Michigan State University statistician Frederi Viens is one of a select group of 23 scholars worldwide who have achieved what has been dubbed the Institute of Mathematical Statistics “Annals quadfecta.”

The IMS is one of the main professional organizations for statisticians. It also covers probability theory and applied probability, two mathematical fields at the foundation of statistics. The institute publishes four flagship "Annals" research journals, considered to be top periodicals in each of their respective subfields: the Annals of Probability, the Annals of Statistics, the Annals of Applied Probability and the Annals of Applied Statistics.

Although statistics is a single discipline, its research avenues are varied and highly distinct. Being able to produce work in each one of the four Annals journals is a measure of how broad a statistical scholar's research is and indicates that the scholar produced high quality work in all four directions. The notion of the “Annals quadfecta” came about when a two-person team at the University of Toronto wondered which authors had accomplished the feat of publishing at least one paper in all four of these journals.

Read the full story on the College of Natural Science website.