DOCSLIB.ORG

AMSTATNEWS the Membership Magazine of the American Statistical Association •

Total Page：16

File Type：pdf, Size：1020Kb

Download full-text PDF Read full-text
AMSTATNEWS the Membership Magazine of the American Statistical Association • January 2015 • Issue #451 AMSTATNEWS The Membership Magazine of the American Statistical Association • http://magazine.amstat.org AN UPDATE to the American Community Survey Program ALSO: Guidelines for Undergraduate Programs in Statistical Science Updated Meet Brian Moyer, Director of the Bureau of Economic Analysis AMSTATNEWS JANUARY 2015 • ISSUE #451 Executive Director Ron Wasserstein: [email protected] Associate Executive Director and Director of Operations Stephen Porzio: [email protected] features Director of Science Policy 3 President’s Corner Steve Pierson: [email protected] 5 Highlights of the November 2014 ASA Board of Directors Director of Education Meeting Rebecca Nichols: [email protected] 7 ASA Leaders Reminisce: Meet ASA Past President Managing Editor Megan Murphy: [email protected] Marie Davidian Production Coordinators/Graphic Designers 11 Benefits of the New All-Member Forum Sara Davidson: [email protected] Megan Ruyle: [email protected] 12 ASA, STATS.org Partner to Help Raise Media Statistical Literacy Publications Coordinator 13 White House Issues Policy Directive Bolstering Federal Val Nirala: [email protected] Statistical Agencies Advertising Manager 14 An Update to the American Community Survey Program Claudine Donovan: [email protected] 17 CHANCE Highlights: Special Issue Devoted to Women in Contributing Staff Members Statistics Jeff Myers • Amy Farris • Alison Smith 18 JQAS Highlights: Football, Golf, Soccer, Fly-Fishing Featured Amstat News welcomes news items and letters from readers on matters in December Issue of interest to the association and the profession. Address correspondence to Managing Editor, Amstat News, American Statistical Association, 732 North Washington Street, Alexandria VA 22314-1943 USA, or email amstat@ 19 NISS Meeting Addresses Transition amstat.org. Items must be received by the first day of the preceding month to ensure appearance in the next issue (for example, June 1 for the July issue). 21 IHIS Data Available Online Material can be sent as a Microsoft Word document, PDF, or within an email. Articles will be edited for space. Accompanying artwork will be accepted 21 Obesity Research Short Course Planned in graphics file formats only (.jpg, etc.), minimum 300 dpi. No material in WordPerfect will be accepted. Amstat News (ISSN 0163-9617) is published monthly by the American 22 Meet Brian Moyer, Director of the Bureau of Economic Analysis Statistical Association, 732 North Washington Street, Alexandria VA 22314- 1943 USA. Periodicals postage paid at Alexandria, Virginia, and additional 23 Center for Statistics and Machine Learning Established mailing offices. POSTMASTER: Send address changes to Amstat News, 732 at Princeton North Washington Street, Alexandria VA 22314-1943 USA. Send Canadian address changes to APC, PO Box 503, RPO West Beaver Creek, Rich Hill, 24 Ingram Olkin: Mentor to Many ON L4B 4R6. Annual subscriptions are $50 per year for nonmembers. Amstat News is the member publication of the ASA. For annual membership rates, see www.amstat.org/join or contact ASA Member Services at (888) 231-3473. American Statistical Association 732 North Washington Street Alexandria, VA 22314–1943 USA columns (703) 684–1221 • FAX: (703) 684-2037 ASA GENERAL: [email protected] 27 STATtr@k ADDRESS CHANGES: [email protected] AMSTAT EDITORIAL: [email protected] How to Work with Data Scientists ADVERTISING: [email protected] STATtr@k is a column in Amstat News and a website geared toward people who are in a WEBSITE: http://magazine.amstat.org statistics program, recently graduated from a statistics program, or recently entered the Printed in USA © 2015 job world. To read more articles like this one, visit the website at http://stattrak.amstat.org. American Statistical Association If you have suggestions for future articles, or would like to submit an article, please email Megan Murphy, Amstat News managing editor, at [email protected]. Contributing Editor Ryan J. Machtmes, GStat, is an independent research consultant Promoting the Practice and Profession of Statistics® and mathematical statistician, member of the ASA Committee on Statistics and Disability, and accredited graduate statistician The