2016 DeGroot Prize awarded to Aki Vehtari and co-authors for the book “Bayesian Data Analysis”
Professor Aki Vehtari, together with the coauthors Andrew Gelman, John B. Carlin, Hal Stern, David B. Dunson and Donald B. Rubin, has received the DeGroot Prize for the third edition of the book “Bayesian Data Analysis”. The DeGroot Prize of the International Society for Bayesian Analysis recognizes influential contribution to genuine application of Bayesian Statistics and of its wide impact on the Bayesian community and on many other disciplines.
“My main contributions in the third edition were writing the new chapter on cross-validation and predictive information criteria and the section on expectation propagation together with Andrew Gelman, professor of the Columbia University, and the four new chapters on nonparametric models with David B. Dunson, professor of Duke University. These topics represent my core research areas. We made also many other updates and I was able to help to improve the clarity of the material in several other chapters, based on my experience of using the previous edition of the book in teaching over ten years. Currently the book is used at my master course Bayesian Data Analysis at Aalto University,” tells professor Aki Vehtari at the Department of Computer Science.
“Bayesian Data Analysis” is a leading textbook on Bayesian methods with its accessible introduction to the statistical theory. The book adopts a practical approach and offers many examples of real statistical analyses throughout. It has proven to be a useful text for undergraduates, graduate students and researchers alike.
More information:
Read more news
Seven new honorary doctors in technology at Aalto University in 2026
The ceremonial conferment takes place on university campus in June.
Iris Seitz awarded for exceptional early-career achievement
Dr. Iris Seitz, former PhD student of Professor Mauri Kostiainen, has been awarded the 2026 Robert Dirks Molecular Programming Prize for her work on programmable protein architectures with nucleic acid origami.
Awards presented for top doctoral and master’s theses at the School of Science
In 2025, there were altogether 71 doctoral and 607 master's degrees in the School of Science. In March, seven outstanding doctoral and six master's theses were awarded.