Dan Kirkpatrick, Iowa State University Office of the Vice President for Research
Article reprinted with permission from the Iowa State University Office of the Vice President for Research.
Alicia Carriquiry, Iowa State University President’s Chair in Statistics and director of the Center for Statistics and Applications in Forensic Evidence (CSAFE), has been named a Hagler Fellow. Carriquiry is one of 15 scholars from around the globe who comprise the 2023-24 class of Fellows and Distinguished Lecturers of the Hagler Institute for Advanced Study at Texas A&M University.
Each year the Hagler Institute invites a number of nationally and internationally prominent scholars to pursue advanced studies. The Institute serves all fields of study on the Texas A&M campus, including, but not limited to: medicine; science; architecture; social sciences; business; education; engineering; agriculture; veterinary medicine; law; and public and foreign policy.
Carriquiry said she is honored, and perhaps a bit surprised, to be selected a Hagler Fellow. “While I have some connections with the Statistics department (at Texas A&M), it’s not like I have close friends there,” she said. “There was no personal reason to select me. I was chosen based on my professional accomplishments, so that’s quite meaningful.”
“The list of scholars invited to the Hagler Institute of Advanced Studies is very impressive,” Carriquiry continued. “I’m in awe to be in the company of these individuals. It’s honestly quite humbling and flattering.”
The Hagler Fellowship is just the latest of many national honors and recognitions Carriquiry has received throughout her career. A sampling of these include: elected membership in the National Academy of Medicine; the Florence N. David Award for the Committee of Presidents of Statistical Societies; the Zellner Medal from the International Society for Bayesian Analysis (ISBA); Foundational Lecturer, International Society for Bayesian Analysis; American Statistical Association Founders Award; and fellow of the American Association for the Advancement of Science, the American Statistical Association, the Institute of Mathematical Statistics, and the International Society for Bayesian Analysis.
Collaboration has long been the cornerstone of Carriquiry’s scholarly career. Since 2015, she has served as the director of CSAFE, a multidisciplinary research center committed to applying proven statistical and scientific methods to enhance the accuracy of the analysis and interpretation of forensic evidence. In addition, during her tenure at Iowa State, Carriquiry has applied her expertise in statistics to multidisciplinary research efforts in the areas of human nutrition, bioinformatics, and traffic safety, among others.
The thought of further expanding her network of potential collaborators through her experience as a Hagler Fellow energizes Carriquiry.
“A former colleague from my days working with nutrition researchers recently moved to A&M. I’ve already been in contact. We look forward to rekindling some of the research we used to do and maybe initiating new collaborations,” Carriquiry said. “I’m also excited to meet the other members of this class of fellows. They are all fantastic; they are truly the cream of the crop of their respective disciplines. I hope to be able to bring some to Iowa State to learn more about our university and explore opportunities.”
Serving as a champion for Iowa State is one of Carriquiry’s top priorities for her Hagler Fellow experience.
“It’s sometimes easy to be overlooked when you’re in the middle of the flyover zone,” she said. “There are many excellent things we do here. I want to make sure I’m a good ambassador and bring attention to all the great work that is happening at Iowa State.”
Carriquiry’s other top priorities for the Hagler Fellow experience are to learn and mentor.
“I am taking a number of interesting problems from CSAFE to the institute with the intent of gaining new perspectives and new approaches for addressing these problems,” Carriquiry said. “In my time there, I’ll have the opportunity to work with and mentor students, but I’ll also have some resources that will enable me to bring students or colleagues to A&M. That experience would be vital in helping them build their own professional networks.”
The coming year promises to be even more eventful for Carriquiry. In addition to being named a Hagler fellow, she has been invited to deliver the 2024 James R. Thompson Distinguished Lecture hosted by the Rice University Department of Statistics and the 2024 Stephen and Joyce Fienberg Memorial Lecture in the Statistics Department of Carnegie Mellon University. She will also deliver a Medallion Lecture, one of the flagship lectures sponsored by the Institute of Mathematical Statistics each year.
Carriquiry said she feels incredibly honored to be extended these lecture invitations. “James Thompson was the founding chair of statistics at Rice University. He focused on collaborating with scientists in other disciplines to work on real problems. That has been my career focus as well. I like to work on problems that have a high likelihood of social impact.”
“The Fienberg lecture is extraordinarily significant to me because Stephen Fienberg was one of my mentors throughout my career. He was a dear friend on whom I could always rely for sound professional advice and he opened many doors for me,” she added.
Vice President for Research, Peter Dorhout, said Carriquiry truly embodies the best of Iowa State University as a campus of innovators and collaborators.
“The Hagler Fellow honor and the Thompson and Fienberg lecture invitations Dr. Carriquiry has received are extremely well deserved,” Dorhout said. “These prestigious national recognitions simply reinforce what we at Iowa State have long known: Dr. Carriquiry is a trusted partner in innovation whose work and commitment to excellence are vital in helping us achieve our aspiration to be the university that creates opportunities and forges new frontiers.”
