Simon J. Sheather is an Australian-American academic. He became the 8th dean of the University of Kentucky’s Gatton College of Business and Economics on July 1st, 2018. [1] [2] A Fellow of the American Statistical Association, Sheather is known for the Sheather-Jones bandwidth selection method for kernel density estimation. [3]
Sheather was born and raised in Australia, the son of a bank clerk and a nurse. [4] Sheather graduated with 1st Class Honours in mathematical statistics from the University of Melbourne and earned his Ph.D. in statistics from La Trobe University. [5]
His academic career includes professorships at the University of New South Wales and Texas A&M University as well as visiting professorships at Pennsylvania State University and the Stern School of Business at New York University. [6] While at Texas A&M, he started two professional master’s programs.
In 2021, Sheather was named as the first holder of the Truist Chair in Data Analytics. [7]
Sheather was named a Fellow of the American Statistical Association in 2001. [9]