February 2013 • Issue #428 AMSTATNEWS The Membership Magazine of the American Statistical Association • http://magazine.amstat.org

ASA Members Rise to New High Annual Fund Drive contributions beat last year’s record

ALSO: 2012 Salary Survey of Biostatistics and Other Biomedical Statistics Departments and Units The Future of the ASA's Electronic Publications

AmstatNews February 2013 • Issue #428 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 Recognizing the ASA's Lifetime Members Director of Science Policy Steve Pierson: [email protected] 8 ASA Members Rise to New High Director of Education Annual Fund Drive contributions beat last year's record Rebecca Nichols [email protected] 14 2012 Salary Survey of Biostatistics and Other Biomedical Managing Editor Statistics Departments and Units Megan Murphy: [email protected] 16 Outreach Group Production Coordinators/Graphic Designers Statistics Without Borders Grows in Membership, Project Melissa Muko Gotherman: [email protected] Diversity Kathryn Wright: [email protected] 17 Preparing Master’s Statistics Students for Success: A Publications Coordinator Val Nirala: [email protected] Perspective from Recent Graduates and Employers

Advertising Manager 19 The Future of the ASA’s Electronic Publications [email protected] Claudine Donovan: 21 Stephen Fienberg Chosen as 22nd Pfizer Colloquium Contributing Staff Members Presenter Amy Farris • Jeff Myers • Eric Sampson • Kathleen Wert 22 NISS Director Provides Update on Institute Activities Amstat News welcomes news items and letters from readers on matters of interest to the association and the profession. Address correspondence to 23 Discover Statistical Analysis and Data Mining Journal Managing Editor, Amstat News, American Statistical Association, 732 North Washington Street, Alexandria VA 22314-1943 USA, or email amstat@ 24 Technometrics Highlights 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). Design and Analysis of Computer Experiments Featured in Material can be sent as a Microsoft Word document, PDF, or within an email. February Issue Articles will be edited for space. Accompanying artwork will be accepted in graphics file formats only (.jpg, etc.), minimum 300 dpi. No material in 26 Journal of Computational and Graphical Statistics Highlights WordPerfect will be accepted. Amstat News (ISSN 0163-9617) is published monthly by the American JCGS Celebrates International Year of Statistics Statistical Association, 732 North Washington Street, Alexandria VA 22314- 1943 USA. Periodicals postage paid at Alexandria, Virginia, and additional mailing offices. POSTMASTER: Send address changes to Amstat News, 732 New plaque North Washington Street, Alexandria VA 22314-1943 USA. Send Canadian honoring "Student" address changes to APC, PO Box 503, RPO West Beaver Creek, Rich Hill, William Gosset 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. See Page 21 American Statistical Association 732 North Washington Street Alexandria, VA 22314–1943 USA (703) 684–1221 • FAX: (703) 684-2037 ASA GENERAL: [email protected] columns ADDRESS CHANGES: [email protected] AMSTAT EDITORIAL: [email protected] ADVERTISING: [email protected] 27 175 WebSite: http://magazine.amstat.org My Friend Statistics Printed in USA © 2013 American Statistical Association The ASA will celebrate its 175th anniversary in 2014. In preparation, column “175”— written by members of the ASA’s 175th Anniversary Steering Committee and other ASA 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 toward its bicentennial. Promoting the Practice and Profession of Statistics Contributing Editor

The American Statistical Association is the world’s largest Robert Hogg has had a long and distinguished career as a statistics community of statisticians. The ASA supports excellence in professor at the University of Iowa and is recognized worldwide. the development, application, and dissemination of statistical Elected president of the ASA in 1988, he has been a member for more science through meetings, publications, membership services, than 40 years. 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 Hogg inform public policy and improve human welfare. columns 28 STATtr@k Statisticians' Place in Big Data 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 Sherri Rose is an NSF mathematical sciences postdoctoral research fellow in the department of biostatistics at the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health. Rose recently coauthored the book Targeted Learning: Causal Inference for Observational and Experimental Data with Mark van der Laan for the Springer Series in Statistics. Rose Online Articles The following articles in this issue can be found online 29 MASTER'S NOTEBOOK at http://magazine.amstat.org. My Climb Up the Corporate Ladder: Lessons Learned This column is written for statisticians with master's degrees and highlights areas of employment that will benefit statisticians at the master's level. Comments and sug- The 36th Midwest Biopharmaceutical Statistics gestions should be sent to Megan Murphy, Amstat News managing editor, at megan@ Workshop (MBSW)—cosponsored by the ASA’s amstat.org. Biopharmaceutical Section—will be held at Ball State Contributing Editor University in Muncie, Indiana, May 20–22. There will be Allison Florance is a director of statistics in the oncology early devel- four tracks: clinical; discovery/pre-clinical; chemistry, opment clinical sciences group at GlaxoSmithKline. She has more manufacturing, and controls; and health outcomes than 15 years of experience designing, analyzing, and reporting clinical trials in large pharma, academic, and CRO organizations. and observational research. For information, visit the She earned a BS in biology at St. Olaf College and an MS in statistics website at www.mbswonline.com or see Amstat News from Iowa State University. online at http://magazine.amstat.org. Florance

SAMSI is holding a summer program on Neuroimaging Data Analysis (NDA) June 4–14 in Research Triangle Park, North Carolina. The two-week workshop will begin with five days of training courses departments focused on structural and functional neuroimaging 31 international year of statistics data analysis and conclude with working groups International Year of Statistics Kicks Off held in the afternoons and a workshop held in the mornings. For details, visit http://magazine.amstat.org/ blog/2013/02/01/samsi-2/. 32 meetings Call for Proposals for Late-Breaking JSM Sessions 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, chapter, and committee pages online at http://magazine.amstat.org. member news 33 People News 36 Awards and Deadlines Follow us on Twitter @AmstatNews 38 Section • Chapter • Committee News Join the ASA Community http://community.amstat.org/Home 39 Calendar of Events 42 Professional Opportunities Like us on Facebook

2 amstat news february 2013 president's corner

Building the Statistical Work Force: Increasing the Pipeline of U.S. Students

t the November 2012 ASA Board of undergraduates are majoring in statistics in several Directors meeting, past-president Bob large departments nationwide. Rodriguez and I were pulled aside by ASA This is fantastic news! However, a persistent PublicA Relations Coordinator Jeff Myers. A Boston concern for more than a decade has been that U.S. Globe reporter was hoping to talk to someone for a students are not pursuing advanced degrees in sta- story on “the growing interest in statistics.” Her tistics, especially PhDs, in sufficient numbers to Marie Davidian timing was fortuitous, and Bob and I arranged a meet the demand. Even if the surge in interest at the phone interview with her. lower levels is leading to more U.S. students going As is often the case, most of what we said did on to graduate study of statistics, reports continue not make it into the final piece (http://tinyurl. to suggest it is not enough. com/cg9jhjy). Luckily, however, our plugs for A recent Nature article (www.nature.com/ the International Year of Statistics and the 2011 naturejobs/science/articles/10.1038/nj7384-263a) McKinsey Global Institute report, projecting cites a National Institutes of Health (NIH) sur- 140,000–190,000 new positions for individuals vey of statistical geneticists who report consider- with data analytic expertise by 2018 (www.mckinsey. able difficulty recruiting qualified candidates for com/insights/mgi/research/technology_and_innovation/ research positions. Directors at our U.S. federal big_data_the_next_frontier_for_innovation), did. statistical agencies repeatedly cite the dearth of The Globe article is just another in a series on U.S. citizens with the requisite skills for positions our field over the past few years. In The New York there. Reports by the NIH Advisory Committee Times alone, careers in statistics have been getting to the Director, Biomedical Workforce Working some great press: “For Today’s Graduate, Just One Group, and Data and Informatics Working Group Word: Statistics,” www.nytimes.com/2009/08/06/ (http://acd.od.nih.gov) call for more PhD biostatis- technology/06stats.html?_r=2& (2009); “What ticians and other quantitative scientists in health Are the Odds That Statistics Would Be This sciences research and greater NIH investment in Popular?” http://bits.blogs.nytimes.com/2012/01/26/ relevant training programs. Leaders of biosta- what-are-the-odds-that-stats-would-get-this-popular tistical units in research institutions nationwide (2012); and “The Age of Big Data,” www.nytimes. report their struggles to fill positions. com/2012/02/12/sunday-review/big-datas-impact-in- A decade ago, this concern was taken up in two the-world.html?pagewanted=all (2012). NIH workshops to “examine the need to train more This press might be contributing to growing biostatisticians in the U.S.,” summarized in a 2006 interest in statistics among U.S. students. As Bob’s Statistics in Medicine article (http://onlinelibrary.wiley. President’s Corner columns in the August and com/doi/10.1002/sim.2668/full) documenting the flat September 2012 issues of Amstat News report, the production of PhDs in biostatistics and the heighten- number of high-school students taking Advanced ing demand. Workshop leaders called for efforts to Placement (AP) Statistics has soared, increasing enhance awareness of careers in biostatistics for those 7% in the last year alone, and record numbers of with advanced training among U.S. undergraduates.

february 2013 amstat news 3 [R]eports of an insufficient number the original three sites plus Emory University; the Universities of Iowa, Pittsburgh, and South of U.S. students pursuing advanced Florida; and Washington University in St. Louis. In 2010–2011, there were 329 participants; among those eligible, more than 60% had gone statistics degrees continue. on to graduate school by fall 2011. Six programs have been funded for 2013–2015; sites offering programs in 2013 are listed on the NHLBI SIBS In 2003, responding to this challenge, the website at www.nhlbi.nih.gov/funding/training/ National Heart, Lung, and Blood Institute redbook/sibsweb.htm. (NHLBI) issued a request for applications (RFA) SIBS has exposed students to the exciting pos- for a Summer Institute for Training in Biostatistics sibilities presented by advanced study of statis- (SIBS), which would host undergraduates major- tics work. So much so that past-president Nancy ing in quantitative areas for six weeks, expose them Geller proposed as one of her presidential initia- to statistical principles and career opportunities in tives that the ASA design a solicitation and iden- biostatistics, and encourage them to pursue gradu- tify funding sources for a SIBS-like program for ate training. Three SIBS programs were awarded to statistics more generally. Boston University, the University of Wisconsin, and My SIBS experience has led me to follow up a joint North Carolina State University and Duke on Nancy’s proposal with my own initiative. It has Clinical Research Institute (NCSU-DCRI) team. been more than 10 years since the NIH workshops, For the past nine summers, I have co-directed which focused on biostatistics. While the anecdotal the NCSU-DCRI program and witnessed how reports of an insufficient number of U.S. students exposing undergraduates majoring in not only pursuing advanced statistics degrees continue, there statistics, but also mathematics, engineering, and has been no recent, systematic effort to document a host of disciplines, to the opportunities for PhD current and future work force needs, assess the ade- biostatisticians can inspire them to pursue graduate quacy of the pipeline to meet them, identify fruit- training. Through lectures on statistical methods ful recruitment strategies (like SIBS), and describe and case studies presented by practicing biostat- training experiences that will best prepare these stu- isticians and clinicians; field trips to sites such as dents for the expectations of employers in business, DCRI, the U.S. headquarters of GlaxoSmithKline, academia, and government. and SAS Institute; and data analysis projects based With so much positive coverage of our disci- on cardiovascular disease studies coordinated at pline, the time is ripe. By JSM 2013, a workgroup DCRI, we showcase the excitement and rewards of chaired by Lance Waller (also a SIBS director) with a career in the field. Our sister programs exploit members in academia, industry, and government their own local resources to do the same. plans to finalize a white paper similar to the 2006 The results have been inspiring. From 2004– article addressing these issues, including identify- 2009, 409 students attended these three programs ing potential funding sources for recruitment and and more than 65% went on to graduate programs training programs. The white paper will serve as a in biostatistics or statistics. Some, no doubt, would tool for engaging stakeholders and forging innova- have regardless, but program evaluations and fol- tive cross-sector partnerships focused on achieving low-up communications tell an encouraging story. the needed statistical work force. An initial meet- I could fill pages with comments like these: “I’m ing of stakeholders will take place in late 2013, leaving with a whole new appreciation for statistics. possibly at JSM. I never realized there was so much out there!” “I Please contact Lance if you have ideas or sug- wasn’t sure of my future plans before this program, gestions. I look forward to reporting to you on the but after participating in SIBS, I am undoubtedly workgroup’s progress. going to pursue a PhD in biostatistics.” “Without If you are interested in learning more about SIBS, SIBS, I would certainly not be on the path I am look for an article in CHANCE magazine, Volume now.” Numerous SIBS participants are now in 26, Number 1, or visit my website at www4.stat. graduate programs in statistics and biostatistics ncsu.edu/~davidian for slides from presentations I’ve across the United States, and several have earned given. And if you mentor undergraduates, encour- PhDs and hold positions in industry, govern- age them to apply! ment, and academia. This success led to a new SIBS RFA in 2009, resulting in eight programs in 2010–2012 at

