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I am a postdoctoral researcher in the Statistical Laboratory at the Department of Pure Mathematics and Mathematical Statistics, University of Cambridge. I am hosted by Richard Samworth, and my research interests encompass various topics in statistical theory and methodology, including nonparametric procedures, kernel techniques, random forests, and coupling theory. In the autumn of 2026, I will be joining the Department of Statistics at the University of Warwick as an Assistant Professor.

Biography

I received my PhD in Operations Research & Financial Engineering (ORFE) from Princeton University in 2024, where I wrote my dissertation under the supervision of Matias Cattaneo. Previously I received an MA degree in ORFE from Princeton in 2021 and an MMath in Mathematics & Statistics from the University of Oxford in 2019. I am an alumnus of St John’s College, Oxford.

In my spare time I enjoy programming in Rust, Julia and Python, choral singing with the Choir of Christ’s College, Cambridge, and playing classical piano.

Contact

Contact me by email at wgu21@cam.ac.uk with any questions! Other contact details are available on my contact page, and you can download my CV here.

Teaching

Lecturer, University of Cambridge

• Part III Statistical Learning in Practice, Lent 2026

Supervisor, University of Cambridge

• Part III Essay on Score Matching and Diffusion, with Richard Samworth, Lent 2026
• Part II Probability and Measure, with Pierre Raphaël, Michaelmas 2025
• Part IB Statistics, with Qingyuan Zhao, Lent 2025
• Part III Essay on Inference with Random Forests, with Richard Samworth, Lent 2025

Drop-in session leader, University of Cambridge

• Part III Concentration Inequalities, with Lampros Gavalakis, Lent 2025
• Part III Topics in Statistical Theory, with Richard Samworth, Michaelmas 2024
• Part III Modern Statistical Methods, with Sergio Bacallado, Michaelmas 2024
• Statistics Clinic, Michaelmas 2024 to Easter 2026

Assistant in Instruction, Princeton University

• ORF 499: Senior Thesis, with Daniel Rigobon, Spring 2024
• ORF 498: Senior Independent Research Foundations, with Daniel Rigobon, Fall 2023
• SML 201: Introduction to Data Science, with Daisy Yan Huang, Fall 2023
• ORF 363: Computing and Optimization, with Ioannis Akrotirianakis, Spring 2023
• ORF 524: Statistical Theory and Methods, with Matias Cattaneo, Fall 2022
• ORF 526: Probability Theory, with Mykhaylo Shkolnikov, Fall 2022
• ORF 524: Statistical Theory and Methods, with Matias Cattaneo, Fall 2021
• ORF 245: Fundamentals of Statistics, with Matias Cattaneo, Spring 2021
• ORF 363: Computing and Optimization, with Amir Ali Ahmadi, Fall 2020

Awards

• Early Career Researcher Grant
  G-Research, August 2025
• School of Engineering and Applied Science Award for Excellence
  Princeton University, September 2022
• Francis Robbins Upton Fellowship in Engineering
  Princeton University, September 2019
• Gibbs Statistics Prize
  University of Oxford, July 2019
• Royal Statistical Society Prize
  Royal Statistical Society & University of Oxford, July 2019
• James Fund for Mathematics Research Grant
  St John's College, University of Oxford, June 2017
• Academic Exhibition
  St John's College, University of Oxford, July 2016

Peer Review

• Annals of the Institute of Statistical Mathematics
• Annals of Statistics
• Bernoulli
• Econometric Theory
• Information Theory, Probability and Statistical Learning
• International Conference on Machine Learning
• Journal of the American Statistical Association
• Journal of Business and Economic Statistics
• Journal of Causal Inference
• Journal of Econometrics
• Journal of Machine Learning Research
• Journal of Nonparametric Statistics
• Journal of the Royal Statistical Society, Series B
• Journal of Statistical Computation and Simulation
• Operations Research
• SIAM Journal on Mathematics of Data Science
• Statistical Science
• Statistics and Computing