Christian Genest

{{Infobox scientist

| name = Christian Genest

| image = File:Christian-Genest.jpg

| légende =

| birth_date = {{birth-date and age|January 11, 1957}}

| birth_place = Chicoutimi, Quebec, Canada

| field = Statistics and actuarial science

| work_institutions = {{ubl|University of Waterloo (1984-87)|Université Laval (1987-2010)|McGill University (2010-)}}

| alma_mater = PhD, University of British Columbia

MSc, Université de Montréal

BSc, Université du Québec à Chicoutimi

| doctoral_advisor = James V. Zidek

| spouse = Johanna G. Nešlehová

}}

Christian Genest ({{IPAc-en|ʒ|ən|ɛ}}; born January 11, 1957, in Chicoutimi, Quebec) is a professor in the Department of Mathematics and Statistics at McGill University (Montréal, Canada), where he holds a Canada Research Chair. He is the author of numerous research papers in multivariate analysis, nonparametric statistics, extreme-value theory, and multiple-criteria decision analysis.

He is a recipient of the Statistical Society of Canada's Gold Medal for Research and was elected a Fellow of the Royal Society of Canada in 2015.

Contributions

Genest is best known for developing models and statistical inference techniques for studying the dependence between variables through the concept of copula.{{cite web | url=https://www.rsc-src.ca/sites/default/files/pdf/NF%20Citations%202015_2.pdf | title=RSC Class of 2015 | access-date=August 8, 2021 | archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20151220065528/https://www.rsc-src.ca/sites/default/files/pdf/NF%20Citations%202015_2.pdf | archive-date=December 20, 2015 | url-status = dead }} He has designed, among others, various techniques for selecting, estimating and validating copula-based models through rank-based methods. His methodological contributions in multivariate analysis and extreme-value theory found numerous practical applications in finance, insurance, and hydrology.[https://rsc-src.ca/sites/default/files/pdf/M%26A%202020.pdf John L. Synge Award 2020]

Throughout his career, Genest also made significant contributions to the development of techniques for the reconciliation and use of expert opinions and pairwise comparison methods used to establish priorities in multiple-criteria decision analysis.{{cite web | url=http://www.ssc.ca/en/award-winners/award-winners-2011 | title=SSC Award Winners for 2011 | access-date=August 8, 2021 | url-status=dead | archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20140225184356/http://www.ssc.ca/en/award-winners/award-winners-2011 | archive-date=February 25, 2014 }} He is the author or co-author of over 250 scientific publications, about half of which appeared in peer-reviewed journals. Part of his work is also concerned with the history of statistics and scientometrics. Christian Genest has given over 300 invited talks, including 75+ presentations for a general audience.{{cite journal | url=https://www.degruyter.com/document/doi/10.1515/demo-2016-0005/html | title="Stat Trek: An Interview With Christian Genest, by F. Durante, G. Puccetti, M. Scherer and S. Vanduffel, Dependence Modeling, vol. 4 (2016), pp. 109-122" | journal=Dependence Modeling | date=12 May 2016 | volume=4 | issue=1 | doi=10.1515/demo-2016-0005 | access-date=August 8, 2021| last1=Durante | first1=Fabrizio | last2=Puccetti | first2=Giovanni | last3=Scherer | first3=Matthias | last4=Vanduffel | first4=Steven | s2cid=147717691 | hdl=2434/391032 | hdl-access=free }}

Birthplace and education

Christian Genest was born on January 11, 1957, in Chicoutimi (Québec, Canada). He was trained as a mathematician at the Université du Québec à Chicoutimi (B.Sp.Sc., 1977) and at the Université de Montréal (M.Sc., 1978) before completing graduate studies in statistics at the University of British Columbia (Ph.D., 1983). His thesis, entitled "Towards a Consensus of Opinion",{{Cite web|url=http://genealogy.math.ndsu.nodak.edu/id.php?id=17625|title=Christian Genest at Mathematics Genealogy Project|work=Mathematics Genealogy Project|access-date=August 8, 2021}} was written under the supervision of James V. Zidek and earned him the Pierre Robillard Award from the Statistical Society of Canada (SSC) in 1984.{{cite web | url=http://www.ssc.ca/en/award-winners#Pierre | title=Pierre-Robillard Award winners|access-date=August 8, 2021}}

Academic career

After completing his PhD, Christian Genest was a postdoctoral fellow and visiting assistant professor at Carnegie Mellon University (Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania) in 1983–84. From 1984 to 1987, he was an assistant professor in the Department of Statistics and Actuarial Science at the University of Waterloo (Waterloo, ON). He was then hired by Université Laval (Québec, QC), where he was promoted to the ranks of associate in 1989 and professor in 1993. He joined McGill University (Montréal, QC) in 2010, where he holds a Canada Research Chair in Stochastic Dependence Modeling.{{cite web | url=http://www.chairs-chaires.gc.ca/chairholders-titulaires/profile-eng.aspx?profileId=2847 | title=Canada Research Chair | date=29 November 2012 |access-date=August 8, 2021}}

