Graduate students Dennis Baidoo and Emmanuel Kubuafor of the University of New Mexico’s Department of Mathematics and Statistics were honored with the Lester R. Curtin Award at the 2025 Joint Statistical Meetings (JSM) in Nashville, Tennessee, the largest gathering of statisticians and data scientists in North America. The award, established in memory of CDC health statistician Lester “Randy” Curtin, supports promising early-career health statisticians by providing funding for conference participation and continuing education. Selected for their outstanding promise and contributions in health statistics, Baidoo and Kubuafor received recognition during the ASA President Prof. Ji-Hyun Lee’s speech and award ceremony at JSM 2025, which ran from August 2–7 under the theme “Statistics, Data Science, and AI Enriching Society” and featured over 600 sessions with more than 6,000 participants.

Link to awards: https://magazine.amstat.org/blog/2025/06/02/awardees/