American Statistical Association is the world’s largest of the American Statistical Association. He is a longtime mem- community of statisticians. The ASA supports excellence in ber of the American Statistical Association and the Phi Kappa Phi the development, application, and dissemination of statistical honor society. science through meetings, publications, membership services, Machtmes education, accreditation, and advocacy. Our members serve in industry, government, and academia in more than 90 countries, advancing research and promoting sound statistical practice to inform public policy and improve human welfare. SOCIAL CHATTER What followers are saying online departments What people are tweeting: 29 education Guidelines for Undergraduate Programs in Statistical Carl Zimmer • @carlzimmer • Nov. 25 Science Updated @edyng209 I think a call to a statistician for comment is in order whenever reporting a psychology story. Ed Yong • @edyong209 • Nov. 25 @carlzimmer I agree! But Andrew Gelman is going to get really bored at some point ;) Jason H. Moore • @moorejh • Nov. 24 RT @CompSciFact: “if you don't make mistakes, you're not working hard enough on problems. And that is a big mistake.” — Frank Wilczek Rhonda Drake • @rkdrake • Nov. 4 LinkedIn: Most Misunderstood Jobs – Business Insider read.bi/1vEVWC #datascientist and #actuary among those. @amstatnews @pddrake member news Rasmus Bååth • @rabaath • Nov. 22 My “Brief Review of All Comic Books 31 People News Teaching Statistics” made it all the way to 34 Awards and Deadlines CHANCE magazine :) chance.amstat.org 35 Section • Chapter • Committee News Beth Newman • @akathenerdygirl 38 Calendar of Events • Nov. 22 41 Professional Opportunities Chandra Erdman talks about how she uses her #stats degree @thisisstats @uscensusbureau http://bit.ly/1wAYPaj #WomenInSTEM #STEM Follow us on Twitter @AmstatNews Join the ASA Community http://community.amstat.org/Home Like us on Facebook 2 amstat news january 2015 president's corner Greetings and New Initiatives Happy New Year to all and a special thanks do so after we graduated. For some, a more experi- to the hundreds of members who contrib- enced colleague at work has shown an interest and ute their time supporting our chapters, provided important guidance at critical points in Asections, committees, meetings, and other ASA our growth. Beyond these, however, I believe the activities. Point of fact, since ASA must report ASA can increase opportunities to find a mentor, annually to the IRS regarding our 501(c)(3) sta- as well as to be one, serving many of our members tus, we estimate that almost 1,800 members pro- in the process! vide considerable volunteer time that benefits the We are fortunate to have the creativity and ener- association. I’d like to speak specifically about five gy of Eric Vance, assistant research professor and such volunteers for a moment. director of LISA (Virginia Tech’s Laboratory for As 2014 came to a close, the ASA Board gave Interdisciplinary Statistical Analysis), to help expand a round of applause to these outgoing board mentoring within our association. Serving on both members who served the association with their the Conference on Statistical Practice (CSP) steer- energy and creativity: Marie Davidian, past presi- ing committee and the Committee for Applied dent; Martha Gardner, vice president; David Statisticians (CAS), he has helped form mentoring Banks, publications representative; Nick Horton, pairs in the ASA via the CAS Clearinghouse, as well Council of Chapters representative; and Janet as at the 2014 CSP and JSM. He’s already hard at Buckingham, Council of Sections representative. work planning similar activities for the 2015 CSP You’ve been wonderful colleagues to learn from, and JSM! Eric and I will talk more about mentoring, David Morganstein work with, and laugh with while on the board! both creating mentoring pairs and honoring notable I suspect we’ll all continue to hear about future mentors, in a future President’s Corner. efforts you undertake on behalf of the member- JSM Docents (which supports Meetings under ship and the profession. the “Big Tent” theme). Fortunately, JSM continues to grow! More members are attending, with a record Overview of Initiatives 6,800+ in attendance during JSM 2014 in Boston. I’d like to use this month’s column to give you an If you’re a regular attendee, you may feel comfort- overview of four new initiatives for 2015: