• Nonparametric Statistics
    (Tests and confidence regions in curve estimation, estimation of distributions under shape constraints)
  • Multivariate Analysis
    (Classification and discriminant analysis, M-estimation of scatter)
  • Statistical Computing
    (Exact confidence regions, Nonparametric ML-estimation, Regularization methods)
  • Foundations
    (Explicit bounds for distributional approximation errors, inequalities, model-free regression)

Current memberships

Service in scientific societies and meetings

  • April 2000 - March 2004: Member of the Committee of the Fachgruppe Stochastik (DMV); responsible for internet services (St-Net)
  • January 2005 - August 2015: Member of the Committee of the Section Education and Research within the Swiss Statistical Society
  • April 2009 - January 2016: Member of SNSF panels for Ambizione Grants and Junior Professorships
  • Since January 2005: Local coordinator of the Swiss Statistics Seminars
  • Joint Statistical Meetings 2003, San Francisco: Program committee (IMS: Contributed sessions)
  • 56th Session of the ISI, August 2007, Lisboa: Program committee (Bernoulli Society)
  • Swiss Statistics Meeting and International Conference Ars Conjectandi, October 2013, Basel: Program committee
  • Swiss Statistics Meeting, August 2015, Bern: Program committee
  • European Meeting of Statisticians, July 2019, Palermo: Chair of scientific program committee

Editorial service

  • October 2002 - September 2005: Associate editor of Statistica Sinica
  • January 2004 - March 2008: Associate editor of Biometrical Journal
  • August 2008 - December 2011: Associate editor of Journal of Nonparametric Statistics
  • January 2010 - April 2013: Executive editor (IMS) of Statistics Surveys
  • January 2004 - December 2015: Associate editor of The Annals of Statistics
  • January 2018 - April 2020: Associate editor of Journal of the American Statistical Association (Theory and Methods)
  • January 2012 - December 2024: Associate editor of Journal of Statistical Planning and Inference
  • Since April 2015: Associate editor of Statistica Neerlandica
  • Since August 2023: Reviewer for Mathematical Reviews (AMS)
  • January 2026 - December 2028: Editor of Statistical Science

Current PhD Students

  • Heike Schuhmacher
  • Philip A. Stange
  • Tommaso Visonà
  • Oliver Warth
  • Didier B. Ryter

Former PhD Students

  • Christof Strähl: Nonparametric Estimation of Densities and Related Features.
    (Dissertation, Bern 2020; co-advisor: Johanna F. Ziegel)
  • Alexandre Mösching: Distributional Regression under Shape and Order Constraints.
    (Dissertation, Bern 2020)
  • Petro Kolesnyk: Bi-Log-Concave Distribution and Regression Functions.
    (Dissertation, Bern 2016)
  • Till Sabel: Simultaneous Confidence Statements about the Diffusion Coefficient of an Itô-Process - with Application to Spot Volatility Estimation.
    (Dissertation, Göttingen and Bern 2014; 1st advisor: Axel Munk)
  • Aniña M. Pescatore: Childhood Wheezing - Clinical Presentation Throughout Childhood and Predicting Persistent Wheeze.
    (Dissertation, Bern 2014; 1st advisor: Claudia Kühni)
  • Niki R. Zumbrunnen: P-Values for Classification: Computational Aspects and Asymptotics.
    (Dissertation, Bern and Göttingen 2014; 2nd advisor: Axel Munk)
  • Ben D. Spycher: Analysis of Phenotypic Variation in Childhood Wheezing Disorders.
    (Dissertation, Bern 2010; co-advisor: Claudia Kühni)
  • A. Johannes Schmidt-Hieber: Nonparametric Methods of Spot Volatility Estimation.
    (Dissertation, Göttingen and Bern 2010; 1st advisor: Axel Munk)
  • Dirk Klingbiel: Permutation Tests for Multivariable Regression.
    (Dissertation, Bern 2009)
  • Jimmy P. Brignoni: Modelling Transfer Processes.
    (Dissertation, Bern 2009; co-advisor: Markus Wäfler)
  • André Hüsler: New Aspects of Modeling with Log-Concave Densities.
    (Dissertation, Bern 2008)
  • Angelika Rohde: New Multiscale Approaches to Nonparametric Statistical Inference.
    (Dissertation, Bern and Heidelberg 2006; 2nd advisor: Rainer Dahlhaus)
  • Kaspar Rufibach: Log-Concave Density Estimation and Bump Hunting for I.I.D. Observations.
    (Dissertation, Bern and Göttingen 2006; 2nd advisor: Axel Munk)
  • Bernd-Wolfgang Igl: Multivariate Estimation and Calibration for Linear Models with Errors-in-Variables.
    (Dissertation, Bern 2004)
  • Sandra Freitag: Nonparametric Inference for Interval-Censored Data.
    (Dissertation, Lübeck 2003)

At the University of Heidelberg I studied Mathematics with secondary subject Biology/Chemistry. There I joined Statlab within the Institute of Applied Mathematics and finished my PhD thesis about nonparametric change-point estimation in 1990. My advisor and mentor was Prof. D.W. Müller.

During 1990-1992 I spent two years at the University of California at Berkeley as a Research Fellow of the Miller Insitute for Basic Research in Science. In particular this offered the opportunity to meet excellent scientists in the Department of Statistics. Thereafter I returned to Heidelberg and, after a short stay at the University of Bielefeld in 1993, started working on my Habilitation thesis.

In 1996 the latter endeavor was finished, and in 1997 I accepted a position as Professor of Stochastics at the (Medical) University at Lübeck. There I joined the Mathematical Institute.

In March 2002 I started working at the University of Bern, Switzerland, as a Professor of Statistics within the Institute of Mathematical Statistics and Actuarial Science and Department of Mathematics and Statistics. In the spring of 2006 I received an offer from the University of Heidelberg, but finally my family and I decided to stay in Bern.