Edward J. Wegman received his Ph.D. degrees in mathematical statistics from the University of Iowa in 1968. Subsequently, he spent 10 years on the faculty of the world-class
Department of Statistics at the University of North Carolina. In 1978, Professor Wegman went to the Office of Naval Research (ONR) where he was the Head of the Mathematical Sciences Division. In this role, he had responsibility Navy-wide for basic research programs in applied mathematics, statistics and probability, systems theory, operations research, discrete mathematics, communication theory, and numerical analysis and computational architectures. As part of his duties at the Office of Naval Research, coined the phrase, computational statistics, and developed a high profile research area around this concept. The idea was to focus on techniques and methodologies which could not be achieved without the capabilities
of modern computing resources. This program led to a revolution in contemporary statistical graphics. Dr. Wegman was the original program director of the basic research program in Ultra High Speed Computing at the Strategic Defense Initiative’s Innovative Science and Technology Office (Star Wars Program). As the SDI program officer, Dr. Wegman was responsible for programs in software development tools, highly parallel architectures and optical computing.
Dr. Wegman is the Bernard J. Dunn Professor of Information Technology and Applied Statistics, the Chair of the Data Sciences Program in the School of Computational Sciences, and the Director of the Center for Computational Statistics. He was the founding Chair
of the Department of Applied and Engineering Statistics.
He served as President of the International Association for Statistical Computing. He has published more than 160 papers and eight books. His professional stature has been recognized by his election as Fellow of the American Statistical Association, the American Association for the Advancement of Science, the Washington Academy of Science and the Institute of Mathematical Statistics. In addition he was elected as a Senior Member of IEEE. Dr. Wegman has been elected to membership in the International Statistical Institute. Dr. Wegman has also received numerous Navy awards including the Navy’s Meritorious Civilian Service Medal. Wegman has received the 1990 Distinguished Faculty Award and the 1999
Outstanding Research Award from George Mason University, the 1999 Army Wilks Medal from the U.S. Army, the 2002 Founder’s Award from the American Statistical Association, and the 2004 Distinguished Alumni Achievement Award from the University of Iowa.