expand- able coming to such a large event with so many ing and recognizing mentoring, providing docents activities and simultaneous sessions and networking at JSM to offer guidance for first-time attend- with familiar faces. However, can you remember ees, establishing a Stat 101 toolkit for instructors what it was like the first time you attended? Did it in non-stat programs, and providing a blog on all seem a bit formidable? things statistical. The first two are inward looking, Mary Kwasny, associate professor in preventive aimed at providing value directly to members. The medicine-biostatistics at Northwestern University second two will improve our professional visibility. Feinberg School of Medicine, remembers. She These four ideas were developed with valuable agreed to create a docent program that identified input from ASA Board members and former ASA dozens of volunteer members who had only been presidents, for which I’m appreciative. As with pre- to a few JSMs. She located colleagues who were vious years’ initiatives, they align with the ASA’s very much in touch with feeling overwhelmed and strategic plan, as I’ll describe below. who wanted to help make JSM more inviting for Mentoring (which supports Membership some of the more than 1,000 first-time attendees! Growth under the theme “The ASA as ‘The Big Her team of volunteer guides was identifiable by Tent for Statistics’ ”). Many of us were fortunate a new purple badge and introduced at the first- to have at least one person who affected our career timers’ mixer on Sunday afternoon.
Load more

Recommended publications
  • Developing Statistical Literacy in Mathematics Education?
    Iddo GAL, Haifa Developing statistical literacy in mathematics education? Navigating between current gaps and new needs and contents Abstract: This paper summarizes selected points raised during my plenary talk, which examined challenges facing the promotion of statistical literacy and statistical ideas within mathematics education, and pointed to some new developments related to statistical literacy. The paper focuses on one of these new developments, i.e., ideas regarding the knowledge and skills related to engaging with "civic statistics", based on work by ProCivicStat project, and on some implications. Introduction: About statistical literacy The place of statistics education within mathematics education has been problematic for many years, and continues to challenge mathematics educators and mathematicians, as well as school systems. This is despite the fact that "Data and Chance," "Statistics and Probability," or "Stochastics" are a major sub-area in the mathematics curriculum in all western countries. Within the domain of statistics education, teaching for the development of statistical literacy has a special place. Statistical literacy is a construct related to adult numeracy (Gal, 1997) and mathematical literacy, but goes beyond them. It refers to comprehension of and engagement with statistical messages that may appear in the media, at work, and other contexts. Statistical Literacy has been defined in several ways in the literature (Haack, 1979). My own definition (Gal, 2002) reads: “The motivation and ability to access, understand, interpret, critically evaluate, and if relevant express opinions, regarding statistical messages, data-related arguments, or issues involving uncertainty and risk” The definition above implies that statistical literacy is part of a larger family of "literacies" or competencies that all adults are expected to possess, including not only numeracy but also scientific literacy, financial literacy, health literacy, and more.
    [Show full text]
  • 13Th International Workshop on Matrices and Statistics Program And
    13th International Workshop on Matrices and Statistics B¸edlewo, Poland August 18–21, 2004 Program and abstracts Organizers • Stefan Banach International Mathematical Center, Warsaw • Committee of Mathematics of the Polish Academy of Sciences, Warsaw • Faculty of Mathematics and Computer Science, Adam Mickiewicz Uni- versity, Pozna´n • Institute of Socio-Economic Geography and Spatial Management, Faculty of Geography and Geology, Adam Mickiewicz University, Pozna´n • Department of Mathematical and Statistical Methods, Agricultural Uni- versity, Pozna´n This meeting has been endorsed by the International Linear Algebra Society. II Sponsors of the 13th International Workshop on Matrices and Statistics III Mathematical Research and Conference Center in B¸edlewo IV edited by A. Markiewicz Department of Mathematical and Statistical Methods, Agricultural University, Pozna´n,Poland and W. Wo ly´nski Faculty of Mathematics and Computer Science, Adam Mickiewicz University, Pozna´n,Poland Contents Part I. Introduction Poetical Licence The New Intellectual Aristocracy ............ 