Hedibert Freitas Lopes is the Charles Wexler Professor of Statistics in the School of Mathematical and Statistical Sciences. Lopes’ research makes fundamental contributions to key areas of modern statistics and data science, including dynamic and spatial modeling. He is widely published and has been funded by the National Science Foundation, National Institutes of Health and Sao Paolo Research Support Foundation. He was previously the head of the Center for Statistics, Data and Decision Sciences at the Insper Institute in Brazil.