The Department of Statistics is pleased to announce that Dave Zhao has been selected to receive a 2026 Campus Distinguished Promotion Award in recognition of his promotion to full professor, effective August 2026.
During its annual promotion review process, the Campus Committee on Promotion and Tenure identifies exceptional cases of scholars whose contributions have been extraordinary in terms of quality of work and overall achievement. A small percentage of faculty promoted to associate professor and full professor are selected to receive Campus Distinguished Promotion Awards, one of the university's highest recognitions of faculty achievement.
Zhao is an accomplished scholar whose research focuses on statistics, genomics, and data science. His work focuses on developing innovative statistical methods that help researchers make sense of increasingly complex genomic data, enabling new discoveries about biological systems, behavior, and health.
As Director of Computational Genomics at the Carl R. Woese Institute for Genomic Biology, Zhao leads initiatives that advance cutting-edge genomic research and foster collaboration among statisticians, computational scientists, and biologists. His leadership has helped support interdisciplinary efforts such as the Institute's Spatial Omics Initiative and AI + Genomics group, bringing together researchers from across campus to tackle complex scientific challenges.
Beyond his methodological contributions, Zhao collaborates extensively with scientists to address important questions in neuroscience and biology. His research program has received support from organizations including the National Institutes of Health, the National Science Foundation, and Sandia National Laboratories, reflecting the broad impact of his work across disciplines.
Zhao is also a dedicated educator and mentor. He has taught a wide range of undergraduate and graduate courses in statistics, biostatistics, and bioinformatics and has been recognized multiple times on the University of Illinois List of Teachers Ranked as Excellent by Their Students. He additionally serves as co-director of the annual Mayo Clinic and Illinois Alliance Computational Genomics Course, a hands-on summer workshop that introduces clinicians and researchers to modern computational biology.
Please join us in congratulating Professor Zhao on this well-deserved recognition and promotion.