Philip Ernst, associate professor of statistics (STAT) at Rice, has been named a visiting international research chair in the Department of Mathematics at the Université Libre de Bruxelles.
Ernst will hold the prestigious “Chaire Internationale” in Brussels, Belgium, in June 2022.
“I will be doing research in both the theory and applications of optimal stopping with F. Thomas Bruss, the professor of mathematics at ULB who nominated me for the Chaire Internationale ,” Ernst said. “I will have no teaching duties, but I will give a series of lectures about my research to the department.”
Ernst received the Chaire Internationale in his first year of eligibility. To be eligible, an academic must have received a doctorate at least eight years earlier. Ernst earned his M.A. and Ph.D. in STAT from the Wharton School of the University of Pennsylvania in 2010 and 2014, respectively, and joined the Rice faculty in 2014. He was promoted to associate professor with tenure in 2019.
In 2018, Ernst received the Tweedie New Researcher Award from the Institute of Mathematical Statistics, widely considered the highest honor for excellence in research for an early-career statistician. In the same year, he received the Young Investigator Award from the Mathematical Sciences Division of the Army Research Office.
In 2021, Ernst received the George R. Brown Award for Superior Teaching. He also won from Rice the Teaching and Research Excellence Award from the George R. Brown School of Engineering, the Nicolas Salgo Distinguished Teacher Award, the Sophia Meyer Farb Prize for Teaching and the Graduate Student Association Teaching/Mentoring Award.
Last year, Ernst was named the inaugural winner of the Institute for Operations Research and the Management Sciences (INFORMS) Don Gaver, Jr. Early Career Award for Excellence in Operations Research, the first institute-wide early-career award.