On June 30, 2026, the Department of Statistics and Data Science at Tsinghua University convened a ceremony to formally appoint Professor Tian Zheng, a prominent statistician from the Department of Statistics at Columbia University, as a Distinguished Visiting Professor. She becomes the third scholar to hold this title in the department, following Professor Howell Tong and Professor Edoardo Airoldi. Professor Zheng' s appointment will infuse new international vitality into the department and further expand the global development trajectory of statistics at Tsinghua.
Professor Tian Zheng is widely recognized for her outstanding contributions to the statistical analysis of network data, relational data, spatio-temporal data, and high-dimensional data. She has published more than 100 peer-reviewed papers in top-tier journals including PNAS, JASA, JMLR, and AoAS, with broad citations and significant academic influence. From 2019 to 2025, she chaired the Department of Statistics at Columbia University, leading the development of major academic platforms and fostering interdisciplinary initiatives, which deepened ties between statistics, computer science, and the life sciences. During her appointment in the Department of Statistics at Tsinghua, she will actively engage in teaching and research, while advancing international collaboration. Her leadership in education, research, and interdisciplinary work will be a driving force for the continued growth of statistics at Tsinghua.
Jun Liu and Songxi Chen presented Tian Zheng with her letter of appointment
Professor Jun Liu, Head of the Department of Statistics and a member of the U.S. National Academy of Sciences, spoke at the ceremony. He noted that Professor Tian Zheng' s joining marked an important step in the department' s internationalization strategy, and expressed the hope that she would fully leverage her academic leadership to help the department achieve more landmark accomplishments in theoretical innovation, methodological breakthroughs, and interdisciplinary applications. Professor Songxi Chen, Dean of Tsinghua University' s Institute for Interdisciplinary Information Sciences and an academician of the Chinese Academy of Sciences, attended the appointment ceremony and, together with Professor Jun Liu, presented Professor Tian Zheng with her appointment letter.
Tian Zheng delivers a keynote lecture to the faculty and students of the department
Following the appointment ceremony, Professor Tian Zheng delivered a keynote lecture to the faculty and students of the Department of Statistics entitled Statistics Beyond Models: Data, Decisions, and Workflow. Drawing on theoretical analysis and concrete examples, Professor Zheng demonstrated that statistical reasoning continues to play a critical role in the complex workflows of the artificial intelligence era. She also shared her perspectives on statistics education in the age of AI, prompting deep reflection and extensive discussion among the faculty and students. After the lecture, Professor Jun Liu and Professor Tian Zheng unveiled Professor Zheng' s nameplate and took a group photograph with several faculty members of the department.
Jun Liu and Tian Zheng jointly unveil the new nameplate
Tian Zheng poses for a group photo with several faculty members of the Department of Statistics
In it's efforts to build a world-class statistics discipline, Tsinghua University' s Department of Statistics and Data Science has consistently regarded internationalization as one of the key drivers of the discipline' s comprehensive development. The appointment of Professor Tian Zheng marks another important milestone in the department' s efforts to attract top international academic talent. As its distinguished visiting professor program continues to grow, the Department of Statistics and Data Science will further expand its exchanges and collaboration with leading academic institutions worldwide, providing sustained momentum for strengthening Tsinghua' s statistics program and enhancing its international influence.
Edited by Minyu Wang, Qiming Liu
Reviewed by Ke Deng, Lin Hou, Lefei Li
