Alexander Volfovsky, associate professor of Statistical Science, is the recipient of the 2025 Gertrude M. Cox Award for excellence in applied statistics.
Established in 2003 through a joint agreement between the Washington Statistical Society (WSS) and RTI International, the award annually recognizes an early to mid-career statistician who has made significant contributions in survey methodology, experimental design, biostatistics and/or statistical computing.
Volfovsky’s research is at the intersection of theory and methodology for network analysis, causal inference, and statistical and computational trade-offs. Much of his work has direct applications in the social sciences, as well as for health and epidemiology.
At Duke, Volfovsky co-directs the Polarization Lab, where he has developed tools to better understand and address political polarization.
Amy Herring, Sara and Charles Ayres Distinguished Professor of Statistical Science and Volfovsky’s nominator, praised his interdisciplinarity and ability to bridge methods and applications: “It is rare to find a statistical scientist like Dr. Volfovsky, who not only has great strength in research around new tools and methodologies but also has the breadth to collaborate successfully with area experts and run studies in the field.”
In addition to excellence in applied statistical science, the Gertrude M. Cox Award also recognizes extraordinary mentorship and leadership. Volfovsky’s efforts in leading, expanding and strengthening mentoring programs for junior scholars, as well as his guidance of students, were described by Herring as “outstanding” and “exemplary.” As a salient example, Volfovsky led the Institute of Mathematical Statistics (IMS) New Researchers Workshop for several years.
Herring concluded, “The maturity and breadth of Dr. Volfovsky’s research program is impressive, and even more impressive is his strong leadership in helping other new researchers become successful scholars and mentors in their own right.”
The 2025 Gertrude M. Cox Award will be presented in June at the WSS Annual Dinner and will be preceded by a talk given by Volfovsky on a topic of general interest to the WSS membership.
