Statistician Yili Hong named DuPont Young Professor
Yili Hong, assistant professor of statistics in the College of Science, has been named a DuPont Young Professor for 2011.
Hong was one of only 18 such professors named from 11 U.S. universities and six universities around the world.
DuPont awarded $1.3 million to the 2011 class of young professors; each will receive $75,000 over three years. Grants may be used to obtain matching funds through the National Science Foundation or other organizations.
Hong’s areas of research are statistical reliability; industrial statistics; survival analysis, and biostatistics. Research by the class of 2011 Young Professors includes solar energy, biomolecular sciences, polymer science, nanotechnology, entomology, chemistry, chemical engineering, statistics, animal biology, and life sciences.
“The DuPont Young Professor program is a way to identify talented researchers and promising science early in a new professor’s career,” said DuPont Senior Vice President and Chief Science and Technology Officer Douglas Muzyka. “The grants encourage highly original research of value to DuPont while helping the young professors begin their academic research careers.”
Eric Smith, chair of the Department of Statistics said, "The department is very pleased that DuPont has recognized Yili's accomplishments with this award. Yili has already established himself as an excellent teacher and researcher. This award will allow him to continue pioneering research in our department, one of the oldest statistics departments in the country.
The partnership between Yili and DuPont promises to result in significant contributions in the area of industrial and medical reliability and advance Virginia Tech's prominence in industrial and engineering statistics."
DuPont is a science-based products company offering a wide range of innovative services for markets including agriculture and food; building and construction; communications; and transportation.
