Dr. Christopher Hans

Christopher M. Hans is an Associate Professor in the Department of Statistics at The Ohio State University, where he has been a faculty member since receiving his Ph.D. in Statistics and Decision Sciences from Duke University in 2005. His research has focused on aspects of Bayesian regression modeling, including computational methods for Bayesian model averaging with many predictors. His recent work has concentrated on studying how commonly used prior distributions for regression coefficients impact posterior inference, which has led to the development of new, structured priors that avoid a range of undesirable behaviors. He also has a long-standing interest in understanding and advancing connections between Bayesian regression and penalized optimization approaches to regularized regression.

Selected in 2022 as a Fellow of the American Statistical Association, Hans is also a lifetime member of the International Society for Bayesian Analysis. He has served as an associate editor for Bayesian Analysis, Computational Statistics and Data Analysis, the Journal of American Statistical Association, and the Journal of Computational and Graphical Statistics. At Ohio State he serves as Director of the Statistics Department’s undergraduate majors and minors, including the interdisciplinary major in Data Analytics that he co-developed and has co-directed since 2014.