Mathias Drton, professor of statistics

Mathias Drton is an internationally highly respected researcher who has made important contributions to theoretical statistics, in particular to graphical models (Bayesian networks), causal inference and algebraic statistics.

In the last mentioned area, where Drton is among the founders, methods of algebraic geometry are used to understand the structure of complex statistical models, including graphic models. Drton has also solved important problems in computational statistics and machine learning.

Drton obtained his master's degree in 2000 from the University of Augsburg and his PhD degree from the University of Washington in Seattle in 2004. After a postdoctoral appointment at the University of California Berkeley, he was employed as assistant professor at the University of Chicago in 2005 and subsequently promoted to associate professor in 2009. He became a full professor in Chicago in 2011. In 2012, he returned to Seattle as a full professor of statistics.

“With the appointment of Mathias Drton, the statistical group at the Department strengthens its position in the international top class”, says head of department Michael Sørensen.

Royal Danish Academy of Sciences and Letters

Mathias Drton was recently elected as a foreign member of the Royal Danish Academy of Sciences and Letters. 9 Danish members and 6 foreign members were elected for 2018.

The Academy was founded in Copenhagen on 13 November 1742 by King Christian VI when the King gathered together a group of experts to sort out his collection of medals. From this rather narrow interest, the Academy soon covered antiquities more generally, as well as mathematics, physics and natural history. Today it embraces all branches of science and scholarship and has about 250 Danish members and 250 foreign members.