Rate My Professor Yishi Wang

Yishi Wang is a Professor in the Department of Mathematics and Statistics at the University of North Carolina Wilmington, where she joined as Assistant Professor in 2008, was promoted to Associate Professor in 2011, and to full Professor in 2015. She serves as the Actuarial Science Certificate Coordinator and Founding Director of the Statistical Computing and Teaching Center. Previously, she was Assistant Professor at Western Carolina University from 2006 to 2008. Wang holds a Ph.D. in Mathematical Statistics from the State University of New York at Binghamton (2006), an M.A. in Mathematical Statistics from the same institution (2004), an M.S. in Statistics from Zhongshan University, China (2001), and a B.S. in Applied Mathematics and Computer Science from the University of Science and Technology Beijing (1998).

Her research specializes in machine learning, semiparametric models, survival analysis, statistical data mining, mathematical statistics, generalized linear models, and statistical computation, with applications in biometrics, face recognition, plant physiology, and environmental stress tolerance. Key publications include "UAS Hyperspatial LiDAR Data Performance in Delineation and Classification across a Gradient of Wetland Types" (Drones, 2022), "Gender Effect on Face Recognition for a Large Longitudinal Database" (IEEE WIFS, 2018), "Two-sample nonparametric stochastic order inference with an application in plant physiology" (Journal of Statistical Computation and Simulation, 2018), "Bayesian model-averaged benchmark dose analysis via reparameterized quantal-response models" (Biometrics, 2015), and "Some new tests for normality based on U-processes" (Statistics & Probability Letters, 2006). Wang has secured major grants as Co-PI, such as a $2.25 million NSF-IOS award (2016-2021) on unfolded protein response in maize and a $344,009 DOJ FBI grant (2011-2012) on face biometrics. Honors include the Best Poster Paper Award at IEEE BTAS (2010), SAMSI Research Fellow (2013-2014), and induction as a Senior Member of the National Academy of Inventors (2023), recognizing her impact in statistical learning, data mining, and interdisciplinary applications overlapping with computer science.