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March 2013 • Issue #429 AMSTATNEWS The Membership Magazine of the American Statistical Association • http://magazine.amstat.org ASA Board of Directors Candidates ALSO: Statistical Research Grants from the NIH Not Everything That Counts Can Be Counted AMSTATNews MARCH 2013 • Issue #429 Executive Director Ron Wasserstein: [email protected] Associate Executive Director and Director of Operations Stephen Porzio: [email protected] features Director of Programs 3 President’s Corner Lynn Palmer: [email protected] 5 Post-Enumeration Surveys in Africa Director of Science Policy Steve Pierson: [email protected] 7 The Future of ASA’s Electronic Publications, Part 2 Director of Education 8 ASA Welcomes Lynn Palmer, Director of Programs Rebecca Nichols [email protected] 9 Villanova to Host Nonclinical Biostatistics Conference Managing Editor Megan Murphy: [email protected] 10 Web-Based Training Program Continues to Be Successful Production Coordinators/Graphic Designers 11 Midwest Biopharmaceutical Statistics Workshop on Tap Melissa Muko Gotherman: [email protected] for May Kathryn Wright: [email protected] Publications Coordinator 12 ASA Board of Directors Candidates Val Nirala: [email protected] 31 Biopharmaceutical Symposium to Offer Tutorials, Advertising Manager Short Courses Claudine Donovan: [email protected] Contributing Staff Members Pam Craven • Melissa Muko Gotherman Lynn Palmer • Rick Peterson columns Amstat News welcomes news items and letters from readers on matters of interest to the association and the profession. Address correspondence to Managing Editor, Amstat News, American Statistical Association, 732 North 22 FUNDING OPPORTUNITIES Washington Street, Alexandria VA 22314-1943 USA, or email amstat@ Statistical Research Grants from the NIH 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). This column highlights research activities that may be of interest to ASA members. This Material can be sent as a Microsoft Word document, PDF, or within an email. article includes information about new research solicitations and the federal budget for Articles will be edited for space. Accompanying artwork will be accepted statistics. Comments or suggestions for future articles may be sent to the Amstat News in graphics file formats only (.jpg, etc.), minimum 300 dpi. No material in managing editor at [email protected]. WordPerfect will be accepted. Amstat News (ISSN 0163-9617) is published monthly by the American Contributing Editor Statistical Association, 732 North Washington Street, Alexandria VA 22314- 1943 USA. Periodicals postage paid at Alexandria, Virginia, and additional Jeremy M G Taylor is a professor of biostatistics at the University of mailing offices. POSTMASTER: Send address changes to Amstat News, 732 Michigan. He completed his education at Cambridge University and the North Washington Street, Alexandria VA 22314-1943 USA. Send Canadian University of California at Berkeley. He is co-editor of Biometrics. address changes to APC, PO Box 503, RPO West Beaver Creek, Rich Hill, 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. Taylor American Statistical Association 732 North Washington Street Alexandria, VA 22314–1943 USA 31 MASTER'S NOTEBOOK (703) 684–1221 • FAX: (703) 684-2037 Not Everything That Counts Can Be Counted ASA GENERAL: [email protected] ADDRESS CHANGES: [email protected] This column is written for statisticians with master's degrees and highlights areas of AMSTAT EDITORIAL: [email protected] employment that will benefit statisticians at the master's level. Comments and sug- ADVERTISING: [email protected] gestions should be sent to Megan Murphy, Amstat News managing editor, at megan@ WEBSITE: http://magazine.amstat.org amstat.org. Printed in USA © 2013 American Statistical Association Contributing Editor Jean Adams is a statistician with the U.S. Geological Survey - Great Lakes Science Center and the Great Lakes Fishery Commission, both headquar- tered in Ann Arbor, Michigan. She earned a master’s degree in statistics from the University of Wisconsin - Madison and gained many valuable Promoting the Practice and Profession of StatisticsTM life lessons from two years with the Peace Corps in Papua New Guinea. Adams The American Statistical Association is the world’s largest community of statisticians. The ASA supports excellence in the development, application, and dissemination of statistical science through meetings, publications, membership services, 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. columns 32 STATtr@k Turn Off the TV and Volunteer at the ASA STATtr@k is a column in Amstat News and a website geared toward people who are in a statistics program, recently graduated from a statistics program, or recently entered the job world. To read more articles like this one, visit the website at http://stattrak.amstat.org. 