From Pure Mathematician to Applied Statistician

Utah State University's Inaugural Professor Lecture Series honored Richard Cutler, from the Department of Mathematics and Statistics, Wednesday, April 6, at President Albrecht's residence.

 

Russell Thompson, head of the Mathematics and Statistics Department, introduced Cutler as a professor at Utah State whose career spans the development of the modern era of statistics.

 

As a teacher Cutler was twice recognized as the department teacher of the year — his teaching evaluations are typically at the top of the department said, Thompson.

 

"In the area of service to the department and university, Richard has played a major role in the development of a statistics program that is certainly the best in the state of Utah and is comparable to programs in the Intermountain area," Thompson said.

 

Thompson said Cutler spearheaded efforts to modernize and develop the statistics curriculum at Utah State and took the lead in getting approval for a doctoral option to the mathematical sciences doctoral program.    

 

Cutler has longstanding collaboration with faculty in the colleges of Business and Natural Resources, the Center for Epidemiologic Studies and with federal researchers and various agencies.

 

"I went from being a pure mathematician to an applied statistician," Cutler said "Most of my research is interdisciplinary in nature."

 

For three years Cutler was the director of a Statistical Consulting Center at Utah State and worked on approximately 250 consulting problems with faculty and graduate students. Cutler said this experience gave him an appreciation of the great breadth and quality of applied research being carried out at Utah State.

 

"For an applied statistician, this is a wonderful place to be, with many interdisciplinary collaborative opportunities with some world-class researchers," Cutler said.

 

Cutler has taught statistics classes at Utah State for 17 years. Most recently he has been teaching classes in experimental design and regression methods at a graduate level.

 

"I love the diversity of the students in those classes, and being able to show such a diverse group how groups of statistical methods may help them analyze the data from their own research," said Cutler.

 

"I enjoy being able to show students how to apply relatively sophisticated statistical methods without blowing them away with mathematical notation and derivations," Cutler said.

 

Cutler obtained his bachelor's degree in mathematics at the University of Auckland in New Zealand, and his master's and doctorate in statistics at the University of California, Berkeley.