4 amstat news february 2013 Recognizing the ASA’s Lifetime Members

he American Statistical Association would like to thank its life- time members. We are grateful to the following members for their distinguished and faithful membership. Your lifetime Tmembership in the ASA demonstrates your commitment to our asso- ciation and to statistics. Lifetime membership includes all benefits of regular ASA membership and is intended for those who wish to con- tinue the benefits of ASA membership with one final payment. If you are a lifetime member and your name is not below and you believe it should be included, contact Amy Farris at [email protected] to correct your record.

Bovas Abraham Richard A. Berk David Cheesman Cathryn S. Dippo Lee R. Abramson Jose Miguel Bernardo Ming-Hui Chen Dennis O. Dixon Michael A. Adena U. Narayan Bhat Yinpu Chen Philip M. Dixon Mohammad Ahsanullah Peter J. Bickel Michael R. Chernick Fred C. Djang Edoardo M. Airoldi Lynne Billard George Y.H. Chi Robert M. Dorazio Jack Alanen Christopher Bingham Yu-Kun Chiang Alan H. Dorfman Mir Masoom Ali William C. Blackwelder Joan Sander Chmiel Zubin Dowlaty Francis B. Alt Peter Bloomfield Joseph J. Chmiel Norman R. Draper Kathryn H. Anderson Steven D. Blotner James R. Chromy Wei Du Virgil L. Anderson Thomas J. Boardman Constance F. Citro Naihua Duan Barry C. Arnold Mary Ellen Bock William S. Cleveland Satya D. Dubey James N. Arvesen Ulf Bockenholt George W. Cobb Vanja M. Dukic Arlene S. Ash Jean-Louis Bodin Jerry L. Coffey William H. DuMouchel Joseph R. Assenzo Donald J. Bogue Michael P. Cohen George T. Duncan Anthony C. Atkinson Robert J. Boik Margaret Conomos Joseph W. Duncan Barbara A. Bailar Kimiko O. Bowman Noel A. C. Cressie Douglas M. Dunn John C. Bailar III John E. Boyer Larry H. Crow William D. Dupont Vincent P. Barabba Gordon J. Brackstone Jonathan D. Cryer Benjamin S. Duran John J. Bartko Norman Breslow Herbert A. David Arthur M. Dutton Noel S. Bartlett Peter J. Brockwell Martin H. David Robert G. Easterling Herbert M. Baruch Jr. Lawrence D. Brown Beth K. Dawson Keith R. Eberhardt Asit P. Basu Cavell Brownie Roger L. Deaton Marlene J. Egger David L. Bayless Charles R. Buncher Timothy A. DeRouen Janet D. Elashoff Gerald J. Beck Kenneth P. Burnham Thomas F. Devlin Gregory Enas Carl A. Bennett Steven G. Buyske Jay L. Devore Eugene P. Ericksen Donald L. Bentley Lynda T. Carlson David A. Dickey William B. Fairley Jan Beran Promod K. Chandhok Francis X. Diebold Valerii V. Fedorov James O. Berger Robert L. Chastain Paula H. Diehr Luisa T. Fernholz

february 2013 amstat news 5 Lifetime Members

Stephen E. Fienberg Marc Hallin Richard Hunn Jones Junfang Li James Allen Fill Martin A. Hamilton Michael I. Jordan Hua Liang David F. Findley Chien-Pai Han Joseph B. Kadane Keh-Shin Lii David John Finney Lynne B. Hare Henry D. Kahn Bruce G. Lindsay Alan B. Forsythe Ofer Harel Lee D. Kaiser Yuhlong Lio Ben F. Fort Jr. Douglas M. Hawkins Balvant K. Kale Roderick Joseph Little Murray F. Foss Lee-Ann C. Hayek Graham Kalton Yufeng Liu Mary A. Foulkes Xuming He David Kane Andrew W. Lo Martin R. Frankel Zhuoqiong Chong He Marvin A. Kastenbaum William R. Loeffler Spencer Mike Free Jr. Martha S. Hearron Shriniwas K. Katti Ron Loser Spencer M. Free III James J. Heckman Gordon M. Kaufman Steven N. MacEachern Edward L. Frome Daniel F. Heitjan Jon R. Kettenring Ian B. MacNeill Carol Holly E. Fuchs Tim Hesterberg Kyu-Seong Kim Charles R. Mann Mitchell H. Gail Thomas P. KyungMann Kim Nancy R. Mann Turkan K. Gardenier Hettmansperger Benjamin F. King Clyde F. Martin Joseph L. Gastwirth Fred J. Hickernell Samuel King Madhuchhanda Charles E. Gates William J. Hill Elizabeth S. King-Sloan Mazumdar Donald P. Gaver Bruce Hoadley John C. Klensin Paul W. McCracken David W. Gaylor David C. Hoaglin Gary G. Koch Allan L. McCutcheon Nancy L. Geller Robert V. Hogg Hira L. Koul Lyman L. McDonald Andrew Gelman Donald R. Hoover Michael H. Kutner William Q. Meeker Jr. James E. Gentle Joel Lawrence Horowitz Peter A. (Tony) Cyrus R. Mehta Jane F. Gentleman Feifang Hu Lachenbruch Xiao-Li Meng Stephen L. George J. Stuart Hunter Max Lacroix Sung-Joon Min Malay Ghosh Mohammad F. Huque Nan Laird Ronald D. Moen Jean D. Gibbons Huynh Huynh Edward Lakatos German R. Molina Dorothy M. Gilford Boris Iglewicz Lynn Roy LaMotte David S. Moore Dennis C. Gilliland Ronald L. Iman Kuang-Kuo G. Lan Chris Moriarity Zvi Gilula M. Irshadullah James M. Landwehr June Morita A. Blanton Godfrey Atul Jain Kinley Larntz Donald F. Morrison Judith D. Goldberg Sreenivasa Rao Eugene M. Laska John W. Morse Jammalamadaka Arnold F. Goodman Michael Lavine Sally C. Morton Jean G. Jenkins James H. Goodnight Carl Lee Jack Moshman Depeng Jiang Sander Greenland Kerry L. Lee Lawrence H. Moulton B. Alan Johnson Sat N. Gupta Klaus W. Lemke Effat A. Moussa Dallas E. Johnson Sudhir Chand Gupta Fred C. Leone Ursula Mueller-Harknett Richard A. Johnson Yesvy Gustasp Peter E. Leone Robb J. Muirhead Iain M. Johnstone Donald Guthrie Robert E. Lewis Madhuri Mulekar Ian T. Jolliffe Harold S. Haller Jun Li Charles R. Mummery

6 amstat news february 2013 Lifetime Members

Susan A. Murphy Joan R. Rosenblatt Victor Solo Naisyin Wang Jack Nadler N. Phillip Ross Daniel L. Solomon Yazhen Wang Dayanand N. Naik Donald B. Rubin Ehsan S. Soofi James F. Ward Bin Nan Barbara F. Ryan Randall K. Spoeri Barbara Warsavage Subhash C. Narula Thomas P. Ryan Robert R. Starbuck Stanley Wasserman Tapan K. Nayak Julia Sabella Barbara Stevens Gregory H. Watson Larry Alan Nelson David S. Salsburg Don L. Stevens Jr. Daniel E. Weeks John Neter Allan R. Sampson Miron L. Straf Edward J. Wegman Xufeng Niu Douglas A. Samuelson Donna F. Stroup Bruce S. Weir Judith Rich O'Fallon Tosiya Shun Sato John Stufken Herbert I. Weisberg W. Michael O'Fallon Nathan E. Savin Moon W. Suh Prof. Robert E. Weiss Terence John O'Neill Dongchu Sun John W. Sawyer Jr. Roy E. Welsch Robert L. Obenchain Jiayang Sun Richard L. Scheaffer Tore Wentzel-Larsen Ann W. Olmsted Robert Sutherland David Schenker Mike West J. Keith Ord Nathaniel Schenker Paul Switzer Donald J. Wheeler Willis L. Owen Fritz J. Scheuren Makram Talih Leland Wilkinson Sastry G. Pantula Jerald S. Schindler Wai-Yuan Tan William H. Williams Robert P. Parker Christopher H. Schmid Zhiqiang Tan Robert L. Winkler Victor Patrangenaru David A. Schoenfeld Boxin Tang Wing-Hung Wong Karl E. Peace William R. Schucany Robert L. Taylor George G. Woodworth Jon K. Peck John R. Schultz Marcia A. Testa Robert F. Woolson Syd Peel Eugene F. Schuster Anthony D. Thrall Jun Yan Daniel Pena Armin Schwartzman Tian Siva Tian Lijian Yang Liang Peng Neil C. Schwertman Barbara C. Tilley Song Yang David W. Peterson Robert J. Serfling Chris P. Tsokos Tzy-Jyun Yao Walter W. Piegorsch Jolayne W. Service Bruce W. Turnbull Zhiliang Ying Stephen L. Portnoy James Rufus N. Scott Urquhart Dennis L. Young John W. Pratt Shackleford III Gerald van Belle Peihua Qiu Gary M. Shapiro David A. Van Dyk Franklin S. Young Peiyong Annie Qu Xiaotong Shen Lonnie C. Vance Ming Yuan Dana Quade Sanjay Shete Stephen B. Vardeman Lianng Yuh Adrian E. Raftery Jianjun Shi Joseph S. Verducci Douglas A. Zahn Calyampudi R. Rao Odesh Singh James P. Vere Judith E. Zeh Scott J. Richter Nozer D. Singpurwalla Bryan T. Vinyard Cun-Hui Zhang Robert H. Riffenburgh Joseph N. Skwish Grace Wahba Heping Zhang Rosemary A. Roberts William Boyce Smith Stephen D. Walter Tong Zhang Bruce E. Rodda Robert T. Smythe Matthew P. Wand Hongyu Zhao John E. Rolph Ronald D. Snee Hong-Long Wang Ji Zhu Harry M. Rosenberg Karen L. Snowdon-Way Mei Wang Eric R. Ziegel

february 2013 amstat news 7 ASA Members Rise to New High Annual Fund Drive contributions beat last year’s record

