T. Tony Cai
Daniel H. Silberberg Professor of Statistics and Data Science
The Wharton School
University of Pennsylvania
At the frontiers of statistics and data science
Tony Cai is the Daniel H. Silberberg Professor and Professor of Statistics and Data Science at Wharton. His research develops statistical foundations for modern data science and AI, with emphasis on differential privacy, federated learning, transfer learning, high-dimensional statistics, large-scale inference, and causal inference. His work combines sharp theory with practical methodology and has influenced statistics, machine learning, genomics, biomedical science, and data-driven scientific discovery.
Academic appointments
- Daniel H. Silberberg Professor and Professor of Statistics and Data Science, The Wharton School
- Professor, Applied Mathematics & Computational Science Graduate Group
- Associate Scholar, Department of Biostatistics, Epidemiology & Informatics, Perelman School of Medicine
Research interests
All papers- Statistical machine learning
- High-dimensional statistics
- Large-scale inference
- Functional data analysis
- Statistical decision theory
- Nonparametric function estimation
- Applications to genomics
- Applications to financial econometrics
Selected honors
Complete biosketch- 2027Wald Memorial Award and Lecture, Institute of Mathematical Statistics
- 2026Leo Breiman Senior Award, American Statistical Association
- 2026Best Paper Award (Gold), International Congress of Chinese Mathematicians
- 2023–26President-elect, President, Past President, Institute of Mathematical Statistics
- 2024Fellow, American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS)
- 2023Noether Distinguished Scholar Award, American Statistical Association
- 2023Frontiers of Science Award, International Congress of Basic Science
- 2021Laplace Lecture of the Bernoulli Society, 10th World Congress in Probability & Statistics
- 2019International Chinese Statistical Association Distinguished Achievement Award
- 2019International Chinese Statistical Association Outstanding Service Award
- 2018Peter Whittle Lecture, Cambridge University
- 2018Best Paper Award, International Congress of Chinese Mathematicians
- 2016–18President-elect, President, Past President, International Chinese Statistical Association
- 2012Hermann Otto Hirschfeld Lectures, Humboldt-Universität zu Berlin
- 2010Forum Lecture, 28th European Meeting of Statisticians
- 2009Medallion Lecture, Institute of Mathematical Statistics
- 2008 COPSS Presidents’ Award, Committee of the Presidents of Statistical Societies (COPSS)
- 2006Fellow, Institute of Mathematical Statistics