Bo Li was installed as the Stanley A. Sawyer Professor on Tuesday, April 21, 2026.  

The program included a welcome by Feng Sheng Hu, the Richard G. Engelsmann Dean of Arts & Sciences and Lucille P. Markey Distinguished Professor, and remarks from Xuming He, the chair of the Department of Statistics and Data Science and Kotzubei-Beckmann Distinguished Professor. Hu performed the installation and medallion presentation. 

In her remarks, entitled “Sailing to Statistics, Climate, and Health,” Li showcased milestones in her academic and professional journey, which began with degrees in naval engineering in Shanghai and eventually shifted into the field of statistics.  She earned her PhD in statistics from Texas A&M University and completed her postdoctoral training at the National Center for Atmospheric Research. She began her academic career at Purdue University in 2008 before joining the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign in 2013. At Illinois, she held the Marjorie Roberts Professorship and served as chair of the department of statistics. Her groundbreaking research has applications in climatology, public health, environmental sciences, and more.

Li joined WashU’s faculty in 2024 as part of the rapidly growing statistics and data science department and is co-director of the Transdisciplinary Institute in Applied Data Sciences, or TRIADS.

She thanked her family, students, colleagues, and advisers, including chairman He.

“We have the best possible inaugural department chair,” she said.  “I’m very grateful to have the opportunity to join the interdisciplinary research teams at WashU.”

Dean Hu called Li a distinguished scholar “who is world renowned when it comes to her reputation in the statistical community.”

About Bo Li

Bo Li is the Stanley A. Sawyer Professor at WashU in St. Louis, where she also serves as co-director of the Transdisciplinary Institute in Applied Data Sciences (TRIADS), a signature initiative of Arts & Sciences.

Li earned her PhD in Statistics from Texas A&M University and completed her postdoctoral training at the National Center for Atmospheric Research. She began her academic career at Purdue University in 2008 before joining the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign in 2013. There, she held the Marjorie Roberts Professorship and served as chair of the department of statistics. In addition, she was recognized with several prestigious appointments, including those of Richard and Margaret Romano Professorial Scholar, Office of Risk Management & Insurance Research Faculty Scholar, and Data Science Founder Professorial Scholar. Li joined WashU in 2024.

Her research focuses on spatial and spatiotemporal statistics with applications to environmental sciences, including climatology, atmospheric science, public health, forestry, and agriculture. Her contributions have earned her notable recognition, including the Young Investigator Award and Distinguished Achievement Award from the American Statistical Association (ASA) Section on Statistics and the Environment. She is an elected fellow of the ASA and a recipient of the 2020 H. O. Hartley Award from Texas A&M, awarded annually to a former student for distinguished service to the discipline of statistics.

Li has held numerous leadership roles within the statistics community, including chairing several ASA sections and committees. She has also served on the National Science Foundation’s Advisory Committee for Environmental Research and Education, held editorial roles with multiple journals, and is the inaugural editor of ASA Discovery, an open-access journal publishing innovative statistical and machine learning across disciplines.

About Stanley A. Sawyer

The late Stanley A. Sawyer, professor emeritus of mathematics, made a commitment in 2016 through his estate to establish and endow one or more professorships in the Department of Mathematics in Arts & Sciences.

Following his death in 2017, the university determined that his estate would fund three professorships. His preference was for appointments in statistics and biology.

Professor Sawyer received a bachelor’s degree from the California Institute of Technology in 1960, followed by a doctorate there in 1964. He taught at the Courant Institute at New York University, at Brown University in Rhode Island, at Yeshiva University in New York, at Purdue University in Indiana, and at the University of Washington in Seattle prior to joining the Washington University faculty in 1984 as a professor of mathematics.

In 1985, Professor Sawyer was also named professor of genetics and of biostatistics at the WashU School of Medicine. He taught for nearly 30 years before being named professor emeritus in 2013.

A distinguished mathematician and statistician, he authored 80 scholarly articles, co-authored the book “A TEX Primer for Scientists”, and mentored 12 postgraduate students. Professor Sawyer was widely known for developing GENCONV, a computer program that analyzes DNA and identifies gene conversions that indicate mutation and evolution. He often served as an expert witness to evaluate DNA evidence.

Professor Sawyer was a member of the Institute of Mathematical Statistics (elected fellow in 1985), the Society of Molecular Biology & Evolution, the Genetics Society of America, and the American Mathematical Society. At the National Institutes of Health, he was an ad hoc member of the Genetic Variation and Evolution Study Section from 2005 to 2007.

At the time of Professor Sawyer’s death, his colleague and friend John E. McCarthy, the Spencer T. Olin Professor and chair of the Department of Mathematics, called him a “polymath and a gentle man.”