Honors and prizes

Christian Genest was the first recipient of the CRM-SSC Prize in 1999.{{cite web | url=http://www.ssc.ca/en/award-winners#CRM_SSC | title=CRM-SSC Award winners |access-date=August 8, 2021}} He received the SUMMA Research Award from Université Laval the same year.{{cite web | url=http://www.scom.ulaval.ca/Au.fil.des.evenements/1999/06.10/genest.html | title=Le Fil des Événements, June 10, 1999 | access-date=August 8, 2021 | archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160303170720/http://www.scom.ulaval.ca/Au.fil.des.evenements/1999/06.10/genest.html | archive-date=March 3, 2016 | url-status=dead }} In 2011, the Statistical Society of Canada awarded him its most prestigious distinction, the gold medal, "in recognition of his remarkable contributions to multivariate analysis and nonparametric statistics, notably through the development of models and methods of inference for studying stochastic dependence, synthesizing expert judgments and multi-criteria decision making, as well as for his applications thereof in various fields such as insurance, finance, and hydrology."{{cite web | url=http://www.ssc.ca/en/award-winners/award-winners-2011 | title=SSC Award Winners for 2011 | access-date=August 8, 2021 | url-status=dead | archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20140225184356/http://www.ssc.ca/en/award-winners/award-winners-2011 | archive-date=February 25, 2014 }} Christian Genest is a fellow of the American Statistical Association since 1996,{{cite web | url=https://www.amstat.org/ASA/Your-Career/Awards/ASA-Fellows-list.aspx | title=ASA Fellows | access-date=April 24, 2019 | archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20190425013824/https://www.amstat.org/ASA/Your-Career/Awards/ASA-Fellows-list.aspx | archive-date=April 25, 2019 | url-status = dead }} a fellow of the Institute of Mathematical Statistics{{cite web | url=https://www.imstat.org/honored-ims-fellows/ | title=IMS Fellows|access-date=August 8, 2021}} since 1997, and an honorary member of the Association des statisticiennes et statisticiens du Québec since 2012.{{cite web | url=http://www.ssc.ca/webfm_send/1002 | title=Liaison, vol. 26, no. 3, p. 48 | access-date=February 14, 2014 | url-status=dead | archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20140225185241/http://www.ssc.ca/webfm_send/1002 | archive-date=February 25, 2014 }}

He was elected a Fellow of the Royal Society of Canada in 2015{{cite web | url=https://www.rsc-src.ca/sites/default/files/pdf/NF%20Citations%202015_2.pdf | title=RSC Class of 2015 | access-date=August 8, 2021 | archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20151220065528/https://www.rsc-src.ca/sites/default/files/pdf/NF%20Citations%202015_2.pdf | archive-date=December 20, 2015 | url-status = dead }} and received a Humboldt Research Prize from the Alexander von Humboldt Foundation in 2019.{{cite web | url=https://www.humboldt-foundation.de/pls/web/pub_auswahlergebnisse.main | title=List of award winners since March 2013 (in German or English) | access-date=January 28, 2020 | archive-date=August 20, 2019 | archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20190820035258/http://www.humboldt-foundation.de/pls/web/pub_auswahlergebnisse.main | url-status=dead }} He was the first statistician to receive the John L. Synge Award in 2020[https://rsc-src.ca/sites/default/files/pdf/M%26A%202020.pdf John L. Synge Award 2020] and the CRM-Fields-PIMS prize in 2023.{{cite web|url = http://www.fields.utoronto.ca/news/Christian-Genest-awarded-2023-CRM-Fields-PIMS-Prize | title = Christian Genest awarded the 2023 CRM-Fields-PIMS Prize | website = The Fields Institute | date = January 19, 2023 | location = Toronto | access-date = January 30, 2023}}

Community service

Christian Genest has served the mathematical and statistical communities in many ways. Among others, he was director of the Institut des sciences mathématiques du Québec (2012–15), president of the Statistical Society of Canada (2007–08){{cite web | url=http://www.ssc.ca/en/about/history-ssc/historical-list-of-the-board-of-directors | title=SSC Board of Directors Historical List |access-date=August 8, 2021}} and president of the Association des statisticiennes et statisticiens du Québec (2005–08). He served on Statistics Canada's Advisory Committee on Statistical Methods for several years, and on the editorial board of various peer-review journals, including The Canadian Journal of Statistics (1988–2003), the Journal de la Société française de statistique (1999–2008) and the Journal of Multivariate Analysis (2003–2015).{{cite web | url=http://www.journals.elsevier.com/journal-of-multivariate-analysis/editorial-board/ | title=JMVA Editorial Board |access-date=February 14, 2014}} He was also editor in chief of The Canadian Journal of Statistics (1998–2000) and guest editor for various books and special issues, including two for Insurance: Mathematics and Economics (2005, 2009). From September 2015 to May 2019, he was editor in chief of the Journal of Multivariate Analysis. His many contributions earned him the Distinguished Service Award from the Statistical Society of Canada as early as 1997.{{cite web | url=http://www.ssc.ca/en/award-winners#Service | title=SSC Distinguished Service Award winners|access-date=August 8, 2021}}

Others

Christian Genest is married to Johanna G. Nešlehová, professor of statistics at McGill University.{{cite web | url=http://www.math.mcgill.ca/neslehova/ | title=Johanna Nešlehová |access-date=August 8, 2021}} One of his sisters, Sylvie Genest, is a professor in the Faculty of Arts at the Université du Québec à Montréal.{{cite web | url=https://professeurs.uqam.ca/professeur/genest.sylvie/ | title=Sylvie Genest |access-date=August 8, 2021}} Christian has four children (Marianne, Arnaud, Vincent, Richard). Vincent Genest is himself a researcher and the author of many papers in mathematical physics.{{cite web | url=https://arxiv.org/search/?searchtype=author&query=Genest%2C+V+X | title=Publications by Vincent Genest on arXiv |access-date=August 8, 2021}}