Year in Review: 2025

🎉 Personal Milestones

  • My Son graduated high school and is heading to UW–Madison to study engineering — a proud moment for both of us.
  • My Daughter performed in two major dance performances, and she continues to impress me with her dedication and skill.
  • Dancing my wife and I have been dancing Forró (a dance from Brazil)

✈️ Travel & Talks

Here’s a list of the major trips I took this year, with a bit of narrative for each one:

  • Geneva, January — I made a pilgramiage to CERN for the 25th anniversary of the PhyStat conference series. PhyStat was the first conference I ever attended as a student, and that community became a large part of my professional identity. Being invited to give a keynote focused on the next 25 years brought me full circle.
  • Houston, January — I also made a pilgramiage back to Rice University (my alma mater) to give a distinguished lecture at the Ken Kennedy Institute.
  • Hamburg, February — My first trip to DESY as a member of the scientific review committee. It’s an impressive laboratory, and I also enjoyed giving a colloquium talk there — something I had looked forward to since a planned trip in 2020 was canceled due to COVID.
  • Tucson, March — My first event talking to UW alumni about AI — a great opportunity to engage the Wisconsin community beyond campus.
  • Costa Rica, March — Spring break with the family: beaches near Manuel Antonio and adventures around Arenal (yes, including zip lines!).
  • Anaheim, March — I gave a talk at the American Physical Society conference. While I was there, I also ran into old friends Paul and Ágnes from my Brookhaven days and Crystal from high school.
  • THE Ohio State University — I was thrilled to give a keynote talk for the Academic Data Science Alliance Leadership Summit. I was involved with ADSA since before it was ADSA, back in the Moore-Sloan Data Science Environment days. It was a great group and my talk on "Data Science in the Age of AI" was well received.
  • China & Hong Kong, April — In my role as Editor-in-Chief of Machine Learning: Science and Technology, I made an amazing trip visiting Shanghai, Hangzhou, Shenzhen, and wrapping up with a day of sightseeing in Hong Kong. I gave multiple talks including a science café in Hangzhou, a seminar in Shenzhen, a talk at the TD Lee Institute, and at the AI for Science Conference at Fudan University.
  • Purdue, Indianapolis, May * - I attended my first "BFF" conference, which is a play on words referring to Bayesian, Frequentist, and Fiducial inference as well as "best friends forever". It was great to hang out with some statisticians.
  • Paris & Marseille, July — I taught at the AI for Science summer school in Paris and then went to Marseille to give an invited talk at the EPS particle physics conference about AI and physics.
  • Up Nort', Wisconsin, August — A family vacation at a lake house at "Nice Lake" (seriously). It was very serene -- we saw otters and heard loons.
  • New York, August — A family vacation revisiting old neighborhoods and catching up with friends.
  • Green Bay, August — I gave a talk titled How is AI Revolutionizing Science? at the Neville Public Museum in Green Bay, which was aired on PBS Wisconsin.
  • Heidelberg, September — Attended the Heidelberg Laureate Forum, including a panel on AI and science (video). A highlight was sharing a short essay called The Bittersweet Lesson and getting to chat with Rich Sutton about it.
  • Carnegie Mellon University, October - It was a moment of pride to give a keynote at a workshop dedicated to Simulation-Based Inference at CMU's new STAMPS center.
  • CalTech, November — I received the inaugural Pritzker Prize for AI and Science at a conference at Caltech — an incredible honor. While in the area I also ran into old friends Paul and Ágnes from my Brookhaven days.

  • Michigan, November — I was able to visit my colleagues at MIDAS at the University of Michigan and give a talk at their annual Data and AI Summit

  • San Diego, December — Wrapped the year at NeurIPS, where we hosted the 8th annual Machine Learning and the Physical Sciences workshop. Leaving chilly Madison for sunny Southern California was a welcome bonus. words

📄 Research Publications (2025)

Despite being busy with travel and leading the Data Science Institute, I was able to do some research. Here are the papers I co-authored this year. These works span statistical methodology, machine learning, and high-energy physics:

🏛️ Data Science Institute & RISE-AI

A lot happened this year at the Data Science Institute (DSI) and with the RISE-AI initiative:

  • In the spring we secured approval to hire four AI/ML engineers to support RISE-AI, receiving over 1,300 applications for these roles.
  • We celebrated Maja Rudolph — previously a Research Professor at DSI — in her new role as a tenure-track Assistant Professor in Statistics.
  • In August, DSI was selected to be the RISE-AI Collaboration Headquarters, and I was honored to be appointed Lead of the RISE-AI HQ, a campus-wide hub for AI research, teaching, and engagement at UW–Madison. More on this in the UW–Madison news release.
  • That same month, UW–Madison joined the AI Alliance, joining a global community committed to advancing safe, responsible AI rooted in open innovation. See the announcement on the DSI site.
  • We moved into Morgridge Hall in August alongside campus partners. (more)
  • In April, we held our inaugural open awards at the Research Bazaar — recognizing exciting open science contributions. (more)
  • We hired Anna Haensch as a new Research Professor who will spend half her time as the Associate Director for the new Digital Scholarship Hub in the Libraries. Anna is awesome, check out her profile at https://annahaensch.com/.
  • We partnered with UW Extension to host events on the promise and risks associated to the use of AI for local governments including the Wisconsin Towns Association, Wisconsin League of Municipalities, and Wisconsin Counties Association.
  • The Sloan Foundation renewed support for our Open Source Program Office, complementing our open awards and AI Alliance efforts.
  • The NSF funded our Center for Industrial Research and Community Service (CIRCS) IUCRC focused on severe convective storms and insurance industry challenges — an exciting interdisciplinary effort (see https://circs.niu.edu/ and https://iucrc.nsf.gov/).

🏆 Honors & Recognition

  • Breakthrough Prize in Fundamental Physics — for my work connected to the Large Hadron Collider. (press release)
  • Inaugural Pritzker Prize for AI and Science — this was an immense honor, which recognized my work in Simulation-based Inference. (press release)

🙌 Looking Ahead

2025 was an extraordinary year of community, collaboration, travel, and discovery — both personally and professionally. I’m grateful for the people, partners, and students who made it memorable, and I’m excited for what 2026 will bring.