• International Census at School Workshop I choose to give to the ASA annual fund to held in conjunction with JSM 2012 • Support for StatFest, a one-day conference support efforts to increase statistical literacy. aimed at encouraging students from under- represented groups to consider careers and graduate studies in the statistical sciences

SA members have again set new marks for Supporters of the 2012 annual fund drive are generosity in financial support of their asso- listed at the end of this article. Also listed are those ciation. More than 700 members contrib- members who have taken part in the last three utedA a total of nearly $53,000 to the ASA’s Annual annual fund drives. The ASA is deeply fortunate to Fund Drive during 2012. This is another record, up have such consistent support. We are also grate- almost $15,000 (39%) from last year’s record fig- ful to several companies who made matching gifts ure. (Note: Memorial gifts designated for scholar- to the ASA (Amgen, GE Foundation, Macmillan, ships or other specific purposes are not included in Millennium Pharmaceuticals, and Pfizer). these totals.) Members participate in the annual fund drive These funds helped the ASA promote the prac- because they see value in what the ASA does and tice and profession of statistics in several ways dur- want to help it do more. Tim Hesterberg, senior ing 2012. Here are examples of the ways gifts from statistician at Google, said, “I’ve gotten a lot from ASA members were put to good use: the ASA, met a lot of people and learned a lot, at conferences and from ASA journals. It has definitely • Development of the International Year of helped my career. I’m donating so the ASA can con- Statistics website and celebration tinue its great work and keep costs low for those who need it.” • Advocating to Congress and others through “ASA membership has been an indispensable the ASA Science Policy program resource to me since I joined as a graduate student • Education programs such as the Meeting in the early 1980s,” noted Marie Davidian, ASA Within a Meeting at JSM and the ASA president. “The advocacy efforts ASA undertakes Educational Ambassador program to promote our profession, the importance of sta- • Student travel for conferences and meetings tistics in science and policy, and the sound practice of statistics benefit all of us. By giving to the ASA, • Preparations for the ASA’s 175th anniversary I can help to further the association’s programs and celebration ensure that it can continue to pursue its mission to be a leading voice for the profession, not just in the

8 amstat news february 2013 Thank You

Marc Bourdeau <$100 Marie Bousfield Mohammed Abdullah Nicholas Bowersox Athula Abeyratne James Breneman Michael Adena Norman Breslow Baris Akgoz Nancy Brucken Rich Allen Babette Brumback W. Allison Edward Burke Wendy Alvey Christopher Burns Josephine Amato Burns Vicki Burt Roya Amjadi Norman Bush beat last year’s record Charlie An Carolee Bush Jana Anderson Patricia Busk Alexander Andronov Thomas Butts Alireza Arasteh Allen Buxton Consuelo Arellano Terri Byczkowski Carlos Arozarena U.S., but around the world. In this International Bernadette Calhoun Year of Statistics, there is no better time to acknowl- Ersen Arseven Frank Caridi edge the association’s role in my personal profes- Arthur Asghar Daniel Casey sional development and in the advance of our field Oluwagbohunmi Grace Chan through my gift to the ASA.” Awosoga David Chapman Andy White, senior research statistician at the Geraldine Baggs National Center for Education Statistics, also has Subrata Chatterjee Ali Bahkali seen the value of the ASA to his career and society Tak Wai Chau at large. “My 30+-year career in statistics has been Jarrett Barber Dung-Tsa Chen largely devoted to supporting data-based decision- Hope Barbera Cheng Chen making at national, state, and local levels. ASA has Chris Barker Shuohui Chen given me the ability to stay abreast of issues and Alfred Barron methodological developments, interact with and Edmond Cheng Mary Bartholomew learn from statisticians in a broad range of prac- Laura Chihara tice areas, and opportunities to have an impact on Anna Bartkowiak Karen Chiswell our profession through service to the association Rex Bates Su Bang Choe directly. I choose to give to the ASA annual fund Donald Bauder to support efforts to increase statistical literacy and James Chromy Paul Baum the use of objective data to guide the nation now Robert Chrum and in the future.” Maria Beltrami-Carter Timothy Church Teri Utlaut, principal engineer and statistician Alan Berger Sandra Clarkson at Intel Corporation, said she chose to give to the L. Berliner ASA annual fund because of her passion about Antonetta Clemente Charles Berry educating young people and college students about Barbara Clothier Vadim Bichutskiy our profession. “I don’t think enough students are James Cochran aware that a career in statistics is an option, and I Carol Bigelow Jerome Collet would like more to discover what a great career it Luigi Biggeri David Collins can be.” Utlaut said. Jeffrey Birch Of course, the ASA’s richest support is the thou- Charles Contant Ellen Bishop sands of hours of volunteer work our members con- Tara Cope tribute. We thank you all for that support, and we Herbert Bishop Louis Cote encourage our newer members to take part as well. Todd Blessinger Michael Crane Hesterberg notes there are many ways to do this. Richard Blough “Get involved,” Hesterberg says, “by organizing a David Cross Ricardo Bolado conference session, or volunteering for a section or Harry Cullings local chapter; you’ll meet people and learn more Marc-Olivier Boldi Vincent D'Agostino about what is going on in statistics.” Guillaume Bonnet Claiborne Dancy Andrew Booker february 2013 amstat news 9 Francis Dane Stephen Friedberg Weili He Jon Kidder Yahya Daoud Rongwei Fu Jon Helgeland David Kimble Jeffrey Davidson Neal Fultz Megan Higgs Ryotaro Kishi Benjamin Davis Gary Gadbury Andrew Hill Martin Klein Marsha Davis Joel Galang Elizabeth Hill John Knorr Frank De Meo A. Gallant Joseph Hines Kevin Konty Sara Debanne Joseph Gani Klaus Hinkelmann Hira Koul Antonio Delgado Turkan Gardenier John Hinkle S. Kriska Jose Deliz Constantine Gatsonis Miriam Hodge Laura Kubatko Kevin Delucchi John Gaudiosi Thomas Hoffman Sharon Kuhlmann- Yves Deville Stuart Geman Heike Hofmann Berenzon Jacquelin Dietz Richard Giambrone John Holcomb Mary Kwasny Kevin Dobbin Ned Gibbons Paul Holland Petter Laake Carolyn Dobler Brenda Gillespie David Holtschlag Nan Laird Kevin Drummey Dennis Gilliland Jeffrey Hooper Carol Lancaster Brian Drury Michael Ginevan Jeanine Houwing- Julia Lane Duistermaat Luiz Duczmal Ramanathan Michael Lasarev Welling Howell Bonnie Dumas Gnanadesikan Eugene Laska Yu-yi Hsu Michelle Dunn Michael Godbey Lisa LaVange Bin Huang Sotheary Duong Jay Goodman Philip Lavin Leonard Gordon Jacqueline Hughes- Jerald Lawless Josee Dupuis Oliver Ross Gosky Kelvin Lee Isabelle Dupzyk Ernst Hyacinthe Melvin Gramke Eric Leifer Benjamin Duran Vesna Ilakovac Theodore Gray Susan Lein Susan Durham Peter Imrey

Thank You Thank Garo Green Sally Lesik Catherine Durso Cornelia Irl Timothy Green David Letcher Alexander Dusenberry William Iwig Timothy Eaton Michael Greene Peter Jaehnig Sue Leurgans Brenda Edwards Joel Greenhouse Thomas Jagger Henry Levy Hans Engler Thomas Gsponer Gareth James Wei Li Thomas Erdahl Irwin Guttman Daniel Janowski Chae Young Lim Nurtan Esmen James Hackett Ananda Jayawardhana Ernst Linder David Farrar Senka Hadzic Amara Jayewardene Richard Lindholm Daniel Feaster Gerald Hahn J. Jee Charles Lindsey Alan Feiveson Timothy Hall Perdomo Jhoner Samuel Litwin Wenjuan Feng James Hall Booil Jo Gang Liu Huaguang Feng Katherine Halvorsen Masato Kagihara Jim Llewellyn David Fennell Kristin Hamilton Upendra Kamdar Nancy Lo Dianne Finkelstein Stacey Hancock Nandini Kannan Stephen Looney Dennis Fisher Choudary Hanumara Ihsan Karabulut Naky Lopez Ribeiro Louis Fogg Roy Hardy Theodore Karrison Charles LoPresti Ernest Fokoue William Harkness Charis Kaskiris Thomas Louis Julie Fondurulia Robyn Harrell Charles Katholi Thomas Love Richard Forshee James Harris Talbot Katz Kimberly Love-Myers Samuel Fourie Bradley Hartlaub Clifton Kelly Ronald Low John Fox Gary Hatfield Elizabeth Kelly Wenbin Lu Christine Franklin Daniel Hawkins David Kenny Andre Lubecke Ralph Frankowski Theodore Hayes Deepak Khatry Timothy Lutz 10 amstat news february 2013 Thank You David Lyon Charles Nam Robert Reynolds Babak Shahbaba Wendy Mack Eric Nantz Martin Ribe Michael Shaughnessy Jose Maisog Elena Naumova Winston Richards Qing Shi Dalisay Maligalig James Neill Matthew Riebel Stephanie Shipp Wenjin Mao Robert Newcomb Mary Ritter Cheng-Shi Shiu Olga Marchenko Ken Newman Rachael Rivard Richard Shoop Michael Marron Long Ngo Naomi Robbins Thomas Short Jack Marshall James Nickel Edwin Robison Patrick Shrout Nami Maruyama Chioma Nwosu Douglas Robson Jon Shuster Rumi Masih Bryan Oberle Deborah Rolka Satya Siddani Joseph Massaro Daniel Oberle Jorge Roman Eric Siegel Frances Mather David Obozele Joan Rosenblatt Miles Simpson Shelley Matsuba Claire O'Connor Malgorzata Roslanowska Christopher Sims Margaret Maxfield Tetsuji Ohyama Matthew Rotelli Gyan Sinha Mary Mays Maria Ojeda Virginia Rovnyak Craig Slinkman George McCabe Phillip Okoth Charles Rowland Stewart Sloane Daniel McCarville David Olive Clayton Ruffino Eric Slud Thomas McCoy Frank Olken Estelle Russek-Cohen Dylan Small Joshua McGowan A. O'Malley Robert Ryan Brian Smith Raymond McIntyre Tatsuo Otsu George Ryan Martha Smith John McKenzie Shingo Oue William Sabol Jeffrey Smith Edward McLeod Rosanna Overholser Asep Saefuddin Stephanie Smullen Donald McMahon Ian Parke Alan Salzberg Steven Snapinn Karen McNeal Steven Patch V. Samaranayake Alfred Snikeris Roy Mendelssohn James Paul Steven Samuels Steven Sonder Nathan Menton Raymond Peck Susan Sanchez Susan Spruill Maryann Mercer Roxy Peck Norma Sands Christopher Sroka Matthew Mercurio James Peluso Ulderico Santarelli Katherine St. Clair Michael Meredith Michael Peng Robert Santos Nancy Stambler Troy Meyers James Pestrak Robert Sarber W. Stephenson Mary-Jane Mietlowski Margaret Peterson Jaya Satagopan John Stewart William Mietlowski Nga Pham Roger Sauter Susan Stewart Steven Millard Charles Phelps Sandra Kay Savik John Stickler Diane Miller Kem Phillips Terrance Savitsky Renee Stolove Renee Miller Luigi Pieri Arnold Saxton Elizabeth Stone Mark Miller Joseph Pigeon Patricia Scanlan LeAnna Stork Anne Milley Jose Pinheiro Robert Scharpf Charles Strecker George Milliken Jeffrey Pitblado Robert Scheer Robin Streeter Geert Molenberghs Karen Price Nathaniel Schenker John Strohm Thomas Moore Bertram Price Christopher Schmid Mark Strong William Morgan Philip Prorok Paul Schmidbauer Walter Stroup Christopher Morrell David Pyne Mildred Schmidt Michael Sullivan Michael Mosier James Ramsey Paul Schneeman James Swain Tetsuro Motoyama Sudhakar Rao John Schoenfelder Ruth Swanton Gina Munck Ray Redd John Schoolfield Dorothy Syblik Leigh Murray Carol Redmond John Schuenemeyer Daniel Tancredi Teruo Nakatsuma Melissa Reitkopp Lynne Seymour Patrick Tendick february 2013 amstat news 11 Lawrence Kathryn Winter Nancy Geller Donald McClure Herbert Weisberg Thibodeau Derek Wong Thomas Gerig Barbara McIntyre Sanford Weisberg Steven Thomson Colin Wu Howard Gitlow Katherine Monti Andrew White Ronald Titus Michael Wulfsohn Tracey Gmoser Jerry Moreno George Williams Paul Tobias Jin Xia Arnold Goodman Motomi Mori William Wong Tamara Tom Kazunori Mae Gordon Motomi Mori Gooloo Nancy Torrieri Yamaguchi Susan Groshen Edward Mulrow Wunderlich Shusaku Tsumoto Xuan Yang Donald Guthrie Mary Mulry Donald Ylvisaker Clyde Tucker Hung-Wen Yeh Ann Harada Prem Narain Marvin Zelen Hideaki Uehara Kwee-Poo Yeo Frank Harrell Wayne Nelson Esa Uusipaikka Marian Yong Brian Harris- Margaret Nemeth Sean Vadney Alan Zaslavsky Kojetin Eileen O'Brien $500- Joseph Van Den Angelique Xuming He Robert Oneill Reysen Zeringue Donald Hedeker Leonard Cynthia Van Ari Zervos $999 Richard Heiberger Oppenheimer Alfredo Aliaga Landingham Zhiwei Zhu Susan Hilsenbeck Jean Opsomer Stan Altan Jennifer Van Corwin Zigler Mullekom James Himelein J. Keith Ord David Banks

