DEPARTMENT OF STATISTICS AND DATA SCIENCE

Martin Abba Tanner (1957-2025) passed away peacefully in Evanston on January 2, 2025, after 20 years of fighting cancer. He is survived by his wife, Anat, and his son, Noam.

Martin was born in Highland Park, IL. He graduated from Ida Crown Jewish Academy in 1975 and obtained B.A. (1978), M.S. (1981), and Ph.D. (1982) degrees from the University of Chicago. He became a faculty member at the University of Wisconsin-Madison, first as an assistant professor (1982-1987) and then as an associate professor (1987-1990). He moved to the University of Rochester as a full professor and chair of the Department of Biostatistics (1990-1994). He joined Northwestern University in 1994 as a professor in the Department of Statistics and Data Science (previously the Department of Statistics). He was also a visiting associate professor at the Weizmann Institute of Science in Israel (Spring 1988), a visiting professor at the University of Pittsburgh (Summer 1992), and a visiting professor at the Australian National University (Summer 1995).

Martin popularized Markov Chain Monte Carlo methods in Bayesian computation with his highly cited paper co-authored with Dr. Wing Hung Wong [1]. The algorithm they invented was named Data Augmentation, which extended the popular Expectation Maximization algorithm from the realm of frequentist statistics to Bayesian statistics. In addition to his contributions to Bayesian statistics, Martin also contributed to many other fields, including, for example, biostatistics, statistical machine learning, ecological inference, and, more recently, forecasting of COVID-19.

In 1993, Martin received the Mortimer Spiegelman Award, awarded annually “to honor a statistician below the age of 40 in the calendar year of the award who has made outstanding contributions to health statistics, especially public health statistics.” (See https://www.spiegelmanaward.org.) He was a Fellow of the American Statistical Association and a Fellow of the Royal Statistical Society. He served as the editor for the Theory and Methodology section of the Journal of American Statistical Association from 1999 to 2002. He was a Series Editor of the Chapman & Hall / CRC Texts in Statistical Science since 1999. He was a Member of the ISI Highly Cited Researcher Database and a recipient of the Continuing Education Excellence Award from the American Statistical Association.

Martin authored or co-authored more than 120 papers and books, including an authoritative graduate-level textbook on Bayesian statistics [2]. He was an excellent teacher beloved by his students and a well-respected colleague. “Martin was tireless in promoting the careers of junior colleagues, and generously took on administrative tasks that many would have delegated, in order to keep department colleagues unburdened and able to focus on advancing their own research agendas. He built biostatistics at Rochester into its own department, and defended the interests of biostatistics faculty, students and staff. He demonstrated the value of biostatistics to the University of Rochester Medical Center leadership, and led the teaching and consulting activities that cemented biostatistics as a key discipline at Rochester. He worked tirelessly six days per week (but never on Saturday). Martin was a terrific mentor and friend”, said John Kolassa, former postdoc mentee and faculty colleague at Rochester, and visiting professor at Northwestern.

“Martin was a decisive consideration that led me to come to Northwestern. He was a great mentor, collaborator, colleague and friend”, said Wenxin Jiang, a long-time former colleague of Martin at Northwestern University.

Martin’s impact extended well beyond the academy.

“He was incredibly smart, generous, and kind. Even back then, I remember he was undergoing treatment for cancer. It was heartbreaking to see him face such a serious illness at the peak of his career, but his courage throughout was truly inspiring. He was an inspiration to all of us. On a personal note, he also introduced me to my husband, for which I am forever grateful”, said Yodit Seifu, a former postdoc mentored by Martin.

“His professional contributions were well-known, and his exemplary conduct as a visibly observant Jewish faculty member honored all religious Jews,” said Dr. Shelby Haberman [3], who was both Martin’s former teacher at the University of Chicago and a former colleague at Northwestern University.

While Martin prized his research, cherished teaching his students, and treasured his religious practice, the role he held most dear was being a devoted husband and father. Martin will be missed by many people.

References:

[1] Tanner, Martin A., and Wing Hung Wong (1987). The calculation of posterior distributions by data augmentation. Journal of the American Statistical Association 82, 528-540.

[2] Tanner, Martin A. (1996). Tools for Statistical Inference Methods for the Exploration of Posterior Distributions and Likelihood Functions, 3rd Edition. Springer, New York.

[3] Haberman, Shelby (2025). Guestbook entry in memory of Martin Tanner. Chicago Jewish Funerals. www.chicagojewishfunerals.com