Two Statisticians Named To Endowed Chairs

“The resources that these chairs will provide to Drs. Mallick and Longnecker will enhance statistics research and education, which will continue to have an extremely positive impact on graduate students and faculty within the Department of Statistics. Both professors have proven track records of excellence and are more than worthy of this tangible acknowledgement of their many contributions and overall standing in the field.” – Valen E. Johnson, Texas A&M statistician

Two Texas A&M University statistics professors have been appointed to endowed chairs within the Department of Statistics, announced Dr. Valen E. Johnson, professor of statistics and head of the department.

Michael Longnecker has been appointed to the George P. Mitchell ’40 Endowed Chair in Statistics, established in 2006 by Mitchell, Texas A&M Class of 1940 and a distinguished petroleum engineering graduate, for the specific purpose of supporting former Dean of Science H. Joseph Newton in his efforts to advance programs within the College of Science for the duration of his tenure as dean and, subsequently, faculty and related programs within the department.

Bani K. Mallick has been appointed as the inaugural holder of the Susan M. Arseven ’75 Chair in Data Science and Computational Statistics, established this past summer by Texas A&M Statistics graduate Ersen Arseven ’74 to honor his late wife and support statistics faculty who are successful in both publishing and attracting funding in the areas of integrating statistical and computational methods for application in diverse areas of science, technology and engineering.

“The department is truly grateful for the opportunity to host the Susan M. Arseven ’75 and George P. Mitchell ’40 endowed chairs,” Johnson said. “The resources that these chairs will provide to Drs. Mallick and Longnecker will enhance statistics research and education, which will continue to have an extremely positive impact on graduate students and faculty within the Department of Statistics. Both professors have proven track records of excellence and are more than worthy of this tangible acknowledgement of their many contributions and overall standing in the field.”