2010 Challis Lecturer Persi Diaconis

Persi Diaconis is the Mary V. Sunseri Professor of Statistics and Mathematics at Stanford University.  Before joining the faculty at Stanford University, he was a professor of mathematics at both Harvard University and Cornell University. He is a MacArthur Fellow and a member of the National Academy of Sciences.  He has received honorary degrees from the University of Chicago, Universite Paul Sabatier (Toulouse), Queen Mary University of London, and Athens (Greece) University of Economics and Business.  He was the IMS Wald Lecturer, the SIAM Von Neumann Lecturer, and the President of IMS. He has supervised more than 40 PhD students. Dr. Diaconis is particularly known for tackling mathematical problems involving randomness and randomization such as coin flipping and shuffling playing cards.  He is a former professional magician.