During the recent Annual Joint Statistical Meetings held in Washington D.C., William F. Christensen, a professor in the Brigham Young University Department of Statistics, was presented the 2009 Distinguished Achievement Award by the American Statistical Association's Section on Statistics and the Environment.

The award is presented annually to recognize outstanding contributions to the development of methods, issues, concepts, applications and initiatives of environmental statistics.

Christensen's award read "For promotion of undergraduate research in environmental statistics, outstanding record of collaboration with environmental scientists, innovative research on receptor modeling and pollution source apportionment and service to the profession."

A BYU alumnus, Christensen received a doctorate in statistics from Iowa State University in 1999 and joined the BYU faculty in 2002. His other honors include the John and Susan Wierman Lecturer in Air Quality Data Analysis, Department of Applied Mathematics and Statistics, Johns Hopkins University, 2008 and the Young Scholar Award, BYU, 2005-2008.

For more information, contact William F. Christensen at (801) 422-7057.