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Brad Efron awarded the National Medal of Science

Brad Efron in 2007

The White House announced on Tuesday that Brad has been selected to receive the 2005 National Medal of Science, the nation's highest scientific honor. He was cited "for his contributions to theoretical and applied statistics, especially the bootstrap sampling technique; for his extraordinary geometric insight into nonlinear statistical problems; and for applications in medicine, physics and astronomy."

The official statement added: "The National Medal of Science honors individuals for pioneering scientific research that enhances our understanding of the world and leads to innovations and technologies that give the United States its global economic edge." Having invented the bootstrap method, a general computer-based way of attaching plus-or-minus values to a statistical estimate, Brad's focus on methodologies useful in diverse fields has also helped to make the Department of Statistics at Stanford America's top-ranked department in the discipline.

White House video of the July 27th award ceremony