Professor Shili Lin was the guest of honor at the conference "Advances in Statistical and Computational Methods for Analysis of Biomedical, Genetic, and Omics Data" on March 17-19, 2023 (fondly referred to as ABGOD2023). The conference, held on the beautiful campus of the University of Texas, Dallas, was organized by OSU Statistics PhD alumns Swati Biswas, Pankaj Choudhary, and Charalampos "Babis" Papachirstou; two other members of the organizing committee were from UT Dallas.
Shili was honored for her outstanding research, teaching, and mentoring. Through her mentoring, and by example, she has helped pave the path for many junior and future scientists/statisticians. Shili has been a tireless advocate for women in statistics and data science through various roles, most notably as the President of the Caucus for Women in Statistics. During her career, Shili has advised 22 PhD students and 4 MS students, has mentored 15 post-doctoral fellows, and is currently advising three PhD students. Many of her former students and post-doctoral fellows attended the conference; they are shown with Shili in the picture above.
Shili’s own dissertation advisor, Professor Elizabeth Thompson, University of Washington, was one of the plenary speakers for the conference. At the conference banquet, Professor Thompson told the story of meeting Shili at the University of Washington and being Shili’s advisor. Several of Shili’s former students spoke about how much Shili had done for them as their advisor. They all mentioned how Shili, along with her husband, James, had welcomed them into their home every year for a picnic/dinner. Shili also spoke during the banquet, sharing her poignant, inspiring, and humorous story of coming from China to the United States for her graduate studies. Her journey included many new experiences, such as seeing and having to ride an escalator for the first time!
Below are some photos from the conference. You may find more photos and information about the conference at https://sites.google.com/view/abgod2023/home?authuser=0. The June 2023 issue of Amstat news includes an article about the conference: "Texas Conference Honors Shili Lin" by Swati Biswa.
Shili walking across the University of Texas, Dallas campus with OSU Statistics PhD alumns and conference organizers, Swati Biswas and Pankaj Choudhary, both of whom are now Full Professors in the Mathematical Sciences Department at the University of Texas, Dallas.
Three academic generations: Swati Biswa was Shili’s advisee, and Shili was Elizabeth Thompson’s advisee.
Shili with former advisee Babis Papachirstou, now an Associate Professor at Rowan University, who was master of ceremonies for the conference banquet.
Shili on the beautiful University of Texas, Dallas, with a random conference attendee.