James Robins wins COPSS Distinguished Achievement Award

James Robins, the Mitchell L. and Robin LaFoley Dong Professor of Epidemiology at the T.H. Chan School of Public Health, has been recognized with the 2025 Distinguished Achievement Award and Lectureship by the Committee of Presidents of Statistical Societies (COPSS). The prestigious annual honor, previously known as the RA Fisher Award and Lectureship, recognizes what COPSS calls “outstanding contributions to statistical methods that have had significant impact on scientific investigation.” 

Robins, a faculty affiliate with the Institute for Quantitative Social Science, is widely recognized as a founding figure in the modern statistical field of causal inference. Beginning with his 1986 paper “A new approach to causal inference in mortality studies with a sustained exposure period — application to control of the healthy worker survivor effect,” he introduced some of the field’s most important analytic methods and concepts. That includes those collectively referred to as “g-methods,” used for drawing causal inferences from complex observational and randomized studies with time-varying treatments or exposure. 

“This is among the least surprising awards in the history of the association,” said Gary King, Weatherhead University Professor and director of the Institute for Quantitative Social Science. “Jamie Robins is a brilliant contributor of novel statistical methods, causal estimation, and innovative thinking. It is a privilege to interact with him and have him as part of the IQSS community.”

In announcing the award, COPSS also praised Robins for his analyses of missing data and innovative use of non- and semi-parametric models. Over a career of more than 40 years, he has applied his methods to research in a variety of topics in epidemiology, public health, and the social sciences including HIV/AIDS treatment, bariatric surgery, and arsenic exposure in metal workers.

Robins, who is also affiliated with the Chan School’s Department of Biostatistics, will accept the award and deliver the COPSS Distinguished Lecture at this year’s Joint Statistical Meetings (JSM). The date has not yet been announced.