The information was announced by the Committee of Presidents of Statistical Societies (COPSS) on its official website on February 6. Professor Ho Pham Minh Nhat is the first Vietnamese to receive this award since it was established.

The award committee honored him for his pioneering contributions to building statistical foundations for modern AI, particularly his seminal research on mixture-of-experts models, advances in optimal transport, as well as the theory of parameter-efficient fine-tuning for foundation models. Beyond research, he was also highly regarded for his dedication to teaching, academic mentoring, professional service, and efforts to connect the scholarly community.

On his personal page, Ho Pham Minh Nhat said he felt honored to be named for the award. According to him, this is not only a personal milestone but also meaningful recognition for research efforts in the fields of data science and modern statistics. Becoming the first Vietnamese person to receive the award also contributes to marking Vietnamese intelligence on the global scientific map.

He also expressed gratitude to his family, colleagues, and students at the University of Texas at Austin as well as around the world, those who have accompanied him on his research journey. The award, according to him, further strengthens his commitment to pursuing the combination of statistical foundations and modern AI breakthroughs to create practical value for society.

Ho Pham Minh Nhat is from Bac Lieu and is a former student of the High School for the Gifted (Vietnam National University, HCMC). He graduated from the University of Natural Sciences, HCMC before going to the US to pursue a PhD in Statistics at the University of Michigan-Ann Arbor in 2017. Later, he continued his work at the University of California, Berkeley before becoming a faculty member at the University of Texas at Austin since 2020, focusing on research and teaching in data science, machine learning, statistics, and AI.

With more than 110 scientific works published at prestigious conferences such as ICML, NeurIPS, or CVPR, along with an H-index of 35 and over 4,000 citations, Nhat is currently one of the most prominent faces of the global generation of young scientists. Besides his expertise, he devotes much enthusiasm to teaching, academic mentoring, and actively supporting Vietnamese students in international study and research. The success of Ho Pham Minh Nhat is not only personal pride but also a clear testament to the advancement and identity affirmation of Vietnamese intelligence in the new technological era.

COPSS Emerging Leader Award is a top-tier and highly prestigious honor for early-career scientists with outstanding contributions to statistics and data science. Each year, a maximum of 8 scientists worldwide are selected through a rigorous review process.

Le Huyen