Jianqing Fan is a world-renowned statistician whose pioneering research has fundamentally reshaped statistical methodology and its applications across finance, economics, and data science. He currently holds the distinguished Frederick L. Moore '18 Professorship of Finance while serving as Professor of Statistics and Professor of Operations Research and Financial Engineering at Princeton University, where he chaired the department from 2012 to 2015. After earning his Ph.D. in Statistics from the University of California at Berkeley in 1989, he held progressive academic appointments at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill from 1989 to 2003, concurrent positions at the University of California at Los Angeles from 1997 to 2000, and served as Professor of Statistics and Chairman at the Chinese University of Hong Kong from 2000 to 2003 before joining Princeton University in 2003. His leadership extended beyond departmental roles as he directed Princeton's Committee of Statistical Studies from 2005 to 2017, establishing the university as a premier center for statistical research and education.
Professor Fan's groundbreaking contributions span high-dimensional statistics, nonparametric modeling, statistical machine learning, and financial econometrics, with theoretical insights consistently translated into practical methodologies that address complex real-world problems. He has authored four highly influential books including Local Polynomial Modeling and Its Applications, Nonlinear Time Series, Elements of Financial Econometrics, and Statistical Foundations of Data Science, while publishing over 300 scholarly articles that have earned him recognition as one of the top 10 most highly-cited mathematical scientists globally. His work on spectral methods for data science, semiparametric modeling, and nonlinear time series analysis has provided essential frameworks for modern data analysis across multiple disciplines, enabling researchers to extract meaningful insights from increasingly complex datasets. The breadth and depth of his methodological innovations have established him as a central figure in the evolution of statistical science into the data-driven era.
His exceptional contributions have been recognized with numerous prestigious awards including the COPSS Presidents' Award in 2000, Morningside Gold Medal for Applied Mathematics in 2007, Guggenheim Fellowship in 2009, Pao-Lu Hsu Prize in 2013, and the Royal Statistical Society's Guy Medal in Silver in 2014, alongside his election as Academician of Academia Sinica in 2012. Professor Fan has significantly shaped his field through leadership roles as President of the Institute of Mathematical Statistics from 2006 to 2009 and President of the International Chinese Statistical Association from 2008 to 2010, while serving on editorial boards of top journals including the Journal of the American Statistical Association, Annals of Statistics, and Econometrica. He continues to direct both the statistics lab and financial econometrics lab at Princeton since 2008, mentoring the next generation of statisticians while advancing research in the mathematics of artificial intelligence. His ongoing work promises to further illuminate pathways for extracting knowledge from complex data structures, cementing his legacy as one of the most influential statisticians of his generation.
