James O. Berger

James O. Berger has distinguished himself as a professor in mathematical statistics.

James O. Berger

He is currently the Arts and Sciences Professor of Statistics at Duke University, living in Durham, N.C.

Born and raised in Minneapolis, Minn., Berger received his bachelor’s, master’s and doctorate degrees, all in mathematics, from Cornell University, finishing in 1974. He came immediately to Purdue in West Lafayette as a faculty member in the Department of Statistics, becoming an associate professor in 1976 and a full professor in 1980 and remaining here until 1997. At that time, he moved to his current position at Duke. He also is director of the Statistical and Applied Mathematical Sciences Institute.

Berger was president of the Institute of Mathematical Statistics from 1995 to 1996, chair of the Section on Bayesian Statistical Science of the American Statistical Association in 1995, and president of the International Society for Bayesian Analysis during 2004. He has been involved with numerous editorial activities, including co-editorship of the Annals of Statistics during the period of 1998-2000, and has organized or participated in the organization of 28 conferences.

Among the awards and honors Berger has received are Guggenheim and Sloan fellowships, the COPSS President's Award in 1985, the Sigma Xi Research Award at Purdue for contribution of the year to science in 1993, election as foreign member of the Spanish Real Academia de Ciencias in 2002, and election to the U.S. National Academy of Sciences in 2003.

Berger's research has primarily been in Bayesian statistics, foundations of statistics, statistical decision theory, simulation, model selection, and various interdisciplinary areas of science and industry. He has supervised 30 Ph.D. dissertations, published more than 140 articles and has written or edited 13 books or special volumes.

He also has presented 259 invited lectures at various universities and organizations as far away as Brussels, Belgium, and Auckland, New Zealand.

Berger has provided consulting expertise on nine occasions for places like Florida Power and Light Company, Ford Motor Company, the National Center for Atmospheric Research and General Motors Corporation.