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 Janet Buckingham is a staff analyst at Southwest Research Institute in San Antonio, Texas. She works with teams of engineers, scientists, and analysts by applying statistical techniques to solve problems benefiting govern- ment, industry, and the public through innovative science and technology. For more than 27 years, she has volunteered on ASA chapters, sections, task forces, and committees. She currently serves on the ASA Board of Buckingham Directors as a Council of Sections representative. 34 175 An ASA Hall of Fame The AsA will celebrate its 175th anniversary in 2014. In preparation, column “175”— Make the most of your ASA membership written by members of the ASA’s 175th Anniversary Steering Committee and other ASA Visit the ASA Members Only site: members—will chronicle the theme chosen for the celebration, status of preparations, activities to take place, and, best yet, how you can get involved in propelling the ASA www.amstat.org/membersonly. toward its bicentennial. Visit the ASA Calendar of Events, an online Contributing Editor database of statistical happenings across the Stephen M. Stigler (PhD Berkeley) taught at the University of Wisconsin - Madison before moving in 1979 to The University of Chicago. He served globe. Announcements are accepted from as editor of JASA Theory and Methods from 1978–1981 and president educational and not-for-profit organizations. of the Institute for Mathematical Statistics and International Statistical Institute. His publications include the books The History of Statistics To view the complete list of statistics meetings (1986) and Statistics on the Table (1999). and workshops, visit www.amstat.org/dateline. Stigler Many of the sections and committees sponsor events and host workshops and meetings. For details about these events and other news, make sure you visit our section, departments chapter, and committee pages online at 36 international year of statistics http://magazine.amstat.org. university of Limpopo to Commemorate statistics2013 as Host of SASA 37 education usCOTs Features Blend of Workshop Opportunities Follow us on Twitter @AmstatNews member news Join the ASA Community http://community.amstat.org/Home 38 People News 41 Section • Chapter • Committee News Like us on Facebook 42 Calendar of Events 44 Professional Opportunities 2 amstat news march 2013 president's corner Doctoral Training in Statistics and Biostatistics: Where Are We Headed? t has been 26 years since I began my academic observation, and so forth are generating massive career, joining the department of statistics at new data structures. These Big Data—big news North Carolina State University as an assistant these days, as past-president Bob Rodriguez dis- Iprofessor. But it doesn’t seem like it’s been that long cussed in his June 2012 column (http://magazine. (or that I could be this old). Maybe that’s because amstat.org/blog/2012/06/01/prescorner)—pose I’ve had such a good time. enormous new analytic and computational prob- What I have enjoyed most is working with stu- lems, and, as Bob argues, statisticians must bring dents and thinking about how best to train them, their unique understanding of uncertainty and the particularly at the PhD level. Over this period, I threats of bias, confounding, and false discovery have developed and taught many courses and been to the table. The rapid pace of new breakthroughs involved in curriculum revision and innovation. begs the question of whether our curricula require And I’ve seen our field evolve from one that, within more than incremental revision. Marie Davidian academia, stressed the mathematical aspects of sta- Our PhDs must graduate with the analytic and tistics to one that has become much more applica- computational skills to confront this age of massive tion and computation driven. data and with foundational mastery of our disci- This evolution has inspired my department and pline. They must also have the communication and others to review our curricula periodically and intro- leadership skills to work in an interdisciplinary set- duce new courses, exam structures, and so on. At