The William S. Connor Award is presented to the graduate student whom the faculty deems the most outstanding among those students passing the preliminary examinations during the current year. Thus, a winner is not selected until the beginning of the year following the year designated on the award. The award reads: Presented by the faculty of the Department of Statistics to outstanding Ph.D. candidates in memory of a former colleague Dr. William S. Connor scholar, teacher, and gentleman.
| 1967- B. R. Waldron | 1996- Jeffrey D. Maca |
| 1968- F. M. Speed | 1997- Christian Galindo |
| 1969- J. H. Matis | 1998- Birgir Hrafnkelsson |
| 1970- A. H. Feiveson | 1999- Christopher Shane Reese |
| 1971- M. D. McKay | 2000- Chunfeng Huang |
| 1973- R. L. Kodell | 2001- Stanley Pounds |
| 1974- L. D. Gianchetta | 2002- Daniel P. Gaile |
| 1975- R. K. Burdick | 2003- Tanya Apanasovich |
| 1976- David A. Lamb | 2004- Christie Spinka |
| 1977- Paul P. Biemer | 2005- Yehua Li |
| 1978- Randall L. Eubank | 2006- Arnab Maity |
| 1979- J. Richard Alldredge | 2007- Brad Barney |
| 1980- William J. Riley | 2007- Kristin Lennox |
| 1981- T. J. Woodfield | 2009- Xiaolei Xun |
| 1982- Philip C. Spector | 2010- Tanya Garcia |
| 1983- Anne T. Coleman | 2011- Qifan Song |
| 1984- Edgar W. Richardson | 2012- Kun Su |
| 1985- Katherine M. Ensor | 2013- Ya Su |
| 1985- Ronald H. Berdine | 2014- Jingnan Xue |
| 1986- Julia U. Oñate | 2015- Kejun He |
| 1987- Scott D. Grimshaw | 2015- Shiyuan He |
| 1988- William P. Alexander | 2016- Yabo Niu |
| 1989- Jangsun Baek | 2017- Zijuan Chen |
| 1990- James W. Hardin | 2018- Yan Zhong |
| 1991- Cheng Cheng | 2019- Zhao Tang Luo |
| 1992- Huay-Min Pu | 2020- Myeongjong Kang |
| 1993- Stephen Eckert | 2021- Hyunwoong Chang |
| 1994- Qinli Yu | |
| 1995- Andy Liaw |
