Hertford lecturer named Oxford Young Statistician of the Year

11 February 2026

We’re delighted to congratulate Christopher Williams, lecturer in Mathematics at Hertford, on becoming the very first Oxford Young Statistician of the Year!

The Oxford Young Statisticians Seminar (OxYSS) was founded to promote collaboration among DPhil students and postdoctoral researchers working in statistics and machine learning. Their seminar series offers young researchers the opportunity to present their work and discuss the unique challenges they face in their fields.

The OxYSS scientific committee said, ‘Among the impressive line-up of speakers from the past year, we distinguished two outstanding individuals who perfectly embodied our founding principles by delivering introductory talks to their respective disciplines. Both speakers succeeded brilliantly in the difficult task of introducing technical concepts with such clarity that their work became accessible to all researchers across the department.’

Following a public poll between the two finalists, Chris was elected Oxford Young Statistician of the Year (2024–25). After receiving his prize, Chris presented his latest research on Guidance for Diffusion Sampling with Applications to Black Hole Imaging, commenting: ‘Such a good opportunity to share my research!’