Recent graduate Federico A. Veneri Guarch has been named the winner of the 2025 Statistics in Defense and National Security (SDNS) Student Paper Competition for his manuscript, Synthetic Anchoring Under the Specific Source Problem. He will present his research in an invited session at the 2025 DATAWorks conference in April.
Veneri Guarch’s work focuses on improving source identification methods, a key problem in forensic science and national security. His approach introduces a resampling technique to generate synthetic data, enhancing score-based likelihood ratio systems used in cases where traditional probabilistic modeling is impractical. His findings demonstrate improved performance in forensic applications such as handwriting and glass analysis.
Originally from Uruguay, Veneri Guarch joined the statistics Ph.D. program in 2019 and conducted research with the Center for Statistics and Applications in Forensic Evidence (CSAFE).
The SDNS Student Paper Competition recognizes outstanding research in statistics related to defense and national security. Winners receive a plaque and a $1,000 travel award to present their work at an American Statistical Association-sponsored conference.
Congratulations to Fede on this achievement!