I am an Assistant Professor of Statistics at Harvard University. I work on high-dimensional statistics and statistical machine learning, with a focus on high-dimensional regression, classification, and learning under overparametrization and distribution shifts. In Fall, ’21, I was invited to speak at the National Academies’ symposium on Mathematical Challenges for Machine Learning and Artificial Intelligence. See the symposium video for a summary of my research preceding ’21. For a more recent summary, see the Research tab. Here are links to my CV, Google Scholar, and Math Genealogy.

My research is partially supported by the NSF CAREER Award, an NSF DMS Award, the Eric and Wendy Schmidt Fund for Strategic Innovation, a William F. Milton Fund Award, and a Dean’s Competitive Fund for Promising Scholarship (all solo PI). In ’23, I was named an International Stategy Forum (ISF) Fellow. ISF is an 11-month, non-residential fellowship program for rising leaders ages 25 – 35 from Africa, Asia, North America, and Europe. Between ’22-’24, I led the Institute of Mathematical Statistics (IMS) New Researchers Group. I am currently an Associate Editor for Statistical Science.

Previously, I was an Invited Long-Term Participant at the Simons Institute for the Theory of Computing, UC Berkeley for their Computational Complexity of Statistical Inference Program during Fall ’21. I was a postdoc at the Center for Research on Computation and Society, Harvard John A. Paulson School of Engineering and Applied Sciences (hosted by Prof. Cynthia Dwork) during ’19-’20. I obtained my Ph.D. in Statistics (’19) from Stanford University, where I was honored to receive the Theodore W. Anderson Theory of Statistics Dissertation Award (’19) and the Ric Weiland Graduate Fellowship (’17). My advisor was Prof. Emmanuel Candès. I obtained my B.Stat (’12) and M.Stat (’14) from the Indian Statistical Institute, Kolkata.

Openings

I am currently looking for motivated students interested in high-dimensional statistics and/or statistical machine learning, with strong theoretical background. Interested aspiring graduate students should apply here.

Contact

Science Center 712
One Oxford Street
Cambridge, MA 02138
pragya at fas dot harvard dot edu