Jingwei Wu, associate professor and primary research faculty of the Biostatistics Core in the Department of Epidemiology and Biostatistics, has been named the 2023 recipient of the SAS Institute’s Emerging Educator Award. The award recognizes educators who have shown exemplary progress in advancing analytics education and preparing students for careers in analytics and data science for five or fewer years.

Wu says that he originally had no intention of becoming an educator. After graduating from The Beijing University of Technology with his BS in computational and applied mathematics, Wu spent two years working in the private sector. He moved to the United States to earn his MS in biostatistics from The University of Michigan before accepting a research position at Indiana University’s School of Medicine, where he also earned his PhD in biostatistics. It was there that he developed a passion for education.

“I want to share my experiences, both good and bad, so that my students can quickly overcome their learning curves,” he says. “I want to motivate them to be good researchers and to benefit society.”  Wu credits his effectiveness as an educator to his decades of research experience, which he draws upon to explain course concepts using his real-world expertise.

Wu will be honored at the SAS Institute’s Summer 2023 Educator Conference in July.

In addition to developing SAS, an industry-standard statistical software suite used for data management and advanced analytics, the SAS Institute partners with educators to provide educational software and instructional material.

Wu says he has long advocated for implementing more SAS materials into its curriculum. “I’ve been a SAS user for almost two decades, so I know why the software can be useful for students,” he says. “Our students have to be capable of working with new and widely used technologies before they graduate, and I prefer that students use SAS to build their confidence.”