorary degree from the University of Waterloo in 2008."UW's convocation graduates 4,378 students, awards 10 honorary degrees", news release, University of Waterloo, accessed April 18, 2012 http://newsrelease.uwaterloo.ca/news.php?id=4973 In 2012, Wu won the Wilks Award for Contributions to Statistical Methodologies in Army Research, Development, and Testing.
In 1985, in a lecture given to the Chinese Academy of Sciences in Beijing, he used the term Data Science for the first time as an alternative name for statistics. Later, in November 1997, he gave the inaugural lecture entitled "Statistics = Data Science?" for his appointment to the H. C. Carver Professorship at the University of Michigan. He popularized the term "data science" and advocated that statistics be renamed data science and statisticians data scientists. He also presented his lecture entitled "Statistics = Data Science?" as the first of his 1998 P.C. Mahalanobis Memorial Lectures. These lectures honor Prasanta Chandra Mahalanobis, an Indian scientist and statistician and founder of the Indian Statistical Institute.
In Mile, Yunnan, China, a conference was held in July 2014 celebrating Professor Wu's 65th birthday. In 2014 he gave the Bradley Lecture at the University of Georgia. In 2016 he was the inaugural recipient of the Akaike Memorial Lecture Award. In 2017 Jeff Wu received the George Box Medal from ENBIS. In 2020, Jeff Wu received Georgia Institute of Technology’s highest award given to a faculty member: the Class of 1934 Distinguished Professor Award. In the same year, he also got the Sigma Xi’s Monie A. Ferst Award which, since 1977, has honored science and engineering teachers who have inspired their students to significant research achievements. In 2020 he delivered the CANSSI/Fields Distinguished Lectures Series in Statistical Sciences.
References
External links 数说名师 | 吴建福院士专访——首位提出“数据科学”术语，美国国家工程院院士 (in Chinese) – Exclusive interview with Academician C.F. Jeff Wu, conducted by Lujia Chen and Yuxin Peng, CUHK SDS Publicity, Data Talks – Distinguished Scholars Series, November 21, 2024. Webpage at CUHK(SZ) Interview with Jeff Wu, ICSA Bulletin (pages 36–45) Convergence of the EM algorithm Personal page at Georgia Tech Recognition of Jeff Wu by Academia Sinica