Welcome

Kathy Ensor
Katherine Bennett Ensor, Ph.D., PStat®, is the Noah G. Harding Professor of Statistics in the George R. Brown School of Engineering and Computing at Rice University, where she serves as director of the Center for Computational Finance and Economic Systems (CoFES). From 2016 through 2022, she served as the founding director and creator of the Kinder Institute Urban Data Platform, a resource for the greater Houston area. She served as chair of the Department of Statistics from 1999 through 2013.

Known globally for her methods in statistics and data science, Dr. Ensor’s research has applications in quantitative finance and risk management, energy, and public and environmental health. Her numerous initiatives have bridged business, science and engineering and have served society.

Dr. Ensor has a strong history of service to the statistics, applied sciences and engineering communities. She is chair of the National Academies hoc committee Frontiers of Statistics in Science and Engineering: 2035 and Beyond, a member of the Board of Trustees for the National Science Foundation (NSF) Institute for Pure and Applied Mathematics (IPAM) and serves as chair of Section U (Statistics) for the American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS).

She recently served as the first statistician on the Computer Science Academic Board (CSAB) – an organization within the Accreditation Board for Engineering and Technology (ABET). She was a member of the Board of Trustees for the National Science Foundation (NSF) Institute for Pure and Applied Mathematics (IPAM) and a member of the National Academies Committee on Applied and Theoretical Statistics (CATS). Ensor was the 117th president of ASA, a three-year term from 2021-2023 that involved a one-year appointment as president-elect and past president.

Dr. Ensor has been recognized for her leadership, scholarship, and mentoring. She is a fellow of ASA, an elected fellow of the American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS), an International Statistical Institute (ISI) Elected Member, and a Fellow of the Royal Statistical Society (RSS). She received the American Statistical Association’s Founders Award in 2024 and was inducted in 2021 to the Texas A&M College of Science Academy of Distinguished Former Students. Ensor is an Accredited Professional Statistician® (PStat®) and holds a BSE and MS in Mathematics from Arkansas State University and a Ph.D. in Statistics from Texas A&M University.

Research: Dr. Ensor develops methods for dependent data, including:

  • Time series / Spatial and Spatial-Temporal / High-dimensional
  • Unique Applications of Bayesian Hierarchical Modeling and Approximate Bayesian Computation
  • Stochastic Process Modeling and Information Integration

Primary Application Areas Include: