This year, concentrator alum Rachel Li received the May 2023 Department of Statistics Senior Concentrator Prize for her superb coursework in the concentration and for an outstanding thesis. Originally named the Department of Statistics Undergraduate Prize, the award was founded in 2020 and is given annually to the graduating senior concentrator who has the best overall performance and has contributed significantly to the department. In an interview (edited and excerpted below), Rachel shared her most influential mentors and courses as well as her most valuable experiences, including co-founding the Group for Undergraduates in Statistics at Harvard (GUSH). Congratulations on your achievements, Rachel!
1. When did you first become interested in statistics?
Li: My high school did not offer AP Statistics, so I didn't know that much about statistics before I came to college. But my older brother Vincent, who also went to Harvard, recommended that I take Stat 110 [Probability] during my freshman fall. Following his advice, I took Stat 110 and then Stat 111 [Introduction to Statistical Inference], which taught me how to think about probability, randomness, and data within an analytical framework. Prof. Joe Blitzstein’s approach to teaching – his way of demonstrating the elegant simplicity of statistical ideas – made me further enamored with the subject. The concentration also appealed to me because it’s practical; data needs to be analyzed in every field, e.g., in biostats or finance, which makes statistics an extremely useful toolkit.
2. What were a few highlights as a concentrator in the program? Are there certain mentors, courses, or parts of the program that really shaped your experience and interest in the field?
Li: The courses that had the biggest impact on me were Stat 110 and Stat 111 because they were at the beginning of my college career and introduced me to great friends and lasting mentors. There’s nothing that makes you bond more with fellow students than going to three office hours in a row each week! On Thursday nights, my friend Ginnie (2023 Statistics AM graduate Virginia Ma) and I would attend Asher Spector and Kim Nguyen’s office hours and would think, “This is fun! We should try to TF for this class one day.” Asher and Kim’s great teaching inspired me to become a TF in these courses.
There’s just so much to say about the welcoming and steady mentorship that Profs. Neil Shephard and Joe Blitzstein have shared with me throughout my time in college! During my senior fall, I remember a particularly pivotal conversation that I had with Neil when I was ruminating over whether or not to pursue graduate school. When I told him about my worry that I wasn’t “smart enough” for a career in research or academia, Neil opened up to me about his own self-doubts that he had from time to time. He gave me the advice to treat research like play and try to find joy and excitement in the continual process of learning.
Also, Joe, who is warm, funny, and goes above and beyond for his students, has been one of the most instrumental professors for me at Harvard. He has taught me so much, not just in terms of probabilistic thinking, but also about what it looks like to teach in a way that inspires students and makes difficult concepts approachable for everyone. As both a student and a member of the teaching staff in his courses, I have witnessed Joe’s love of teaching and dedication to his students. He truly sets a high standard of teaching that I hope to strive towards someday.
In addition to Joe and Neil, the department as a whole offers a friendly, welcoming atmosphere. I felt a sense of community in the department throughout my time at Harvard, which made my experience as a concentrator enjoyable and fulfilling. I also recognize that my experience may not be universal and that achieving inclusion and diversity are big challenges both in the field of statistics and in the department. However, I’m hopeful that we can continue to make moves to build an inclusive, diverse department. In a spontaneous office hours conversation with Joe in our freshman year, Ginnie and I were inspired to create GUSH (Group for Undergraduates in Statistics at Harvard). Our goal with this new organization was to provide resources and create a space on campus for all statistics enthusiasts to connect and share their common interests. Community-oriented events like the socials GUSH has held, as well as the department coffee hours, will hopefully help to welcome a more diverse group of students into the growing statistics community at Harvard.
3. How did you select your thesis project? What questions were you asking?
Li: During my junior spring, I took CS 238 [Optimized Democracy] with Professor Ariel Procaccia in the Computer Science Department. I really enjoyed the course and his teaching, so I decided to pursue a research project with Ariel as my advisor. My thesis project, which I worked on with CS graduate student Daniel Halpern, is titled “Strategy-Proofness of Voting Rules Under Voter Beliefs.” Our research focuses on how to design election mechanisms that incentivize voters to report their preferences truthfully and prevent vote manipulation. Most elections are not “strategy-proof” because people often hide their true preferences in an attempt to game the system. For example, in ranked choice voting, if I have two favorite candidates, I may rank my top choice first but then rank my second choice last to boost my top choice’s chances of winning. A crucial part of calculating the degree to which an election system, such as plurality [each voter votes for one candidate and the candidate with the most votes wins] or ranked choice [each voter ranks multiple candidates], is strategy-proof depends upon the probabilistic distribution of voters’ beliefs. In our work, we show that when a voter believes that other participants are likely to agree with her top choice candidate, the plurality system is more mathematically robust to protect against vote manipulation than ranked choice voting. Working on this research problem was satisfying because the theory (and crazy math behind it) helps us to understand real-world voting scenarios.
4. What are a few things that you will miss the most about your Harvard experience?
Li: What stands out the most to me about my experience at Harvard (and makes me a little sad!) is how college captures a specific time and place in my life that is fleeting. Part of what makes the experience on campus so special is the richness and closeness of your social interactions; you can simply walk down to the dining hall and run into ten people you know, catch up with them, and ask how their day has been. You might spend a couple hours “working” on a problem set with your friends but will also probably get distracted and start discussing random hypotheticals in a conversation that will stray late into the night. Harvard, in particular, is unparalleled in its ability to foster learning and attract intelligent, passionate students. As someone who asks a lot of questions and loves learning, I have felt blessed to be in this unique environment with access to so many experts, resources, and excellent teachers.
5. What are you looking forward to? What are your short-term goals?
Li: I'm looking forward to starting adult life in New York City in the fall, including beginning a job as a fundamental analyst at Citadel Securities. After a lot of reflection in the past year about my goals, I've settled on something that I am certain about: I am curious; I enjoy learning and thinking about interesting ideas; and I want to do continue doing this for the rest of my life. Having had a really great experience with my thesis research, I am definitely considering exploring graduate school in the future.