PeopleofSuperintelligence

Researcher

Martin J. Wainwright

Also known as Martin Wainwright, Martin James Wainwright

Martin Wainwright is a statistician and professor at MIT, a post he took up in July 2022 after years at Berkeley. With Michael Jordan, he published Graphical Models, Exponential Families, and Variational Inference in 2008, a book in Foundations and Trends in Machine Learning. In the fall of 2004 he joined the Berkeley faculty, with a joint appointment in Statistics and Electrical Engineering and Computer Sciences. He received the COPSS Presidents' Award in 2014 and a Guggenheim Fellowship in 2024. MIT named him director of its Institute for Data, Systems, and Society in 2023.

Timeline

  1. 1994–2002

    Degrees from Waterloo and MIT

    In 1994 Waterloo grants him a bachelor's degree in mathematics, and his MIT doctorate earns him the George M. Sprowls Prize in 2002.

  2. 2004–2022

    A joint professorship at Berkeley

    The University of California, Berkeley adds him to its faculty in the fall of 2004, with a joint appointment in Statistics and Electrical Engineering and Computer Sciences.

  3. 2008

    Graphical models and variational inference

    With Michael I. Jordan, he publishes Graphical Models, Exponential Families, and Variational Inference in 2008, in Foundations and Trends in Machine Learning.

  4. 2014

    The COPSS Presidents' Award

    The Committee of Presidents of Statistical Societies gives him the COPSS Presidents' Award in 2014.

  5. 2019

    A book on high-dimensional statistics

    Cambridge University Press publishes his book High-dimensional Statistics: A Non-Asymptotic Viewpoint in 2019.

  6. 2023

    Directing MIT's data institute

    MIT names him director of the Institute for Data, Systems, and Society, effective from July 2023.

  7. 2024

    A Guggenheim Fellowship

    The John Simon Guggenheim Memorial Foundation awards him a 2024 Guggenheim Fellowship, one of 188 given to scientists, artists, and scholars.

  8. As of October 2026

    Cecil H. Green Professor at MIT

    He is a statistician and the Cecil H. Green Professor at MIT, which he joins from Berkeley in July 2022.

Sources and credits

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  1. Martin Wainwright (statistician) - Wikipedia en.wikipedia.org. Checked 14 October 2026.
  2. Martin Wainwright - MIT Schwarzman College of Computing computing.mit.edu. Checked 14 October 2026.
  3. 2014 - Committee of Presidents of Statistical Societies (COPSS) community.amstat.org. Checked 14 October 2026.
  4. Martin Wainwright named director of the Institute for Data, Systems, and Society – IDSS idss.mit.edu. Checked 14 October 2026.
  5. Martin Wainwright named next IDSS director lids.mit.edu. Checked 14 October 2026.
  6. Three from MIT awarded 2024 Guggenheim Fellowships | MIT News | Massachusetts Institute of Technology news.mit.edu. Checked 14 October 2026.