Eric Vance Nicholas Horton George Christy Chuang Ostrouchov Hal Varian Michael Ikeda Stein Mari Palta Vincent Vezza $100- Bruce Johnson Jay Devore Dale Preston Vassiliy Voinov Dallas Johnson Susan Ellenberg Kenneth Resser Brandie Wagner $499 Gerald Joireman Tim Hesterberg Albert Anderson Paula Roberson Roger Walker Henry Kahn Lee Kaiser John Angle Barbara Robles Esteban Walker Jerome Keating Daniel Kasprzyk Stanley Azen Thank You Russell Roegner John Walsh Arthur Kennickell Jon and Patricia Alfred Balch Harry Rosenberg Naisyin Wang Tim Keyes Kettenring John Bartko Richard Scheaffer Liuxia Wang Eileen King Pranab Kumar Sen Amit Michael Schell Juanita Lott Jane-Ling Wang Bhattacharyya Elizabeth King- Sloan Rebecca Scherzer Britton Ward Brent Blumenstein Sastry Pantula Gary Koch David Schoenfeld Christine Mary Ellen Bock Steve Snapinn Waternaux Uwe Koehn Stanley Sclove John Boyer Juanita Tamayo Michael Wathen Henryka David Scott Lott Peter Bruce Komanska Robert Watkins John Senner Theresa Utlaut Jan Bruha Henry Kathleen Watson Nagambal Shah Leland Wilkinson Joseph Cappelleri Kranendonk David Weakliem Richard Smith Michael Cohen Michael Kutner Michael Weaver Marla Smith Bruce Craig Robert Labadie Heidi Webb Dolores Smith Kenny Crump Peter $1,000 Jacob Wegelin Lachenbruch Edward Spar John Czajka Clarice Weinberg James Landwehr Nancy Spruill and UP Robert Davis Joan Weinstein Russell Lenth Lee Sverdlov Marie Davidian Marie Diener- Sidney Weiss West Roderick Little Wendy Swanson William Heiland Charles White Scott Evans Patti Lock David Sylwester Mingxiu Hu Roseann White Ronald Fecso Kathleen Madsen Ronald Thisted J Stuart Hunter Linda Whitehand Justin Fisher David Marker Carol Thompson Sally Morton G. Williamson Mitchell Gail Clyde Martin Alan Tupek Robert Rodriguez William Wilson Jan Galkowski Robert Mason Jessica Utts Ron Wasserstein Othmar Winkler Stephen Ganocy Madhu Mazumdar Edward Wegman

12 amstat news february 2013 Participants from the last three annual fund drives Thank You

Athula Abeyratne Dianne Finkelstein Arthur Kennickell Margaret Nemeth Satya Siddani Michael Adena Richard Forshee Tim Keyes Long Ngo Eric Siegel Alfredo Aliaga Samuel Fourie Elizabeth King-Sloan Chioma Nwosu Miles Simpson Rich Allen Christine Franklin Martin Klein Bryan Oberle Dolores Smith Wendy Alvey Ralph Frankowski Gary Koch Daniel Oberle Jeffrey Smith Jana Anderson Neal Fultz Uwe Koehn Claire O'Connor Marla Smith Alexander Andronov A. Gallant Laura Kubatko Tetsuji Ohyama Richard Smith Stanley Azen Stephen Ganocy Peter Lachenbruch David Olive Steve Snapinn Geraldine Baggs John Gaudiosi James Landwehr Alistair James Steven Sonder O'Malley David Banks Nancy Geller Eugene Laska Ed Spar Jean Opsomer Jarrett Barber Thomas Gerig Lisa LaVange Nancy Spruill J. Keith Ord Donald Bauder Dennis Gilliland Jerald Lawless Susan Spruill Sastry Pantula Maria Beltrami-Carter Michael Ginevan Kelvin Lee Christopher Sroka Ian Parke Carol Bigelow Ramanathan Eric Leifer Nancy Stambler Gnanadesikan Raymond Peck Todd Blessinger Russell Lenth John Stewart Arnold Goodman Luigi Pieri Mary Ellen Bock David Letcher Susan Groshen David Pyne Susan Stewart Ricardo Bolado Ernst Linder Donald Guthrie Sudhakar Rao John Stickler John Boyer Roderick Little James Hall Ray Redd Mark Strong Nancy Brucken Gang Liu Choudary Hanumara Melissa Reitkopp Walter Stroup Vicki Burt Thomas Louis Frank Harrell Robert Reynolds Wendy Swanson Carolee Bush Thomas Love Brian Harris-Kojetin Martin Ribe Ruth Swanton Norman Bush Timothy Lutz Gary Hatfield Matthew Riebel Juanita Tamayo Lott Thomas Butts Wendy Mack Xuming He Barbara Robles Daniel Tancredi Frank Caridi Dalisay Maligalig Jon Helgeland Robert Rodriguez Ronald Thisted Jack Marshall Grace Chan Susan Hilsenbeck Charles Rowland Carol Thompson Nami Maruyama Christy Chuang Stein Klaus Hinkelmann Estelle Russek-Cohen Tamara Tom Robert Mason Sandra Clarkson Thomas Hoffman George Ryan Alan Tupek Joseph Massaro David Collins Heike Hofmann William Sabol Cynthia Van Shelley Matsuba Landingham Charles Contant Nicholas Horton V. Samaranayake Tara Cope Madhuchhanda Ron Wasserstein Welling Howell Mazumdar Susan Sanchez Harry Cullings Michael Weaver Yu-yi Hsu Barbara McIntyre Ulderico Santarelli Yahya Daoud Andrew White Mingxiu Hu Raymond McIntyre Robert Santos Marie Davidian Charles White J Stuart Hunter John McKenzie Sandra Kay Savik Benjamin Davis Linda Whitehand Michael Ikeda Donald McMahon Arnold Saxton Robert Davis Leland Wilkinson William Iwig Michael Meredith Robert Scheer Yves Deville G. Williamson Peter Jaehnig Mary-Jane Nathaniel Schenker Jay Devore Amara Jayewardene Mietlowski Paul Schmidbauer Othmar Winkler Marie Diener-West Gerald Joireman William Mietlowski Mildred Schmidt Derek Wong Kevin Dobbin Masato Kagihara Steven Millard David Schoenfeld Michael Wulfsohn Isabelle Dupzyk Lee Kaiser Mark Miller John Schoenfelder Gooloo Wunderlich Brenda Edwards Ihsan Karabulut Renee Miller John Schuenemeyer Kazunori Yamaguchi Nurtan Esmen Theodore Karrison Katherine Monti Stanley Sclove Hung-Wen Yeh Scott Evans Charis Kaskiris Jerry Moreno Pranab K. Sen Donald Ylvisaker Ronald Fecso Daniel Kasprzyk Sally Morton John Senner Marian Yong Huaguang Feng Jerome Keating Ed and Jeri Mulrow Nagambal Shah Marvin Zelen David Fennell Elizabeth Kelly Mary Mulry Patrick Shrout Corwin Zigler

february 2013 amstat news 13 2012 Salary Survey of Biostatistics and Other Biomedical Statistics Departments and Units Keith Crank

Table 1—Results from the Fall 2012 Salary Survey of Biostatistics and Other Biomedical Statistics Departments and Units Fall 2006 Fall 2007 Fall 2008 Fall 2009 Fall 2010 Fall 2011 Fall 2012 Rank/Years Percentile (Sample (Sample (Sample (Sample (Sample (Sample (Sample in Rank Size) Size) Size) Size) Size) Size) Size) Assistant 25th $82,400 $86,000 $89,200 $89,100 $89.500 $91,900 $92,700 1–3 50th 85,000 88,452 93,600 93,500 93,600 97,400 $96,900 75th 90,000 92,869 98,300 99,100 102,600 104,300 $106,300 90th 104,900 103,300 111,300 111,500 $117,200 (112) (106) (69) (82) (78) (83) (73) 4 or more 25th $84,476 $87,400 $90,500 $89,400 $91,000 $93,000 $96,800 50th 88,471 92,000 95,500 95,500 97,300 97,200 $99,500 75th 94,819 98,220 106,200 100,700 103,000 104,600 $106,300 90th 118,000 110,500 116,400 113,800 $116,400 (48) (65) (62) (87) (101) (97) (80) Associate 25th $ 89,937 $102,525 $102,500 $102,400 $103,000 $109,600 $105,800 0–2 50th 100,441 110,493 110,800 114,000 110,100 118,000 $115,500 75th 113,000 118,900 127,000 129,200 122,400 130,600 $125,000 90th 140,000 139,000 140,000 143,800 $135,300 (46) (50) (36) (62) (46) (56) (54) 3 or more 25th $101,384 $105,000 $109,300 $108,100 $110,100 $112,800 $112,700 50th 107,981 109,350 118,000 116,800 123,800 125,000 $126,200 75th 120,000 124,924 130,000 130,000 141,000 140,500 $145,300 90th 155,000 155,800 153,900 155,900 $159,000 (65) (66) (69) (69) (94) (101) (114) Full 25th $127,893 $137,991 $130,200 $127,100 $138,500 $141,900 $153,200 0–6 50th 147,488 163,870 145,200 152,300 159,100 157,300 $172,000 75th 177,840 180,365 174,600 181,100 185,000 185,400 $194,000 90th 205,500 208,100 208,500 203,000 $220,000 (54) (60) (65) (84) (66) (79) (78) 7 or more 25th $139,959 $147,575 $156,200 $145,600 $163,300 $166,900 $160,500 50th 172,523 180,760 187,000 178,600 194,200 191,500 $191,600 75th 197,277 209,147 215,500 203,200 222,600 234,500 $232,800 90th 246,700 224,400 251,800 259,300 $277,000 (84) (71) (77) (92) (97) (109) (115) Starting 25th $77,500 $84,000 $87,500 $103,200 $85,000 $92,500 $92,000 Assistant 50th 82,400 85,000 91,500 107,000 90,000 95,700 $102,200 Professors 75th 85,279 93,150 98,500 110,600 104,100 113,300 $116,000 90th NA NA NA 120,000 NA (27) (13) (09) (12) (11) (19) (15)

14 amstat news february 2013 able 1 includes the results from the fall 2012 Questions regarding the tabulations should be Salary Survey of Biostatistics and Other addressed to Keith Crank at [email protected]. If Biomedical Statistics Departments and you would like your biostatistical unit to participate TUnits, conducted by the ASA. All salary figures are in future surveys, contact ASA Director of Programs for a 12-month period. As in the past, previous sal- Lynn Palmer at [email protected]. ary survey data have been included for comparative Beginning with the 2009 survey, gender data purposes. (This year, we have included the 90th were collected along with the salary information. percentiles, as well as the quartiles.) The estimates Table 2 provides 2012 percentiles for the groups in are based on responses from 35 departments, plus a Table 1, separated by gender. few individuals who responded to the survey.