3 Richard William Farebrother Part II. Local Information Part III. Program Part IV. Ingram Olkin Ingram Olkin, Statistical Statesman .......................... 21 Yadolah Dodge Why is matrix analysis part of the statistics curriculum ...... 25 Ingram Olkin A brief biography and appreciation of Ingram Olkin .......... 31 A conversation with Ingram Olkin ............................ 34 Bibliography .................................................. 58 Part V. Abstracts Asymptotic
    [Show full text]
  • Marie Davidian
    Marie Davidian Department of Statistics, Box 8203 Office: 5124 SAS Hall 2311 Stinson Drive Phone: 919-515-1940, Fax: 919-515-7591 North Carolina State University Email: [email protected] Raleigh NC 27695-8203 Web: http://www4.stat.ncsu.edu/∼davidian Education 1980 B.S., Applied Mathematics, University of Virginia School of Engineering and Applied Science 1981 M.S., Applied Mathematics, University of Virginia School of Engineering and Applied Science 1987 Ph.D., Statistics, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill Professional Positions 2017{ J. Stuart Hunter Distinguished Professor of Statistics, College of Sciences, North Carolina State University 2012{ Cluster Coordinator, Precision Medicine Faculty Cluster, North Carolina State University 2007{2013 Director, Center for Quantitative Sciences in Biomedicine, North Carolina State University 2006{ Member, Comparative Medicine Institute, North Carolina State University 2006{ Program Director, Integrated Biostatistical Training for CVD Research (NIH Predoctoral Training Grant Program), North Carolina State University/Duke University 2005{2017 William Neal Reynolds Professor of Statistics, College of Agriculture and Life Sciences, North Carolina State University 2004{2019 Program Director, Summer Institute in Biostatistics (SIBS; NIH Undergraduate Summer Research Education Program), North Carolina State University/Duke University 2003{ Associate Faculty Member, Center for Research in Scientific Computation, North Carolina State University 2001{ Adjunct Professor, Department of Biostatistics
    [Show full text]
  • Adult Literacy Programs of the Future
    DOCUMENT RESUME ED 317 976 CS 010 024 AUTHOR Powell, William R. TITLE Adult Literacy Programs of the Future. PUB DATE May 90 NOTE 23p.; Paper presented at the Annual Meeting of the International Reading AssociatIon (35th, Atlanta, GA, May 6-11, 1990). PUB TYPE Speeches/Conference Papers (150) -- Viewpoints (120) EDRS PRICE MF01/PC01 Plus Postage. DESCRIPTORS Adult Basic Eduilation; *Adult Literacy; Educational Policy; Functiclal Literacy; *Futures (of Society); *Government Role; *Literacy; World Problems ABSTRACT The retention factor of literacy must be the target variable in any projection of literacy programs of the future. Further, the success of literacy programs of the future is contingent upon the resolution of three major problem areas:(1) the concept of literacy;(2) the programs of literacy; and (3) the politics of literacy. A concept of literacy is needed for the stabilization of what precisely constitutes literacy. A concept provides a more enduring description, definitions do riot. The central issue is: When is an individual permanently literate, now and forever? The adult literacy efforts of the past have been piece-meal, haphazard, and spasmodic at best. This is not to belittle the remarkable attempts, but only to admit the obvious. The fact that the level of basic literacy is attainable for nearly 100% of any population in any culture in any sovereign country does not speak well for the governing groups which are responsible for education. Governmental commitment, professional involvement, and "turfism" will have to change to enhance the future of adult literacy programs. (One figure is included; 18 references are attached.) (RS) *********************************************************************** Reproductions supplied by EDRS are the best that can be made from the original document.
    [Show full text]
  • Three Kinds of Statistical Literacy: What Should We Teach?
