Professor
Science, Technology & Mathematics /
Mathematics
Hall Memorial Building S340F
Dr. Regina Nuzzo has been teaching math since 1985, when she started freelance tutoring in junior high. She went on to get a bachelor's degree in Industrial Engineering at the University of South Florida in 1996 and a Ph.D. in Statistics in 2003 from Stanford University, where she taught statistics to undergraduate, graduate and medical students. She is also a 2004 graduate of the Science Writing program at the University of California-Santa Cruz, where she learned to write about math, science, and health for a variety of audiences.
Dr. Nuzzo's writing has appeared in the New York Times, Los Angeles Times, ESPN the Magazine, Reader's Digest, Scientific American, New Scientist, Science News, and Nature, among others. She was a guest on NBC's Today show (video) in 2008 to discuss her popular LA Times article on evolutionary psychology and dating. Her feature article on p-values earned her the American Statistical Association's 2014 Excellence in Statistical Reporting Award, and she facilitated the working group that produced the precedent-setting 2016 ASA P-Values Statement.
She has been invited to speak across the United States and in a dozen countries about statistical significance, how not to fool yourself or others with statistics, and how to communicate statistics in creative, surprising, and human-centered ways. She also gives workshops for various groups on how to write clearly for non-scientists and on demystifying the writing process. Dr. Nuzzo uses a cochlear implant as well as ASL and credits her deafness as the root of her life-long passion for clear and engaging communication.
In addition to her work at Gallaudet, Dr. Nuzzo is currently the Senior Advisor for Statistics Communication and Media Innovation at the American Statistical Association.