# Lester Mackey

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{{Short description|American computer scientist and statistician}}
{{Infobox scientist
|image              =
|caption            = Mackey pictured in 2023
| name              = Lester Wayne Mackey II
| birth_place       = [Long Island](/source/Long_Island), [NY](/source/New_York_(state)), [USA](/source/USA)
| fields            = [Machine learning](/source/Machine_learning) <br> [Computer science](/source/Computer_science) <br> [Statistics](/source/Statistics)
| workplaces        = [Microsoft Research](/source/Microsoft_Research) <br> [Stanford University](/source/Stanford_University)
| alma_mater        = [University of California, Berkeley](/source/University_of_California%2C_Berkeley) <br> [Princeton](/source/Princeton)
| thesis_title      = Matrix Factorization and Matrix Concentration
| thesis_url        = https://escholarship.org/uc/item/08q2q9vw
| thesis_year       = 2012
| doctoral_advisor  = [Michael I. Jordan](/source/Michael_I._Jordan)
| website           = https://web.stanford.edu/~lmackey
}}

'''Lester Mackey''' is an American computer scientist and  statistician. He is a principal researcher at [Microsoft Research](/source/Microsoft_Research) and an adjunct professor at [Stanford University](/source/Stanford_University). Mackey develops [machine learning](/source/machine_learning) methods, models, and theory for large-scale learning tasks driven by applications from climate forecasting, healthcare, and the social good. He was named a 2023 [MacArthur Fellow](/source/MacArthur_Fellows_Program).<ref name=":1">{{Cite web |title=Lester Mackey |url=https://www.macfound.org/fellows/class-of-2023/lester-mackey |access-date=2023-10-11 |website=www.macfound.org |language=en}}</ref>

== Early life and education ==
Mackey grew up on [Long Island](/source/Long_Island).<ref name=":0">{{Cite web |title={{!}} Lester Mackey |url=https://mathematicallygiftedandblack.com/honorees/lester-mackey/ |access-date=2023-10-11 |language=en-US}}</ref> He has said that, as a teenager, the [Ross Mathematics Program](/source/Arnold_Ross) in number theory introduced him to proof-based mathematics, where he learned about induction and rigorous proof.<ref name=":0" /> He got his first taste of academic research at the [Research Science Institute](/source/Research_Science_Institute).<ref name=":0" /> He joined [Princeton University](/source/Princeton_University) as an undergraduate student, where he earned his BSE in Computer Science. There he conducted research with [Maria Klawe](/source/Maria_Klawe) and David Walker.<ref>{{Cite web |last=Li |first=Wendy |date=2019-10-09 |title=Conversations with Maya: Lester Mackey |url=https://www.societyforscience.org/blog/conversations-with-maya-lester-mackey/ |access-date=2023-10-11 |website=Society for Science |language=en-US}}</ref> Mackey was a graduate student at the [University of California, Berkeley](/source/University_of_California%2C_Berkeley), where he earned a PhD in Computer Science (2012) and an MA in Statistics (2011).<ref name=":1"></ref><ref>{{cite web|url=https://www.microsoft.com/en-us/research/people/lmackey/|title=Lester Mackey, Principal Researcher|website=microsoft.com}}</ref> At Berkeley, his dissertation, advised by [Michael I. Jordan](/source/Michael_I._Jordan), included work on sparse principal components analysis (PCA) for gene expression modeling, low-rank matrix completion for recommender systems, robust matrix factorization for video surveillance, and concentration inequalities for matrices.<ref>{{Cite thesis |title=Matrix Factorization and Matrix Concentration |url=https://escholarship.org/uc/item/08q2q9vw |publisher=UC Berkeley |date=2012 |language=en |first=Lester |last=Mackey}}</ref> After Berkeley, he joined [Stanford University](/source/Stanford_University), first as a postdoctoral fellow working with [Emmanuel Candès](/source/Emmanuel_Cand%C3%A8s) and then as an assistant professor of statistics and, by courtesy, computer science. At Stanford, he created the Statistics for Social Good working group.<ref name=":1" />