    ICOTS6, 2002: Schield THREE KINDS OF STATISTICAL LITERACY: WHAT SHOULD WE TEACH? Milo Schield Augsburg College Minneapolis USA Statistical literacy is analyzed from three different approaches: chance-based, fallacy-based and correlation-based. The three perspectives are evaluated in relation to the needs of employees, consumers, and citizens. A list of the top 35 statistically based trade books in the US is developed and used as a standard for what materials statistically literate people should be able to understand. The utility of each perspective is evaluated by reference to the best sellers within each category. Recommendations are made for what content should be included in pre-college and college statistical literacy textbooks from each kind of statistical literacy. STATISTICAL LITERACY Statistical literacy is a new term and both words (statistical and literacy) are ambiguous. In today’s society literacy means functional literacy: the ability to review, interpret, analyze and evaluate written materials (and to detect errors and flaws therein). Anyone who lacks this type of literacy is functionally illiterate as a productive worker, an informed consumer or a responsible citizen. Functional illiteracy is a modern extension of literal literacy: the ability to read and comprehend written materials. Statistics have two functions depending on whether the data is obtained from a random sample. If a statistic is not from a random sample then one can only do descriptive statistics and statistical modeling even if the data is the entire population. If a statistic is from a random sample then one can also do inferential statistics: sampling distributions, confidence intervals and hypothesis tests.
    [Show full text]
  • Virginia Mathematics Teacher
    Virginia Mathematics Teacher Volume 37, No. 2 Spring, 2011 The Five Platonic Solids A Resource Journal for Mathematics Teachers at all Levels. Virginia MatheMatics teacher Volume 37, No. 2 Spring, 2011 The VIRGINIA MATHEMATICS TABLE OF CONTENTS TEACHER (VMT) is published twice yearly by the Virginia Council of Teach- Grade Levels Titles and Authors ................................................................. Turn to Page ers of Mathematics. Non-profit organizations are granted permission to reprint articles appearing in the VMT provided that one copy of the General President’s Message ..........................................................................1 publication in which the material is reprinted is sent to the Editor and (Beth Williams) the VMT is cited as the original source. EDITORIAL STAFF General Statistical Outreach and the Census: A Summer David Albig, Editor, Learning Experience. ..........................................................................2 e-mail: [email protected] (Gail Englert) Radford University Editorial Panel General Teaching Time Savers: Reviewing Homework....................................3 Bobbye Hoffman Bartels, Christopher Newport University; (Jane M. Wilburne) David Fama, Germana Community College; Jackie Getgood, Spotsylvania County Mathematics Supervisor; Sherry Pugh, Southwest VA Governor’s School; General Enlivening School Mathematics Through the History Wendy Hageman-Smith, Longwood University; of Mathematics ...................................................................................4
    [Show full text]
  • New Tools to Improve Statistical Literacy – Developments and Projects
    New tools to improve statistical literacy – developments and projects - an ESS priority and reality Louise Corselli-Nordblad, Britta Gauckler Eurostat Paper prepared for the 16th Conference of IAOS OECD Headquarters, Paris, France, 19-21 September 2018 Session 3 E, Thursday, 20/09, 10h30: Improving statistical literacy Louise Corselli-Nordblad [email protected] European Commission-Eurostat Britta Gauckler [email protected] European Commission-Eurostat New tools to improve statistical literacy – developments and projects Prepared for the 16th Conference of the International Association of Official Statisticians (IAOS) OECD Headquarters, Paris, France, 19-21 September 2018 Note: This Paper should not be reported as representing the views of Eurostat. The views expressed are those of the authors. ABSTRACT The need for statistical organisations to invest in statistical literacy is commonly agreed and reinforced by the current concerns around "fake news". Yet, there are numerous open questions around how and what the official statistics community should best invest in this endeavour. An overarching strategy for the European Statistical System (ESS) is missing and one can question if in a fast-paced world a long-term strategy is useful to tackle the issues. As Wild puts it, the statistics education should invest in ways to "…deliver lasting benefits in a fast changing world."1 Under the ESS Vision 2020 project Digital communication, User analytics and Innovative products (DIGICOM) the ESS has started to invest in this area. Initiatives range from building new partnerships with the educational system, piloting innovative tools, such as gamification and competitions, to digital tools which explain statistics in a clear and easy way.
