Baylor Statistics Professor Receives Early Investigator’s Award for Contributions to Environmetrics Research

Amanda Hering, Ph.D., receives international honor for outstanding contributions to environmental statistical and quantitative research

Media Contact: Lori Fogleman, Baylor Media and Public Relations, 254-710-6275
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By Cacey Vigil, student news writer, Baylor Media & Public Relations

WACO, Texas (Sept. 23, 2019) – Amanda S. Hering, Ph.D., associate professor of statistical science in Baylor University’s College of Arts and Sciences, has been awarded the Abdel El-Shaarawi Early Investigator’s Award from The International Environmetrics Society (TIES).

TIES is a nonprofit organization that fosters the development and use of statistical and other quantitative methods in the environmental sciences, environmental engineering and environmental monitoring and protection. TIES promotes the participation of statisticians, mathematicians, scientists and engineers to solve problems and to emphasize the need for collaboration and for clear communication among individuals from different disciplines and among researchers and practitioners.

“I’m really honored. The group of statisticians who have won the award in prior years all have done and continue to do great work, and I aspire to do impactful work as they have. In fact, many great statisticians have been nominated, and I’m very honored to just have been considered for the award,” Hering said.

Hering received this international award for her outstanding contributions to the environmental statistical and quantitative research as proved by the number and quality of her publications in the statistical literature.

“She has strong interdisciplinary connections with other scientific communities, especially with respect to important environmental problems,” TIES said on its website. “She is also the recipient of highly rated, externally funded research projects. She has had long-term involvement with the Environmetrics community, together with being an Associate Editor for the Environmetrics journal.”

At Baylor, Hering is a statistician whose work focuses on applied problems in engineering and the environment. Her work aligns with the field of data science, one of the five signature academic initiatives within the University’s Illuminate strategic plan.

“I work with subject-matter experts who have a passion for the problem at hand but are unsure how to extract actionable information from their data,” she said. “Sometimes, we develop new statistical methods, and sometimes we simply modify existing methods. There are a variety of impacts, depending on the application.”

Hering’s research also includes forecasting wind energy to assist with electricity grid integration, modeling wildfire patterns to develop mitigation strategies and developing a better model to understand groundwater dynamics for urban or agricultural needs.

“Currently, I’m working with several wastewater treatment utilities to see how we can use their data better. One example is forecasting ammonia to do data-informed predictive control of air blowers. They aerate the tanks for biological nitrogen removal, and these forecasts can help reduce energy demand and save the utility money,” Hering said.

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