Table 2—2012 Percentiles for the Groups in Table 1, Separated by Gender

Title Years in Rank Gender Count 1st Quartile Median 3rd Quartile 90th Percentile Assistant Professor Male 4 NA $ 97,100 NA NA 0 Female 9 $ 92,000 $ 101,000 $ 112,200 NA

Male 41 $ 92,000 $ 96,300 $ 102,000 $ 110,300 1–3 Female 30 $ 93,300 $ 97,600 $ 112,400 $ 119,500

Male 47 $ 96,600 $ 98,800 $ 103,900 $ 109,200 4 or more Female 32 $ 97,300 $ 101,900 $ 112,600 $ 119,100

Associate Professor 0–2 Male 38 $ 104,600 $ 115,000 $ 125,000 $ 135,300

Female 15 $ 106,900 $ 116,700 $ 125,000 NA

3 or more Male 71 $ 112,000 $ 123,000 $ 137,000 $ 160,800 Female 39 $ 112,000 $ 127,500 $ 145,300 $ 154,900

Full Professor Male 51 $ 155,900 $ 173,000 $ 194,400 $ 217,500 0–6 Female 24 $ 138,000 $ 155,500 $ 182,600 $ 235,700

Male 83 $ 160,500 $ 191,600 $ 232,900 $ 279,700 7 or more Female 25 $ 146,300 $ 177,700 $ 219,000 $ 255,300

In 2012, we continued to collect data on non- tistics.) Quartiles are provided for categories that faculty, academic statisticians and biostatisticians. have nine or more respondents. The 90th percen- Table 3 provides information about the salaries for tile is provided for any category with 19 or more full time, non-faculty, academic biostatisticians. respondents. All percentiles are rounded to the (There were not enough responses for non-faculty, nearest $100. academic statisticians to provide any summary sta-

Table 3—Salaries for Full Time, Non-Faculty, Academic Biostatisticians Highest Years Since Degree Highest Degree Count 1st Quartile Median 3rd Quartile 90th Percentile Master’s 0–2 24 $ 58,800 $ 63,200 $ 71,000 $ 73,300 3–5 21 $ 61,900 $ 75,000 $ 83,700 $ 88,100

6–10 35 $ 66,100 $ 76,300 $ 81,100 $ 93,100 11–15 19 $ 76,200 $ 85,300 $ 104,300 $ 112,800 16 or more 18 $ 85,700 $ 91,900 $ 113,000 NA

All 117 $ 65,900 $ 75,600 $ 87,400 $ 104,300 PhD All 26 $ 85,600 $ 99,300 $ 113,300 $ 131,600

february 2013 amstat news 15 Outreach Group Statistics Without Borders Grows in Membership, Project Diversity Rebecca Scherzer

tatistics Without Borders (SWB), an ASA outreach group, pro- vides free statistical consulting to organizations and government agencies, particularly from developing nations that do not have theS resources for statistical services. In support of nonpartisan and secular activities, SWB promotes the use of statistics to improve the health and well-being of all people. The group’s vision is to achieve and implement the best statistical practice in the service of others. From its beginning in October 2008 until August 2011, SWB grew to a membership of about 325. SWB now counts more than 600 stat- isticians among its all-volunteer membership. Members continue to be diverse, ranging from high-school students to highly experienced retired statisticians, and include statisticians from universities, industry, and government, as well as retirees. SWB also is becoming increasingly international, with many new members from every continent except Antarctica One of SWB’s current projects is a study with UNICEF on acute malnutrition in children in multiple West African countries, includ- ing Niger, Mauritania, and Senegal. SWB’s project team is advising UNICEF on modeling seasonal accounts of new admissions and num- ber of children in treatment and providing suggestions for improved methods for annual estimates of caseload. At present, the group’s team is working with survey data from multiple countries with varying levels of coverage. It also is working with the International Medical Geology Association to link existing community epidemiological databases with environmental data to develop an index of cumula- tive pathogenic exposure. Examples of other projects in which SWB has played an important role include the following: Studies of early childhood mortality for UNICEF Work with local Haitian authorities and representatives of other organizations in Haiti to assess the situation and poten- tial difficulties for data collection following the 2010 earth- quake Surveys in India and Nepal and a series of initiatives in Africa to increase the number of girls going to school (through CARE) Sample design for an evaluation of community case manage- ment for sick children in Rwanda (with the International Rescue Committee) SWB strives to promote sound statistical practices so international health projects and initiatives are delivered more effectively and efficient- ly. Ultimately, volunteers want to make a difference in the daily lives of people throughout the world. Members of the outreach group are always eager to hear from organizations in need of statistical help or who wish to become partners. For further information, visit SWB’s website at http:// community.amstat.org/statisticswithoutborders/home. n

16 amstat news february 2013 Preparing Master’s Statistics Students for Success: A Perspective from Recent Graduates and Employers John Bailer, Roger Hoerl, David Madigan, Jill Montaquila, and Tommy Wright

he ASA Workgroup on Master’s Degrees submitted its report to the ASA Board of Directors in November. This committee Twas charged by 2012 ASA President Bob Rodriguez to develop guidelines, framed as learning outcomes, for master’s degree programs in statistics and biosta- tistics that are responsive to the needs of stakehold- ers who employ such graduates. The guidelines will reflect discussions with a variety of stakeholders in business and government to determine the needs of their master’s degree–level statistical work forces. These guidelines will assist master’s degree pro- grams in statistics and biostatistics in aligning their curricula with desired outcomes. What Did the Workgroup Do? Names of 366 recent graduates were provided by 21 schools. Approximately 115 graduates from 13 Bob Rodriguez speaks with master’s degree statistics students during his November schools were contacted to generate 29 completed 2012 visit to Miami University. phone interviews. The 19 employer responses were generated based on email contact with 68 employ- ers. Organizations reflected in our employer surveys Programming skills are critical and should be include university-based collaborative study centers/ infused throughout the graduate student experience. academic medical research settings (5 of 19), federal [Graduates viewed programming skills as necessary government (3), contract research organizations (2), to get and perform their first job, but wished they survey organizations (2), and financial/banking (2). possessed better programming skills and would like The remaining organizations were represented: clin- to see more programming added in their programs. ical trials consulting, pharmaceutical, public policy Employers stated this more strongly and noted that nonprofit, consumer products, clinical research programming differentiated top candidates for jobs organization, or manufacturing. Some employers from others; made hires successful; and reflected a responded based on experience in hiring for two required, critical, and desired skill, but that it was industry types. a deficit in recent hires. While SAS was mentioned more frequently than other environments, general What Did We Learn? programming skills beyond applying templates was A synthesis of these responses led to the follow- a key feature that should be developed.] ing seven recommendations [words in brackets are Communication skills are critical and should be workgroup commentary]: developed and practiced throughout graduate pro- Graduates should have a solid foundation in grams. [Graduates believed these skills were needed statistical theory and methods. [Graduates noted to perform their first jobs. Employers stated that they this was needed to both get and perform their first viewed these skills as differentiating between top can- job. Employers assumed this to be a given and was didates, that these skills are part of what makes hires viewed as a foundation required for learning new successful, and that these were required and critical methods. The workgroup views this as an affirma- skills that were also a deficit in recent hires.] tion of the core taught in master’s programs.] Collaboration, teamwork, and leadership devel- opment should be part of graduate education.

february 2013 amstat news 17 [Employers noted that being able to function in value, it is easy to imagine electives and other expe- a team environment was observed in the most riences in the graduate program will need to evolve successful hires.] over time. The workgroup believed this should Students should encounter non-routine, real be a review that would occur every 3–4 years. We problems throughout their graduate education. encourage departments to maintain and update [The ability to think carefully through such prob- contact information for recent graduates to facili- lems and develop an analysis strategy was highly tate this survey.] valued among employers. Schools should consider how to nurture and develop such skills.] Next Steps? Internships, co-ops, or other significant immer- This report reflected the perspectives of a snap- sive work experiences should be integrated into shot of recent graduates and employers (see http:// graduate education. [Graduates and employers magazine.amstat.org/wp-content/uploads/2013an/ commented on the value of such experiences that masterworkgroup.pdf for the complete workgroup might involve consulting, project management, and report). Members of the workgroup hope this report teamwork experiences. Graduate programs might will be useful to programs offering master’s degrees look to develop internships with local employers or in statistics. In addition, the workgroup proposes on campus with other offices that might appreci- this as a challenge for industry and government ate the assistance a statistics intern could provide. employers to work in partnership with academic These experiences would help accomplish and rein- programs to provide experiential learning opportu- force previous recommendations, particularly rec- nities that benefit current and upcoming generations ommendations 2–5.] of master’s students in statistics and biostatistics. Programs should be encouraged to survey recent Reactions to and feedback on the recommenda- graduates and employers of recent graduates peri- tions from this report are invited. Please comment odically as a means of evaluating the success of their at http://magazine.amstat.org/blog/2013/02/01/ programs and examining whether other program- mastersworkgrou or email ASA Executive Director matic changes are warranted. [Employer needs Ron Wasserstein at [email protected]. ASA member will likely evolve over time, and while it is hard to feedback will be shared with the ASA Board at the imagine that good statistical thinking will ever lose April 2013 board meeting. n

