Tian Zheng is currently Professor and Department Chair of Statistics at Columbia University. In her research, she develops methods for exploring and understanding patterns in complex data from different application domains such as biology, psychology, climate modeling, etc. Her current projects are in the fields of statistical machine learning, spatiotemporal modeling, and social network analysis. Professor Zheng’s research has been recognized by the 2008 Outstanding Statistical Application Award from the American Statistical Association (ASA), the Mitchell Prize from ISBA, and a Google research award. She became a Fellow of the American Statistical Association in 2014 and a Fellow of the Institute of Mathematical Statistics in 2022. From 2017-2020, she was associate director for education at Columbia Data Science Institute. Professor Zheng is the recipient of the 2017 Columbia Presidential Award for Outstanding Teaching. In 2021, she was recognized with a Lenfest Distinguished Columbia Faculty Award that recognizes the excellence of faculty as teachers and mentors of both undergraduate and graduate students.