2017 Distinguished Alumnus Dongchu Sun

Dr. Dongchu Sun

Professor and Chair of Statistics

University of Missouri-Columbia; Columbia, Missouri

Dr. Sun received his PhD from the Department of Statistics in 1991. After briefly working as visiting faculty in the Department of Statistics at the University of Michigan, he joined the faculty in the Department of Statistics at the University of Missouri-Columbia in 1992. Since joining, he has been a leading academic force in the department while teaching numerous classes.

Awards and honors earned by Dr. Sun during his career include the I.W. Burr Award for Outstanding PhD Thesis while attending Purdue, the University of Missouri Chancellors Award for Outstanding Research and Creative Activity in the Physical and Mathematical Sciences, and election as a Fellow of the American Statistical Association and the Institute of Mathematical Statistics.

Dr. Sun’s research has brought more depth to the fields of Bayesian methodology, survey sampling, small area estimation, decision theory, business and econometrics, just to name a few. A recent project for the Statistical and Applied Mathematical Sciences Institute looked at space-time analysis for environmental mapping, epidemiology and climate change.

During his career, Dr. Sun has mentored almost 50 PhD and masters students. The hard work and dedication has earned him his current position as chair of the Department of Statistics at Missouri.

Dr. Sun was presented with the honor of Distinguished Science Alumnus at the College of Science Alumni awards program on Friday, April 7th, 2017.