    [Show full text]
  • Teaching Statistics with a Critical Pedagogy
    TEACHING STATISTICS WITH A CRITICAL PEDAGOGY A Dissertation by TONI DIMELLA Submitted to the School of Graduate Studies at Appalachian State University in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of DOCTOR OF EDUCATION August 2019 Educational Leadership Doctoral Program Reich College of Education TEACHING STATISTICS WITH A CRITICAL PEDAGOGY A Dissertation by TONI DIMELLA August 2019 APPROVED BY: Tracy Goodson-Epsy, Ed.D Chairperson, Dissertation Committee Lisa Poling, Ph.D Member, Dissertation Committee Tracie Salinas, Ph.D Member, Dissertation Committee Vachel Miller, Ed.D Director, Educational Leadership Doctoral Program Mike McKenzie, Ph.D. Dean, Cratis D. Williams School of Graduate Studies Copyright by Toni DiMella 2019 All Rights Reserved Abstract TEACHING STATISTICS WITH A CRITICAL PEDAGOGY Toni DiMella A.A.S., SUNY Sullivan B.A., Mount Saint Mary College M.S.Ed., Mount Saint Mary College Ed.S., Appalachian State University Ed.D., Appalachian State University Dissertation Committee Chairperson: Dr. Tracy Goodson-Epsy After President Obama shifted the country’s focus from K-12 towards higher education, post-secondary schools found themselves under significant public, financial, and political pressure. To close the achievement gap and meet new standards of accountability, higher education institutions began looking for methods to increase student access and success. With a growing emphasis on degree completion and quantitative literacy, some researchers began to explore the use of critical pedagogies to better serve a more diverse population (Ukpokodu, 2011). This quantitative study measured the effectiveness of implementing a critical statistics pedagogy in an undergraduate introductory statistics classroom and its impact on course success, persistence, and mathematical empowerment.
    [Show full text]
  • Education Research 2007
    USING STATISTICS EFFECTIVELY in mathematics education research 2007 A report from a series of workshops organized by the American Statistical Association with funding from the National Science Foundation The American Statistical Association ® USING STATISTICS EFFECTIVELY IN MATHEMATICS EDUCATION RESEARCH A report from a series of workshops organized by the American Statistical Association with funding from the National Science Foundation Working Group on Statistics in Mathematics Education Research Richard Scheaffer, Chair Richard Lehrer Martha Aliaga Frank K. Lester Marie Diener-West Ingram Olkin Joan Garfield Dennis Pearl Traci Higgins Alan Schoenfeld Sterling Hilton Juliet Shaffer Gerunda Hughes Edward Silver Brian Junker William Smith Henry Kepner F. Michael Speed Jeremy Kilpatrick Patrick Thompson 2007 1 PREFACE This report had its genesis in a telephone call to the American Statistical Association (ASA) from the Education and Human Resources Directorate of the National Science Foundation. The essence of the questions asked was, “Can the statistics community offer any contributions to improving the quality of mathematics education research? If so, are you willing to contribute to discussions on the issue?” Knowing that mathematics education was in the national limelight and that statisticians value research on applied problems, the answer to both was a qualified “yes”, with the qualification being that ASA was not an education research organization and, if they were to be fruitful, the discussions would have to include mathematics education researchers. The initial discussion did, in fact, appear to be fruitful, leading to an NSF-funded project to hold a series of workshops that would bring together statisticians and mathematics education researchers for deeper discussions.
    [Show full text]
  • Tweedie Award: Po-Ling Loh the IMS Has Selectedpo-Ling Loh As the Winner of CONTENTS This Year’S Tweedie New Researcher Award
    Volume 48 • Issue 3 IMS Bulletin April/May 2019 Tweedie Award: Po-Ling Loh The IMS has selected Po-Ling Loh as the winner of CONTENTS this year’s Tweedie New Researcher Award. She is an 1 Po-Ling Loh receives Tweedie assistant professor in the Department of Statistics at New Researcher Award the University of Wisconsin–Madison, with secondary 2–3 Members’ news: Yoav appointments in the Department of Computer Benjamini; Zhen-Qing Chen; Sciences and the Department of Industrial & Systems Speakers at WC2020; David Engineering. She is also an affiliated faculty member of Hinkley the Wisconsin Institute for Discovery. Po-Ling Loh 4–5 Preview articles: Yoav The IMS Travel Awards Committee selected Benjamini, Charles Bordenave Po-Ling for “novel contributions in non-convex optimization, robust statistics, and statistical modeling and inference of random graphs and networks.” 5 Rollo Davidson Prize On receiving the news, she said, “I am very honored to be selected as this year’s 6 Recent papers: Stochastic recipient of the Tweedie award. I will strive to uphold Richard Tweedie’s illustrious Systems; Probability Surveys legacy of scholarship and service! I am also extremely grateful to my mentors in the 7 Meeting: Calcutta Triennial profession who nominated me for the award.” Symposium; Childcare grants Dr. Loh received her PhD—“High-dimensional statistics with systematically 8 Host the 11th World corrupted data”—in 2014 from the University of California, Berkeley, advised by Congress in 2024 Martin Wainwright, and before that her MS in Computer Science in 2013; her BS in Mathematics was from California Institute of Technology in 2009.
