William E. Strawderman with Dean Holly Smith

William E. Strawderman received his Ph.D. in Statistics in 1969, under the direction of Arthur Cohen, who would become his long-time colleague. After a year at Stanford University, Dr. Strawderman returned to Rutgers where he has remained for over 34 years. He has established himself as the single most authoritative person in the world in multivariate estimation and has solved famous problems. He is a fellow of both the Institute of Mathematical Statistics and the American Statistical Society, was continuously funded by the National Science Foundation for more than 30 years, and served for many of those years as chair of the Department of Statistics. In addition to his significant contributions to statistics, Dr. Strawderman has also applied his skills to other fields, such as forestry, where he has also had an impact.