18 amstat news february 2013 The Future of the ASA’s Electronic Publications

uring the last decade, the publications indus- try has undergone revo- Dlutionary change. Just a few years ago, most research journals were print-based; their organization and management were essentially the same as they had been for centuries. Now, virtually every journal is available electronically, and most new journals are elec- tronic-only publications. Books, academic and otherwise, are undergoing comparably radical changes. This change from hard- copy to electronic media is open- ing new avenues and poses important challenges to the ASA. The ASA publishes 16 jour- nals; some are owned entirely by the ASA, and some are jointly published with other societies or publishers. These journals are foundational to the ASA’s are some of the issues that will and the rest of the statistics com- mission as a professional society be addressed: munity to comment about issues because they disseminate knowl- related to journal structure and edge and advance research. They Electronic-only publication article submission. Here are some also serve as a key source of rev- versus hybrid (print and possibilities presented by current enue for our association, allow- electronic) and anticipated capabilities in ing us to provide other services Open access to journals and electronic publications and some to our members and society. how to pay for this access questions that arise from them. Clearly, change in the pub- Content in an electronic-only lishing industry will have a Journal Structure significant effect on the ASA. publishing world (data sets, For that reason, 2012 ASA code, case studies, discus- There are numerous ways by President Bob Rodriguez sion threads, gray literature, which articles can be discovered, appointed a panel to consider research-in-progress, etc.) searched, and accessed easily. the future of electronic publi- Living versus static publica- Most do not involve browsing cations. In November, the ASA tions (Should articles be through a particular journal to Board received a report from the immutable, or should they look for content of interest. In panel (http://magazine.amstat. be corrected and updated in the future, will we need journals org/wp-content/uploads/2013an/ response to reader feedback?) at all, or can they be replaced masterworkgroup.pdf), which by articles collected in a reposi- Alternative approaches to raised a number of important tory (or networks of repositories) article submission and review and complex issues. without a journal designation? In Over the next few months, Interaction with the content the shorter term, do we still need Amstat News will publish a series (notifications, search capa- “issues” for journals that are pub- of articles to address these issues bilities, use of code with new lished only electronically? and seek feedback from the sta- data sets, and more) tistics community on how our Submission Process association should manage pub- In this, the first article in the In the current system, authors lications going forward. Here series, we invite ASA members select a journal to submit their

february 2013 amstat news 19 other approaches might sim- plify this process and increase its efficiency? One alternative is for authors to submit papers to a Peer Review The current peer review pro- repository that allows reader comments and ratings. cess has served for generations as the way to measure and/or ensure the quality of an article. Peer review is the gold standard for determining whether articles work to. After review, the article journal cascading, the strategy of are worthy of publication. While may be declined, and the author automatically (with the author’s careful refereeing can lead to often chooses to begin again with consent) having a paper that is improvements in content and another journal. Multiple rounds rejected by Journal A submitted readability, it is also labor-inten- of refereeing can result as the arti- to Journal B, in which case the sive and slow, and it takes almost cle moves from journal to journal. reviews from the rejecting jour- no advantage of the new capa- One alternative is for authors nal are sent to the second jour- bilities of electronic publications. nal, along with author rebuttal/ to submit papers to a repository Numerous methods have explanation if the author so that allows reader comments and emerged that allow users to evalu- desires. Designed cascading ate the content of material they ratings and from which editors could shorten the time to pub- can invite authors to submit receive. For example, material can lication and saves on refereeing be reviewed and rated by anyone, their work. The repository could effort by reusing reviews. allow for sophisticated methods and the weight of these ratings can Do either of these alterna- be adjusted for the expertise of the of crowd-sourced review (see Peer tives have appeal? What are their Review). Another alternative is reviewer. Would such approaches advantages and pitfalls? What have use or merit in evaluating research work? Some journals are allowing reviewers and authors to interact directly as a way to speed up the review process while increasing the quality of the finished work. Does this model have appeal? What are its advantages and pitfalls? Articles could be posted for open review by any reader for a period of time, after which the author could modify the work if needed and submit it through traditional means. This would have the advantage of getting preliminary work out and avail- able, allowing authors to make their work known and to get relevant feedback. Does this approach have appeal? What are the problems associated with it? We are eager to receive your comments about these matters. To comment, please go to the comment section in the online version of this article at http:// magazine.amstat.org. All com- ments will be read by a panel appointed by the ASA Board to review and summarize feedback. n

20 amstat news february 2013 Stephen Fienberg Chosen as 22nd Pfizer Colloquium Presenter Nitis Mukhopadhyay, University of Connecticut-Storrs

tephen E. Fienberg, Maurice Falk University Tanur, distinguished teaching professor emeriti in Professor of Statistics and Social Science in the department of sociology at SUNY-Stony Brook, the Department of Statistics at Carnegie were invited guests. MellonS University, was chosen as the 22nd Pfizer Another film, titled “A Conversation with Colloquium presenter in the Distinguished Stephen E. Fienberg,” is 65 minutes long and dedi- Statistician series. He presented a colloquium in cated to professor Harry O. Posten. In this conver- honor of David Salsburg, titled “Statistics in Service sation, Fienberg, Straf, and Tanur discuss Fienberg’s to the Nation.” life and research, his passion for solving practical The 72-minute lecture was professionally statistical problems, and a career path that made filmed on October 29, 2009, and is archived at the him a living legend in our profession. American Statistical Association. The Pfizer Colloquia by Distinguished In this film, Fienberg tells about his journey and Statisticians lecture series is sponsored by the explains how his mentors, Don Fraser and Fred Pfizer Global Research and Development at Mosteller, influenced him to collaborate in solv- New London, Connecticut, the University ing a number of nationally important problem of Connecticut-Storrs, and the ASA. Nitis areas requiring both novel statistical input and new Mukhopadhyay directs the project. research. Fienberg made fundamental contributions Inquiries about these films should be directed to in many of those areas. ASA Continuing Education Associate Rick Peterson Miron L. Straf, deputy director of the Division at [email protected]. To view earlier films in this lec- of Behavioral and Social Sciences and Education at ture series, visit www.amstat.org/eseries/scriptcontent/ the National Academy of Sciences, and Judith M. BEWeb/orders. n

february 2013 amstat news 21 NISS Director Provides Update on Institute Activities Alan F. Karr, Director of the National Institute of Statistical Sciences Along with Duke University, NISS has hired Hang Kim as a postdoctoral fellow to work on the Triangle Census Research Network (TCRN). TCRN is one of eight awards made by the NSF-Census Research Network (NCRN), a partnership of the he National Institute of place with senior high-school U.S. Census Bureau and the Statistical Sciences students beginning in 1960. The National Science Foundation. (NISS) has been busy this original survey involved more Jerome Reiter of Duke is the Tyear, with several new projects than 400,000 students in 1,000 PI, and Alan Karr is the co-PI. under way and an expanded pres- schools. The follow-up surveys TCRN is developing broadly ence, including new office space, will look at what has happened applicable methodologies that in Washington, DC. over the lifetimes of the original transform and improve data dis- NISS, along with the participants, including employ- semination practice in the fed- American Institutes for Research ment, health, and finance. NISS eral statistical system. Among (AIR), hired a postdoctoral fel- is part of an AIR team addressing other things, they are working low, Zhulin He, to work on many interesting statistical chal- on developing a microsimulation Project TALENT, a longitudi- lenges such as survey weights and modeling framework for surveys. nal survey that originally took designing new data collections. NISS, jointly with Cornell University, was awarded a grant from NSF to operate the NCRN Coordination Office (NCRN- CO). NCRN-CO facilitates THe MYrTo LeFKoPoULoU DisTiNGUisHeD LecTUre communication and collabora- AT HArvArD scHooL oF PUBLic HeALTH tion among the eight research nodes, as well as with other key The annual Myrto Lefkopoulou Distinguished Lecture was initiated in 1993 in memory stakeholders, including the fed- of Myrto Lefkopoulou, a former beloved faculty member and student in the Department eral statistical (FedStats) agencies, of Biostatistics. Dr. Lefkopoulou tragically died of cancer in 1992 at the age of 34 after a academia, and the private sector. courageous two-year battle. A dedicated website—www.ncrn. Each year the Myrto Lefkopoulou Lectureship is awarded to a promising biostatistical info—will be online soon. scientist who has made contributions to either collaborative or methodologic research in the Over the past five years, applications of statistical methods to biology or medicine and/or excellence in the teaching of the NISS “DC presence” has biostatistics. Ordinarily, the lectureship is given to an individual within 15 years of receiving expanded steadily, especially an earned doctorate. In the case of nominees without an earned doctorate, the Committee under the leadership of Associate will make a relative adjustment of time in keeping with the spirit of the selection process. Director Nell Sedransk. In addi- The lecture is targeted at a general scientifi c audience and is the fi rst Department colloquium tion to Sedransk, NISS staff of each academic year. The lectureship includes travel to Boston, a reception following the located in Washington include lecture, and an honorarium of $1000. Larry Cox, assistant director for Previous lecturers have been Rafael Irizarry, Jeffrey Morris, David Dunson, Xihong Lin, official statistics; three people Heping Zhang, Francesca Dominici, Jianqing Fan, Mark van der Laan, Geert Molenberghs, working together with Karr Marie Davidian, Danyu Lin, Bradley Carlin, Steven Goodman, Giovanni Parmigiani, Kathryn for the National Center for Roeder, Ronald Brookmeyer, Trevor Hastie, Hans-Georg Mueller, and Louise Ryan. Education Statistics (NCES) via the Education Statistics Support Nominations for next year’s lectureship are currently being solicited and should be sent to the Institute—Bruce Daniel, senior Myrto Lefkopoulou Lecture Committee, Department of Biostatistics, Harvard School of Public analyst; Joy Edington, research Health, 655 Huntington Avenue, Boston, MA 02115. Nominations should include a letter of analyst; and David Yang, research nomination and a C.V. The deadline for submission of nominations is March 31, 2013. associate—and postdoctoral fel- lows He and Weiwei Cui.

22 amstat news february 2013 Among Sedransk’s many achievements are a regular series of research discussions among DC personnel and the procuring of office space in the ASA build- ing in Alexandria, Virginia. Discover Statistical Analysis and The work for NCES is a major Data Mining JOURNAL component of NISS and current- The Statistical Analysis and Data Mining journal of the ly includes constructing software American Statistical Association addresses the broad area of data to support safe release of student analysis, including data mining algorithms, statistical approaches, performance data at the indi- and practical applications. Topics include problems involving vidual school level; moderniza- massive and complex data sets, solutions using innovative data tion of data from the 1980s High mining algorithms and/or novel statistical approaches, and the School and Beyond survey— objective evaluation of analyses and solutions. partly with a plan potentially Of special interest are articles that describe analytical tech- to link HSB to other databases; niques and discuss their application to real problems in such a implementation of the compara- way that they are accessible to domain experts across science, engi- ble wage index—a geographical neering, and commerce. adjustment tool for comparing David Madigan of Columbia University is the current editor. educational expenditures across The journal costs $25 for ASA members. To order, visit Wiley’s districts and states; evaluation online library at www.wileyonlinelibrary.com/journal/sam. Wiley of the Teacher Compensation also offers ASA members free three-month access to more than Survey; and support for NCES’ 20 journals. For details, visit www.statisticsviews.com. Statistical Standards Program and the National Assessment of Educational Progress. During the past year, we com- pleted work on the travel time reliability project funded by the Transportation Research Board of the National Academies. Partners in this project were the Institute for Transportation Research and Education at North Carolina State University, Kittelson & Associates, Inc., Berkeley Transportation Systems, the University of Utah, and Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute. The group created a traffic system manager’s guidebook on travel time reliability. Our contribu- tion focused on multiple insights about travel time distributions and different data sources. Continuing projects include research on surveys supported by the National Center on Science and Engineering Statistics at the NSF, online reading compre- hension assessment supported by the Institute for Education Sciences, and research stem- ming from the 2012–2013 SAMSI program on data-driven decisions in health care. n

february 2013 amstat news 23 Technometrics Highlights Design and Analysis of Computer Experiments Featured in February Issue Hugh A. Chipman, Technometrics Editor

