PeopleofSuperintelligence

Researcher

Lester Mackey

Lester Mackey is a statistical machine-learning researcher whose work links scalable algorithms with practical problems in climate and health. He earned computer-science degrees at Princeton and UC Berkeley, then taught statistics at Stanford before moving to Microsoft Research. His work includes an ALS progression challenge model, subseasonal climate forecasting and a NeurIPS 2022 Outstanding Paper on lower-variance gradient estimates for discrete distributions. A 2023 MacArthur Fellow, he joined the AI Mathematical Olympiad Prize advisory committee in 2024 and received the 2025 COPSS Presidents’ Award.

Works
392
Citations
3,290
h-index
28

Publication numbers from OpenAlex, as of 14 October 2026.

Photo of Lester Mackey

Timeline

  1. 2007–2012

    Training across two fields

    He earned a BSE in computer science from Princeton in 2007, an MA in statistics at UC Berkeley in 2011, and a PhD in computer science there in 2012.

  2. 2012

    Predicting ALS progression

    In 2012, Mackey and collaborators won first prize in the ALS Prediction Prize4Life Challenge, which used the PRO-ACT database of clinical-trial records to predict disease progression.

  3. 2013–2016

    Statistics for social good

    At Stanford, he was an assistant professor of statistics and created the Statistics for Social Good working group from 2013 to 2016, then moved to Microsoft Research in 2016.

  4. 2022

    Reducing gradient variance

    At NeurIPS 2022, his coauthored paper “Gradient Estimation with Discrete Stein Operators” received an Outstanding Paper award. It uses discrete Stein operators to reduce variance in gradient estimates for discrete distributions.

  5. 2023–2024

    A fellowship and math prize role

    In 2023, Mackey became a MacArthur Fellow for statistical and machine-learning work on practical data-science problems. In 2024, he joined the advisory committee for the Artificial Intelligence Mathematical Olympiad Prize.

  6. 2025

    A statistics society award

    He received the 2025 COPSS Presidents’ Award for contributions in high-dimensional statistics and machine learning, including work on Stein operators, weather, climate and healthcare.

  7. As of October 2026

    A research role at Microsoft

    He is a Senior Principal Researcher at Microsoft Research New England and an adjunct professor at Stanford. His work spans statistical machine learning and scalable algorithms, including subseasonal climate forecasting.

Sources and credits

Photo: lmackey.github.io; Lester Mackey; creator not stated. License: Not stated by source. Source: lmackey.github.io. Cropped to a square and resized. Ask us to remove or replace this photo.

  1. Lester Mackey at Microsoft Research microsoft.com. Checked 14 October 2026.
  2. Lester Mackey: ALS Prediction Prize4Life Challenge lmackey.github.io. Checked 14 October 2026.
  3. Lester Mackey - MacArthur Foundation macfound.org. Checked 14 October 2026.
  4. Announcing the NeurIPS 2022 Awards – NeurIPS Blog blog.neurips.cc. Checked 14 October 2026.
  5. Lester Mackey - 2023 MacArthur Fellow - MacArthur Foundation macfound.org. Checked 14 October 2026.
  6. AIMO Prize Appoints Further Advisory Committee Members | AIMO Prize aimoprize.com. Checked 14 October 2026.
  7. 2025 - Committee of Presidents of Statistical Societies (COPSS) community.amstat.org. Checked 14 October 2026.