== Research and career ==
In 2016, Mackey joined [Microsoft Research](/source/Microsoft_Research) as a researcher and was appointed as an adjunct professor at Stanford University. He was made a principal researcher in 2019.<ref name=":1" />

Mackey's early work developed a method to predict progression rates of people with [ALS](/source/ALS). He used the PRO-ACT database of clinical trial data and [Bayesian inference](/source/Bayesian_inference) to predict disease prognosis.<ref name=":1" /> He has also developed machine learning models for subseasonal climate and weather forecasting, to more accurately predict temperature and precipitation 2-6 weeks in advance.<ref name=":1" /> His models outperform the operational, physics-based dynamical models used by the [United States Bureau of Reclamation](/source/United_States_Bureau_of_Reclamation).<ref name=":1" />

== Awards and honors ==
* 2003 [Intel Science Talent Search](/source/Intel_Science_Talent_Search) 6th Place<ref>{{Cite web |date=2003-03-11 |title=Top Teen Scientists Honored At Intel Science Talent Search
|url=https://www.intel.com/pressroom/archive/releases/2003/20030311corp.htm |access-date=2023-10-13 |website=Intel |language=en}}</ref>
* Namesake of minor planet [15093 Lestermackey](/source/15093_Lestermackey)<ref>{{Cite web |title=(15093) Lestermackey |url=https://minorplanetcenter.net/db_search/show_object?object_id=15093 |access-date=2023-10-14 |website=IAU Minor Planet Center |language=en}}</ref>
* 2006 [Barry M. Goldwater Scholarship](/source/Barry_M._Goldwater_Scholarship)<ref>{{Cite web |title=2006 Goldwater Scholars 
|url=https://goldwaterscholarship.gov/2006-scholars/ |access-date=2023-10-13 |website=Goldwater Scholarship |language=en}}</ref>
* 2007 [Computing Research Association](/source/Computing_Research_Association) Outstanding Undergraduate Award Winner<ref>{{Cite web |title=2007 Outstanding Undergraduate Award Winners |url=https://archive.cra.org/Activities/awards/undergrad/2007.html |access-date=2023-10-13 |website=CRA |language=en}}</ref>
* 2007 Moses Taylor Pyne Honor Prize<ref>{{Cite web  |last=Stevens |first=Ruth |date=2007-02-24 |title=Princeton gives highest awards to top students  |url=https://www.princeton.edu/news/2007/02/24/princeton-gives-highest-awards-top-students |access-date=2023-10-12 |website=Princeton |language=en}}</ref>
* 2009 Second Place in the $1 million [Netflix Prize](/source/Netflix_Prize) competition for collaborative filtering<ref>{{Cite web |last=Jackson |first=Dan |date=2017-07-07 |title=The Netflix Prize: How a $1 Million Contest Changed Binge-Watching Forever |url=https://www.thrillist.com/entertainment/nation/the-netflix-prize |access-date=2023-10-11 |website=Thrillist |language=en}}</ref><ref>{{Cite web |last=Crowley |first=Magdalene L. |date=2017-07-10 |title=The tale of Lester Mackey's pursuit of the Netflix Prize |url=https://eecs.berkeley.edu/news/2017/07/tale-lester-mackeys-pursuit-netflix-prize |access-date=2023-10-11 |website=EECS at UC Berkeley |language=en}}</ref>
* 2010 Best Student Paper Award, [International Conference on Machine Learning](/source/International_Conference_on_Machine_Learning)<ref>{{Cite web |title=ICML 2010 - Awards |url=https://icml.cc/Conferences/2010/awards.html |access-date=2023-10-13 |website=ICML |language=en}}</ref>
* 2012 First Place in the ALS Prediction Prize4Life Challenge for predicting Lou Gehrig's disease progression<ref>{{Cite web  |last=Zakaib |first=Gwyneth |date=2012-11-15 |title=Contest Winners Offer Solutions for Tracking ALS