ith increased use of time given to each measurement, performance of the emulator, large and complex allowing a better distribution particularly when the simulator computer models and of the computational effort and outputs represent different phys- Wgrowing interest in the field of increased efficiency. The optimi- ical quantities. In “Multivariate uncertainty quantification, the zation method is applied to an Gaussian Process Emulators design and analysis of computer original application in nuclear with Nonseparable Covariance experiments is seeing considerable criticality safety. This article fea- Structures,” Thomas E. Fricker, research activity. This issue reflects tures discussion by Alexander I. Jeremy E. Oakley, and Nathan this activity, with five articles and J. Forrester, Robert B. Gramacy, M. Urban develop nonseparable one note concerning recent exten- Jack P. C. Kleijnen, Peter Z. G. covariance structures based on sions, generalizations, and appli- Qian, Pritam Ranjan, Rui Tuo, the linear model of coregionaliza- cations of computer experiments. and C. F. Jeff Wu, as well as a tion and convolution methods. Gaussian process models rejoinder by the authors. Using two case studies, they find have become a popular statistical Various aspects of computer that only emulators with nonsep- technique for emulating expen- experiments are explored in sev- arable covariances structures have sive computer experiments and eral other papers in this issue. In sufficient flexibility to give both can be used to optimize a com- “Sequential Design and Analysis good predictions and represent puter model efficiently. When of High-Accuracy and Low- joint uncertainty about the simu- the computer model is subject to Accuracy Computer Codes,” lator outputs appropriately. noise, with Monte Carlo simu- Shifeng Xiong, Peter Z. G. In the paper, “Gaussian lators for example, the design Qian, and C. F. Jeff Wu devel- Process Modeling of Derivative and analysis of computer experi- op a methodology for multiple Curves,” Tracy Holsclaw, ments takes a few twists. In the deterministic computer codes Bruno Sansó, Herbert K. H. lead article, “Optimization of with different levels of accuracy. Lee, Katrin Heitmann, Salman Noisy Computer Experiments Using evaluations of the two Habib, David Higdon, and with Tunable Precision,” Victor models at a pair of nested Latin Ujjaini Alam develop a Gaussian Picheny, David Ginsbourger, hypercube designs, an initial process-based inverse method Yann Richet and Gregory Caplin prediction model is estimated. that allows for the direct estima- address kriging-based optimi- Depending on the accuracy of tion of the derivative of a one- zation of stochastic simulators. the fitted model, the two codes dimensional curve. The resultant Many of these simulators depend are evaluated iteratively with fit is computationally efficient on factors that tune the level of input values chosen in an elabo- and more accurate than fitting precision of the response, the gain rate fashion so their expanded sce- a curve to the data and then dif- in accuracy being at a price of nario sets still form a pair of nested ferentiating. An important cos- computational time. Latin hypercube designs. The mological application is used to The contribution of this work nested relationship between the demonstrate the method. is two-fold. First, it proposes a two scenario sets makes it easier to In mixture experiments, two quantile-based criterion for the model and calibrate the difference or more inputs represent a per- sequential design of experiments, in between the two sources, resulting centage contribution and are the fashion of the classic expected in more accurate emulation. constrained to sum to 100%. The improvement criterion, enabling In computer experiments in resultant correlation between an elegant treatment of heteroge- which simulators produce mul- input variables implies that neous response precisions. Second, tivariate output, the common additional care must be taken a sequential design strategy is aug- practice of specifying a Gaussian when fitting statistical models mented to include a procedure for process with a separable covari- or visualizing the effect of one the allocation of the computational ance structure can lead to poor or more inputs on the response.

24 amstat news february 2013 In “Global Sensitivity Analysis The paper “Network-Wide intuition behind the methodol- for Mixture Experiments,” Statistical Modeling, Prediction, ogy, and show when simple tech- Jason L. Loeppky, Brian J. and Monitoring of Computer niques work well and when they Williams, and Leslie M. Moore Traffic,” by Joel Vaughan, Stilian do not. Computational efficien- consider the use of a Gaussian Stoev, and George Michailidis, cies relative to ordinary simula- process to model the output considers the monitoring of only tion are improved by orders of from a computer simulator taking a small subset of links, using magnitude in many cases, and a mixture input. They introduce this data to predict the traffic on the approach is easily implement- a procedure to perform global other, unobserved links. Auxiliary ed by non-experts. sensitivity analysis, providing data are used to represent impor- The issue concludes with main effects and revealing inter- tant structure in the network and an extension of the lead article actions. The resulting methodol- can significantly improve the from the August 2012 issue. ogy is illustrated using a func- results of prediction. An adjusted The original paper proposed a tion with analytically tractable control chart methodology also is new deterministic approxima- results for comparison, a chem- introduced, indicating a possible tion method for Bayesian com- ical compositional simulator, application of prediction results putation, known as design of and a physical experiment. in situations where all links may experiments-based interpola- The three remaining papers be observed. tion technique (DoIt). A major in the issue consider problems Importance sampling aids in weakness of this method is that other than computer experi- establishing alarm thresholds for the approximated posterior den- ments. To provide consistently instrumentation used worldwide sity can become negative. In the high-quality service in computer to deter/detect nuclear threats. technical note “A Note on Non- networks, several aspects of the In “Quantile Estimation for Negative DoIt Approximation,” network must be monitored, Radiation Portal Monitoring,” V. Roshan Joseph modifies including traffic volumes on its Rick Picard, Tom Burr, and his DoIt approximation, guar- links. As network sizes expand, Michael S. Hamada review anteeing non-negativity of the such monitoring becomes the statistical aspects of thresh- approximated density. The new increasingly resource-hungry. old determination, discuss the approximation is much simpler and faster to compute. n

february 2013 amstat news 25 Journal of Computational and Graphical Statistics Highlights JCGS Celebrates International Year of Statistics Rich Levine and Thomas Lee

irst, we officially welcome visualization and as a contribu- Thomas Lee as the new tor to infographics or informa- JCGS editor. Lee came on tion visualization, hugely popular Fboard July 1, 2012, handling all in modern-day media venues. new manuscript submissions. Rich Playing off that theme, the issue Levine will continue putting the also includes research articles in JCGS issues together for most of graphical statistics. At the risk of the 22nd volume in 2013, chang- playing into the concerns stated ing his title to JCGS past editor. therein, a visually attractive issue to start the New Year! Special Issue on Networks and Their Applications Special Issue on Advances JCGS kicked off the International in MCMC Year of Statistics early with an issue Changing up the promise in devoted to networks and network the Volume 21 editorial (2012 Adapted from Figure 4(b) of “Statistical Challenges in Biological models, disseminated right before March issue), we decided to move Networks” by George Michailidis from the December 2012 the New Year (Volume 21, Issue our MCMC special issue to this issue of JCGS 4). Network data has hit the main- 2013 celebratory volume. The stream with the popularity of social issue will be dedicated to papers media sites Facebook, LinkedIn, spun off from the top contribu- Twitter, and now Google+, as well tions at the Advances in MCMC as blog discussions. And with ever Workshop at the International increasing computational power Centre for Mathematical Sciences and technological innovations, in Edinburgh, co-organized by analysis of graphs and inferences Mark Girolami, Antonietta Mira, under graphical models have come and Christian Robert. within our grasp in a wide array of scientific applications. The issue JCGS Outreach begins with a historical review of JCGS will again host invit- developments by Steve Fienberg. ed sessions at the Interface Reviews of biological networks Symposium, to be held at by George Michailidis and Chapman University in April social networks by Dave Hunter, and JSM in August. As has Pravel Krivitsky, and Michael become a tradition, the former Schweinberger highlight the session will include a potpourri issue, as well. of topics, “JCGS Highlights at the Interface,” fitting the sym- Featured Discussion on posium theme of “Big Data and InfoVis Analytics.” The JSM session, The first official 2013 JCGS issue “JCGS Selections: Lassoing the (Volume 22, Issue 1) features Year of Statistics into an Elastic a discussion piece by Andrew Net,” will include talks by Gelman and Antony Unwin, Howard Bondell, Mark Culp, “Infovis and Statistical Graphics: and Noah Simon from articles Different Goals, Different Looks.” appearing in Volume 22 about a Discussants Steve Few, Robert supervised learning and variable Kosara, Paul Murrell, and Hadley selection theme. Wickham, along with Gelman Remember, all members of and Unwin, continue the conver- the ASA, IMS, and IFNA enjoy sation about the role and place of free online access to JCGS. For the statistical graphics field in data details, visit www.tandfonline. com/toc/ucgs20/current. n

26 amstat news february 2013 columns

175 My Friend Statistics Robert Hogg hen I received a request to write a col- umn about some of my statistical activi- ties to help celebrate the ASA’s 175 Wyears, I reviewed the last 65 years or so. I came to one conclusion: I must thank my friend Statistics. She has opened many doors for me, as she has introduced me to so many outstanding statisti- cians. It has been amazing! Improvement in 1994 in Atlanta. There were more When I started my graduate work in the late than 600 statisticians, including 200 students, at 1940s, I did not realize she was there. But, clearly, each. Oh, in 1992, we started the College Bowl she was at my side when I worked on my thesis. that Bowling Green won, shocking the “big boys.” While difficult, it was fun for me, and my friend More people told me one or the other was the best Statistics always tried to keep it that way through- meeting they had ever attended. For IMS and the out my professional career. ASA, I really encouraged people to attend meetings. After I joined the mathematics faculty at Iowa My friend Statistics was at my side through all in 1950, Allen Craig and I would frequently take a of this. Then, she suggested I stick with revising my break in the late afternoon and have a cup of coffee; texts. The 7th edition of Hogg and Craig, now with we always brought Statistics along. As she didn’t the great help of Joe McKean, and the 9th edition drink coffee, she was a cheap date, and the two of of Hogg and Tanis, now with Dale Zimmerman, us would talk about her, even though she was right will appear in 2014. there. She didn’t seem to mind. It was the begin- But Statistics noted I was alone in my per- ning of a love affair. sonal life as my first wife, Carolyn, died in 1990. I realize she was guiding me all the time as I did Statistics encouraged me to go out some. I met the following in my career: Ann, fell in love, and we married in 1994. (I might Taught, researched, and wrote—particularly the say it is tough dating when you are 69 years old. textbooks Hogg and Craig, Hogg and Tanis, and Ann preferred to marry a man in his sixties, rather Hogg and Ledolter than one in his “eighth decade,” so we were married just before my 70th birthday.) My three ladies— Formed a department of statistics at the Statistics, Carolyn, and Ann—have been most University of Iowa in 1965 important to me. Of course, my four children and Overcame my initial shyness and participated eight grandchildren are among the top as well. fully in meetings. It helped that I was program As I look back on my professional life, I have my secretary for IMS through much of the 1970s love, Statistics, to thank for all whom I’ve interacted with. These included (and on a first-name basis) Began working on statistical education by serv- C.R. Rao, David Cox, John Tukey, George Box, Stu ing on the joint ASA/NCTM committee. I was Hunter, Eric Lehmann, Ingram Olkin, Brad Efron, able to change the section’s name from Training Frank Graybill, Fred Mosteller, Oscar Kempthorne, to Statistical Education Gerry Hahn, Myles Hollander, H. O. Hartley, Found a new research partner, Ron Randles, in Manny Parzen, Richard Savage, Jerzy Neyman, P.K. the 1970s with whom I worked on distribution- Sen, Xihong Lin, Jack Kiefer, and David Blackwell. free robust procedures I’m sorry if you know me well and I didn’t list you, Through the 1980s and early 1990s, I became a but you should be pleased you are still alive, as fan and good friend of W. Edwards Deming by my many on this short list are dead. modest efforts in continuous quality improvement. Back in the 1940s, I never dreamed I would I’ll always remember Ed’s question, “Why are we know people like these! I hope all of you love here?” and his answer, “To have fun.” I practiced that! Statistics half as much as I do. With that, I close Probably serving as president of the ASA in with one verse of my version of Bob Hope’s song: 1988 was by biggest professional honor. I certainly Thanks for the memories, was not a great president, but I probably had more Statistics started with a bang, fun than most of them. While her praises I often sang, After being president, I was program chair of two But now it’s time to part, excellent winter meetings: On Statistical Education So I thank her with all my heart, in 1992 in Louisville and On Continuous Quality How lovely she is! n

