The jury of the C.J. Kok Award selected Stéphanie van der Pas’ dissertation as the Leiden University Faculty of Science’s best dissertation of 2017. This was announced by rector Carel Stolker during the faculty’s New Year’s reception on 9 January.
The jury’s comments:
The thesis is exceptional, because of its scientific depth, its variety in topics, the relevance of the topics, and the quantity of results. More exceptional yet is the recognition from the field. An article based on chapter 3 corrects a commonly accepted wrong idea in Bayesian statistics. This article has just appeared in the top journal in this field, and even as a discussion article, meaning that six groups of experts have been invited to give their opinions on it. Stéphanie’s work has a direct influence on how statistical analyses are performed and interpreted.