PeopleofSuperintelligence

Researcher

Daniela Witten

Daniela Witten is a biostatistician who develops statistical machine-learning methods for high-dimensional data, with applications in genomics and statistical genetics. She earned a BS in math and biology at Stanford in 2005, completed a Statistics PhD there in 2010 under Rob Tibshirani, and was an assistant professor of Biostatistics at the University of Washington in 2011. Her 2009 penalized matrix decomposition supports sparse principal components and canonical correlation analysis, and she co-authored An Introduction to Statistical Learning, whose first edition appeared in 2013 and second in 2021. COPSS awarded her the Presidents’ Award in 2022. As of October 2026, she is a professor of Statistics and Biostatistics at the University of Washington and the Dorothy Gilford Endowed Chair in Mathematical Statistics.

Works
284
Citations
42,977
h-index
58

Publication numbers from OpenAlex, as of 19 October 2026.

Timeline

  1. 2005

    Math and biology at Stanford

    She earns a BS in math and biology with honors and distinction at Stanford in 2005.

  2. 2009

    Penalized matrix decomposition

    With Robert Tibshirani and Trevor Hastie, she presents a penalized matrix decomposition in 2009, with applications to sparse principal components and canonical correlation analysis.

  3. 2010

    A statistics doctorate

    She completes a PhD in Statistics at Stanford in 2010 under Rob Tibshirani's supervision.

  4. 2011

    Assistant professor at UW

    In 2011, she is an assistant professor of Biostatistics at the University of Washington in Seattle.

  5. 2013–2021

    An Introduction to Statistical Learning

    She co-authors An Introduction to Statistical Learning, a textbook with applications in R; its first edition is released in 2013 and its second edition appears in 2021.

  6. 2022

    The COPSS Presidents’ Award

    She receives the COPSS Presidents’ Award in 2022.

  7. As of October 2026

    Professor at Washington

    Her research develops statistical machine-learning methods for high-dimensional data, with applications to genomics and statistical genetics. As of October 2026, she is a professor of Statistics and Biostatistics at the University of Washington and the Dorothy Gilford Endowed Chair in Mathematical Statistics.

Career

  1. Since 2011University of WashingtonAssistant Professor of Biostatistics

Education

  1. 2010Stanford UniversityPhD
  2. 2005Stanford UniversityBS

From the biography and OpenAlex affiliations (the years of papers that list the organization), so some years are approximate.

Most-cited works

  1. An Introduction to Statistical Learning2013 · Springer texts in statistics · 12,085 citations
  2. A general framework for estimating the relative pathogenicity of human genetic variants2014 · Nature Genetics · 6,158 citations
  3. CADD: predicting the deleteriousness of variants throughout the human genome2018 · Nucleic Acids Research · 3,606 citations
  4. An Introduction to Statistical Learning: with Applications in R2018 · 2,912 citations
  5. A penalized matrix decomposition, with applications to sparse principal components and canonical correlation analysis2009 · Biostatistics · 1,537 citations

From OpenAlex, as of 19 October 2026.

  1. Google has the highest combined h-index among AI organizationsIncludes University of Washington. Our estimates of combined and median h-index at AI organizations, using current affiliations and OpenAlex records.
  2. 44% of AI career moves go from one university to anotherIncludes University of Washington. We estimate how 14,272 AI career moves link universities, companies, labs and government research centers, with net flows and the most common paths.
  3. Stanford University trained or employed 20 of the 89 AI major-prize winners, more than any other universityIncludes University of Washington. Stanford University trained or employed 20 of the 89 AI major-prize winners, more than any other university. We compare doctorate and employment links for major-prize and best-paper winners.
  4. The company share of AI researchers’ top papers rose from 2% to 32%Includes University of Washington. We estimate where leading AI researchers worked when their most-cited papers appeared. The company share rose from 2% in 1975–1979 to 32% in 2020–2024.

Colleagues

People with dated positions at the same organization in the same years.

Sources and credits

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  1. Full Bio — Daniela Witten danielawitten.com. Checked 19 October 2026.
  2. A penalized matrix decomposition, with applications to sparse principal components and canonical correlation analysis pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov. Checked 19 October 2026.
  3. Interview With Daniela Witten simplystatistics.org. Checked 19 October 2026.
  4. An Introduction to Statistical Learning statlearning.com. Checked 19 October 2026.
  5. 2022 - Committee of Presidents of Statistical Societies (COPSS) community.amstat.org. Checked 19 October 2026.
  6. Daniela M Witten | UW School of Public Health sph.washington.edu. Checked 19 October 2026.