    [Show full text]
  • Department of Statistics Purdue University West Lafayette, Indiana 47907 Department of Statistics University of Washington Seatt
    CORE Metadata, citation and similar papers at core.ac.uk Provided by Elsevier - Publisher Connector A Brief Biography and Appreciation of Ingram Olkin* Leon Jay Gleser Department of Statistics Purdue University West Lafayette, Indiana 47907 Michael D. Perlman Department of Statistics University of Washington Seattle, Washington 98195 S. James Press Department of Statistics University of California Riverside, California 92521 and Allan R. Sampson Department of Mathematics and Statistics University of Pittsburgh Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania 15260 Ingrain Olkin, known affectionately to his friends in his youth as "Red," was born July 23, 1924 in Waterbury, Connecticut. He was the only child of Julius and Karola (Bander) Olkin. His family moved from Waterbury to New York City in 1934. Ingram graduated from the Bronx's DeWitt Clinton High School in 1941, and began studying statistics in the Mathematics Department at the City College of New York. After serving as a meteorologist in the Air Force during World War II (1943-1946), achieving the rank of First Lieu- tenant, Ingram resumed his studies at City College. He received his B.S. in mathematics in 1947. Ingrain then began graduate study in statistics at Columbia University, finishing his M.A. in mathematical statistics in 1949. He completed his * Reprinted with permission from Contributions to Probability and Statistics: Essays in Honor of Ingram Olkin (Leon Jay Gleser, Michael D. Perhnan, S. James Press, and Allan R. Sampson, Eds.), Springer-Verlag, 1989, pp. 3-5. LINEAR ALGEBRA AND ITS APPLICATIONS 199:1-15 (1994) 1 © Elsevier Science Inc., 1994 655 Avenue of the Americas,New York, NY 10010 0024-3795/94/$7.00 2 LEON J.
    [Show full text]
  • History of the Department of Statistics at Columbia University
    Columbia University Statistics Tian Zheng and Zhiliang Ying Statistical Activities at Columbia Before 1946 Statistical activities at Columbia predate the formation of the department. Faculty members from other disciplines had carried out research and instruction of sta- tistics, especially in the Faculty of Political Sciences (Anderson 1955). Harold Hotelling’s arrival in 1931, a major turning point, propelled Columbia to a position of world leadership in Statistics. Hotelling’s primary research activities were in Mathematical, Economics, and Statistics but his interests had increasingly shifted toward Statistics. According to Paul Samuelson (Samuelson 1960), ‘‘It was at Columbia, in the decade before World War II, that Hotelling became the Mecca towards whom the best young students of economics and mathematical statistics turned. Hotelling’s increasing preoccupation with mathematical statistics was that discipline’s gain but a loss to the literature of economics.’’ His many contributions include canonical correlation, principal components and Hotelling’s T2. In 1938, after attending a conference of the Cowles Commission for Research in Economics, Abraham Wald, concerned by the situation in Europe, decided to stay in the United States. With Hotelling’s assistance, Wald came to Columbia on A substantial part of this chapter was developed based on Professor T. W. Anderson’s speech during our department’s sixtieth year anniversary reunion. We thank Professor Anderson for his help (as a founding member of our department) during the preparation of this chapter, our current department faculty members, Professors Ingram Olkin, and and Tze Leung Lai for their comments and suggestions on earlier versions of this chapter. Columbia University, Room 1005 SSW, MC 4690 1255 Amsterdam Avenue, New York, NY 10027, USA T.
    [Show full text]