C.F. Jeff Wu, Coca-Cola Chair in Engineering Statistics and professor in the H. Milton Stewart School of Industrial and Systems Engineering (ISyE), was selected by the Committee of Presidents of Statistical Societies (COPSS) as the recipient of the 2011 COPPS Fisher Lecture Award. 

The Fisher Lecture Award is a prestigious honor, and “a very high recognition of meritorious achievement and scholarship in statistical science and recognizes highly significant impact of statistical methods on scientific investigations.”

Wu delivered the Fisher Lecture, entitled Post-Fisherian Experimentation: From Physical To Virtual, on August 3, 2011 at the Joint Statistical Meetings (JSM) in Miami Beach, Florida.  JSM is the largest gathering of statisticians held in North America and draws more than 6,000 attendees. 

Wu’s research contributions span the full range of statistics, from theory to application, and touch many applied domains, from sample surveys to nanotechnology. They are notable for their combination of novelty, technical strength, and far-reaching vision. He has made especially significant contributions to experimental design.

Wu's honors include membership on the National Academy of Engineering, Member of Academia Sinica, Committee of Presidents of Statistical Societies Presidents Award in 1987, honorary professor at Chinese Academy of Sciences, and an honorary doctor of mathematics at University of Waterloo. He earned his BS in Mathematics from National Taiwan University and a Ph.D. in Statistics from the University of California, Berkeley. Wu joined Georgia Tech in the summer of 2003.

The R.A. Fisher Lectureship was established in 1963 by COPSS to honor both the contributions of Sir Ronald Aylmer Fisher and the work of a present-day statistician for their advancement of statistical theory and applications.  COPSS has required that the Lectureship be awarded each year and that when possible the lecture be presented each year at the Joint Annual Meeting of Societies. 

The purpose of COPSS is to work on shared problems and improve intersociety communication. Possible activities for COPSS include but are not limited to the coordination of the calendar of statistical meetings, the preparation of material to inform students about statistics when they are choosing a profession, the sponsoring of lecture series and prizes, and the production of statistical directories.