C. Shane Reese began his tenure as the 14th president of Brigham Young University on May 1, 2023. Prior to his appointment, he served as BYU Academic Vice President from 2019 to 2023, and dean of the BYU College of Physical and Mathematical Sciences from 2017 to 2019. Reese also serves as a member of the Department of Statistics faculty and an elected fellow of the American Statistical Association.
Reese’s research has centered on Bayesian hierarchical models and Bayesian optimal experimental designs. He has created statistical models addressing a range of issues from predicting the power of solar storms to determining the safest method for destroying chemical weapons to assessing climate impact on glaciers in high mountain Asia and Antarctica. His work has also been used by the U.S. Olympic volleyball team as well as the NFL’s Philadelphia Eagles.
Reese joined the BYU statistics faculty in 2001. He received BYU’s Young Scholar Award in 2004 and the BYU Karl G. Maser Excellence in Teaching Award in 2010. Reese was the Melvin W. Carter Professor of Statistics from 2012-2017. Prior to entering academia, he worked in the Computer, Computational, and Statistical Sciences Division of Los Alamos National Laboratory.
Reese earned a doctoral degree in statistics from Texas A&M University and master’s and bachelor’s degrees in statistics from BYU.