  |url=https://www.alzforum.org/news/research-news/contest-winners-offer-solutions-tracking-als?id=3320 |access-date=2023-10-13 |website=ALZ Forum |language=en}}</ref>
* 2019 Winner of [U.S. Bureau of Reclamation](/source/U.S._Bureau_of_Reclamation)'s Subseasonal Climate Forecast Rodeo<ref>{{Cite web |date=2019-03-07 |title=Teams complete Bureau of Reclamation's Sub-Seasonal Climate Forecast Rodeo — outperforming the baseline forecasts
|url=https://www.usbr.gov/newsroom/newsrelease/detail.cfm?RecordID=64969 |access-date=2023-10-13 |website=USBR |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20190929013341/https://www.usbr.gov/newsroom/newsrelease/detail.cfm?RecordID=64969
|archive-date=2019-09-29
|language=en}}</ref>
* 2022 Elected to the [Committee of Presidents of Statistical Societies](/source/Committee_of_Presidents_of_Statistical_Societies) Leadership Academy<ref>{{Cite web |title=ASA Community |url=https://community.amstat.org/ |access-date=2023-10-11 |website=community.amstat.org |language=en}}</ref>
* 2022 Outstanding Paper Award, [NeurIPS](/source/NeurIPS)<ref>{{Cite web |last=Chairs 2023 |first=Communications |date=2022-11-21 |title=Announcing the NeurIPS 2022 Awards – NeurIPS Blog |url=https://blog.neurips.cc/2022/11/21/announcing-the-neurips-2022-awards/ |access-date=2023-10-11 |language=en-US}}</ref>
* 2023 [Ethel Newbold Prize](/source/Ethel_Newbold)<ref>{{Cite web |title=Bernoulli Society News |url=https://www.bernoullisociety.org/news |access-date=2023-10-11 |website=www.bernoullisociety.org}}</ref>
* 2023 Elected Fellow of the [Institute of Mathematical Statistics](/source/Institute_of_Mathematical_Statistics)<ref>{{Cite web |title=Institute of Mathematical Statistics {{!}} 2023 IMS Fellows Announced |url=https://imstat.org/2023/05/02/2023-ims-fellows-announced/ |access-date=2023-10-11 |language=en}}</ref>
* 2023 [MacArthur Fellowship](/source/MacArthur_Fellows_Program)<ref name=":1" />
* 2024 Elected [Fellow of the American Statistical Association](/source/List_of_fellows_of_the_American_Statistical_Association)<ref name="ASA Fellows 2024">{{cite web|url=https://www.amstat.org/docs/default-source/amstat-documents/pdfs/fellows/Fellows2024.pdf|title=ASA Fellows 2024|publisher=[American Statistical Association](/source/American_Statistical_Association)|access-date=May 31, 2024}}</ref>

== Selected publications ==
* {{Cite Q|Q123016814}}
* {{Cite Q|Q123016825}}
* {{Cite Q|Q77680580}}

== References ==
{{Reflist}}

{{authority control}}

{{DEFAULTSORT:Mackey, Lester}}
Category:Living people
Category:Year of birth missing (living people)
Category:People from Long Island
Category:Princeton University alumni
Category:University of California, Berkeley alumni
Category:Microsoft employees
Category:MacArthur Fellows
Category:African-American statisticians
Category:21st-century American statisticians
Category:21st-century American scientists
Category:American computer scientists
Category:African-American computer scientists
Category:Stanford University Department of Statistics faculty
Category:Fellows of the American Statistical Association
Category:Research Science Institute alumni
Category:21st-century African-American scientists

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Adapted from the Wikipedia article [Lester Mackey](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lester_Mackey) by Wikipedia contributors ([contributor history](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lester_Mackey?action=history)). Available under [Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 International](https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/). Changes may have been made.