The programs' principal homes are in the Stewart School of Industrial & Systems Engineering (ISyE) and are jointly affiliated with the School of Mathematics.

 “The OR program in ISyE, especially the optimization component, has been well recognized internationally and viewed as the crown jewel of ISyE. Statistics received a big boost about 11 years ago and has quickly built its strength to reach international acclaim. ISyE is unique in that it is one of the only departments or schools in the country that has major programs in both operations research (OR) and statistics in the same unit,” commented Professor George Nemhauser, ISyE’s A. Russell Chandler Chair, who leads ISyE’s OR area.

Professor Jeff Wu, ISyE’s Coca-Cola Chair in Engineering Statistics, who leads statistics area added, “Both programs take pride in having done innovative and high impact research and also in educating a generation of doctoral students who have taken major positions in academia and industry. The synergy between the two disciplines is critical to the important emerging field of big data analytics in which we plan to play a major role.”

Georgia Tech is in good company in this ranking; the top five are Stanford University, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, University of California at Berkeley, Harvard University, and the Georgia Institute of Technology.

"Georgia Tech's statistics programs are highly regarded because of the efforts of many world-class faculty members working in a variety of areas, ranging from the theoretical and mathematical aspects through applications to engineering, science, and computing," said Doug Ulmer, chair of the School of Mathematics.