Nate Silver to speak at Ripon College

RIPON - A political blogger and statistician who shot to fame during the last two presidential elections is set to speak to graduates of Ripon College this spring.

Nate Silver is set to speak at the college's May 12 commencement ceremony, the college announced.

Silver first gained prominence in 2008, when his FiveThirtyEight blog correctly predicted the results of the primary and general presidential elections in 49 states. In 2012, he correctly predicted the outcomes for all 50 states and the District of Columbia.

Silver's blog has become a feature of the New York Times and he frequently writes for the newspaper.

Before turning his attention to politics, Silver broke down statistics for "Baseball Prospectus."

"Nate Silver has ushered in a new wave of political analysis with his use of statistics to pinpoint predictions in elections. He has been a leader in using mathematics to predict the future from politics to sports to even forecasting the winners of the Academy Awards," Ripon College president Zach Messitte said in a news release. "We are excited that a speaker of Nate Silver's caliber and prominence will address our 2013 graduates."

Ripon College also plans to bestow an honorary degree on Steven Brams, a game theorist and political science professor at New York University.

Brams and Silver are scheduled to speak together in a public forum on the issue of data and decisions May 12 on the Ripon campus.

• Click here for more on Ripon's 2013 commencement ceremonies