february 2013 amstat news 27 columns

STATtr@k Statisticians' Place in Big Data Sherri Rose ig Data has become the new buzz phrase in My introduction to statistical models as an under- the world of information collection and graduate was in the context of parametric models, analysis. The experiments we conduct and which make strong assumptions about the form of the theB observational data we collect continue to grow underlying system that generated the data. However, in size, due to rapidly expanding technology. in very large data sets, our background knowledge Large data sets also have drawn the attention of may not support these assumptions. Fortunately, young people, with undergraduate and graduate we can instead make fewer assumptions about the students choosing computer science, engineering, probability distribution that generated the data and statistics for their programs of study. Each of using so-called nonparametric or semiparametric these disciplines brings something unique to the models, incorporating all appropriate background table when discussing the challenges of Big Data, knowledge. Similarly, our parameter of interest and interdisciplinary collaborations are becoming for effect questions need not necessarily be a coef- increasingly common. ficient in a parametric regression model. We can Statisticians have a distinct and essential role to define different features of our probability distribu- play in this new world of Big Data. The multidisci- tion, depending on our research question. plinary teams statisticians are a part of may include Our next major role is the estimation of our medical doctors, political scientists, economists, or parameter(s). This may require implementing com- lab scientists. We, as young statisticians, are likely monly used methods, developing a new method, or to repeatedly work in new and different applica- integrating techniques from other fields to answer our tion areas as our careers continue. Regardless of problem. In many cases, Big Data will not be served the subject matter, we need to have a key position well by “off the shelf” methods that work in low- throughout each entire study, not just after the data dimensional, less complicated settings. Our work as has been collected. statisticians does not stop there; we must be involved Even as a graduate student, I encountered multi- in the dissemination of the results, including accurate ple situations in which I was approached by poten- interpretations of what our estimates mean. tial collaborators who had already implemented In an article I wrote for Significance (“Big Data and their study design and spent countless dollars gath- the Future,” Volume 9, Issue 4), I highlighted several ering data. Sometimes this will work. However, in areas that create high-dimensional data in which stat- my experiences, important variables weren’t col- isticians are becoming immersed in scientific research lected or certain types of subjects were mistakenly teams. These included neuroimaging, post-market excluded because a statistician wasn’t involved from safety analysis, celiac disease, and air quality. The main the beginning. In the worst scenarios, they could theme in these seemingly disparate fields is that they not answer their main research questions with the are producing large amounts of data, requiring tailored data at hand. statistical methods and statisticians who have a deep I know I am not alone in these experiences, understanding of the science. and I often recollect the famous R. A. Fisher While we may be trainees, our background in the quote: “To call in the statistician after the experi- fundamentals of statistics provides us with many tools ment is done may be no more than asking him to to contribute immediately. As junior faculty, principal perform a post-mortem examination: He may be investigators, mathematical statisticians, and in other able to say what the experiment died of.” starting positions across academia, industry, and gov- This brings us to one of our first responsi- ernment, we will join collaborative teams as statistical bilities as new statistician members of interdis- specialists. We need to take the time to understand the ciplinary teams. Defining the research question science behind our projects before applying and devel- is a collaborative effort, and statisticians play a oping new methods. The importance of defining our critical part in translating the scientific question research questions will not change as methods prog- into a statistical question. This includes carefully ress and technology advances. A firm basis in statisti- describing the following: cal tenants will allow us to both adapt as techniques • Data structure improve and incorporate new approaches. Thus, we must also embrace the incorporation of computer sci- • Everything we know about the underlying entists, engineers, and researchers in our collaborative system that generated the data (the model) teams to reach effective solutions. n • What we are trying to assess (the parameter or parameters we wish to estimate)

28 amstat news february 2013 columns

Master’s Notebook My Climb Up the Corporate Ladder: Lessons Learned Allison Florance

o you remember being asked what you nine statisticians who support more than 20 oncol- wanted to be when you grew up? My ogy compounds in various clinical trials, biomarker answers varied from veterinarian to nurse to analyses, and companion diagnostics critical for the Dcivil engineer. I can say with certainty I never once drug development of targeted therapies. muttered “statistician.” I spent years working on later-phase studies and In hindsight, I do see why I am now a statistician. regulatory submissions. My time these days is spent I have always loved science first and math second. My in many meetings discussing long-term drug devel- path in life fortuitously led me to a successful career opment plans, reviewing documents (e.g., proto- that I find extremely rewarding. I routinely use both cols, analysis plans, reports summarizing clinical trial science and math! As a bonus, I get to live in North results, manuscripts, abstracts), and hopefully being a Carolina, an area that is diverse for my outdoor hob- valuable team member and manager of my staff. bies, allows me to be close to family, and helps keeps There are some principles I believe have been key balance in my life. to what I consider a successful career thus far. Let me At St. Olaf College, I was a nursing major for my explain what they are and how I think they enhanced freshman and sophomore years. When I began rota- my career. tions in the clinic, I quickly recognized I may not have Keep Learning. Drug development is a competi- picked a suitable profession for me so I changed to a tive business. The strides science, study designs, and biology major with a concentration in Asian studies. ways of summarizing complex data have made in This change made sense since I still loved science and targeted therapies are exciting! But, to keep competi- Asian culture was a new pursuit I found fascinating tive, you have to be eager to continue learning and and wanted to learn more about. willing to seek help. I’ve always made it a priority to I worked in various immunology and molecular understand not just statistics, but the disease area I’m research labs for nearly six years before statistics found working on. me. During this time, I realized that summarizing I had to proactively seek some learning; however, data at the end of experiments was always enjoyable much of it has been from others on the job. I have for me. An insightful, but informal, mentor suggested never been afraid to ask questions or too proud to say the field of statistics. I don’t understand something. As I’m newer to early Although I deliberately made a long-term goal development, some of my staff has more experience to make a career change, it was still a risk. I moved than me on Bayesian and other adaptive designs that my family from upstate New York to Iowa in hopes are more common in phase 2 studies than later-phase of being able to get another laboratory job while studies, where most of my personal experience has I took the prerequisite math and statistics courses been. Although a bit overwhelmed at first, I’m enjoy- needed to apply to the Iowa State University statis- ing learning these designs more than I ever antici- tics graduate program. It was worth the risk. With pated! My knowledge base has grown, and is diverse a lot of hard work, study teams, and long hours, I because of this simple approach: Ask a lot of ques- completed my MS in statistics while working in a tions and learn daily. veterinary pathology lab. Always Be Engaged. I am a contributing mem- Since completing my MS more than 15 years ago, ber of many teams. My contributions include offer- I have worked with several organizations, including ing ideas about approaching tasks, listening, learn- Wake Forest University Medical School, a CRO, ing from others, accessibility, explaining statistics and GlaxoSmithKline (GSK). These opportunities or summarizing data in a way the entire team can enabled me to gain diverse experiences in clinical trials understand, and delivering my tasks on time with (phases 1–4), observational family genetic studies, and quality. Putting high value on the teams I work with consulting in distinctly different settings. My experi- is further demonstrated by respect, integrity, clear ences in therapeutic disease have included oncology, communication, sharing praise, and squarely accept- HIV, cardiovascular, and respiratory. ing accountability. I was asked to write this column about “climbing Work Hard. Nothing can replace hard work. the corporate ladder” as a MS-level statistician. Now Everyone expects me to be a competent statistician. you know where I’ve been. Where am I now? I am I have always worked diligently at delivering on this a director of statistics at GSK in the early develop- expectation, but, to me, that is only what makes me ment of oncology medicines. I manage a group of a satisfactory employee. Taking the extra steps such as

february 2013 amstat news 29 columns

understanding the other disciplines I routinely work A Successful Career Should Be Rewarding and with, volunteering to take on an extra project when Enjoyable. As applied statisticians, we apply statis- a team is under extreme stress, and offering my time tics to real data. For me, these data are based in the and effort to things outside of my immediate job science of medicine and oncology. Since we picked remit (e.g., company committees, mentoring, out- statistics as a career, I assume we all have an interest side organizations, etc.) is what can separate the good in the field of statistics (with some skills in math). My from the great employee. interest and prior experience in science really allowed Embrace Change. It sounds like a cliché, I know. me to connect with clinicians through a common Recognizing change as an opportunity has helped me language and fully understand the data we analyze. I diversify. Sometimes, change can be in the process enjoy applying statistics to science. used regularly, the structure of an organization, an And, as far as rewarding, there is nothing like approach to an analysis or design, or the loss of a crit- experiencing an approval of a new drug you worked ical team member. Like most, I can be uncomfortable on for years! Seeing that drug become available to a with change, but I have always tried to understand population of patients who have few other options in why the change is taking place, look at the opportu- the treatment of their disease brings me great pride nity within that change, and focus on those aspects. and satisfaction. Change can be a worthwhile risk. Beyond that, I just Balance Life and Work. Although I do work make the best of it and keep a positive attitude! hard, I also play hard. I value my time off doing the Find Mentors and Be a Mentor. Cultivating extracurricular pursuits I enjoy with the people I love. mentoring relationships is extremely rewarding. I It is true, my career is more than a job to me, but seek out people whom I respect, have a wide knowl- my family and friends are highly important as well. edge base, and are strong leaders. I watch, listen, and Balance in my life keeps me energized for my career. ask questions of these people. Most times, these are A BS, MS, or PhD in statistics gives us a foun- informal mentoring relationships. These mentors dation of skills we can work to develop throughout have been beneficial in helping me make long term- our career. Although I recognize there are careers goals and model myself into a better leader. They also that may be limited by a degree, I’ve been fortunate have opened doors to new opportunities. in finding a path by welcoming change, learning, I volunteer to be a mentor to others via several mentoring, working hard, and being a leader. These organizations, as I get as much out of being a mentor behaviors launched opportunities for me that have as I do from using one. resulted in advancing my career. I’m excited to think what I’ll have experienced 10 years from now! n

30 amstat news february 2013 international year of statistics International Year of Statistics Kicks Off Jeffrey A. Myers, ASA Public Relations Coordinator

he ASA and more than “Our world is increasingly sure 2013 is the International 1,400 organizations in 109 data-rich and data-dependent Year of Statistics!” wrote akc1970 countries last month and therefore all types of busi- on Twitter. kickedT off the International Year of nesses and government agencies The ASA joins the Institute Statistics (Statistics2013), a world- need statisticians to analyze this of Mathematical Statistics, wide initiative promoting the con- data,” explains Wasserstein. “As International Biometric Society, tributions of the statistics field to a result, the demand for statis- International Statistical Institute finding solutions to global chal- ticians is growing by leaps and (and the Bernoulli Society), and lenges. The goals of this awareness bounds and the trend shows no Royal Statistical Society as found- campaign are to do the following: sign of weakening. ing organizations of Statistics2013. Increase public understanding “Throughout 2013, we will Go to the “Statisics2013 Global of the power and impact of sta- introduce students to careers in Supporters” section at www. tistics on all aspects of society statistics and open their eyes to the statistics2013.org to learn how to Nurture statistics as a profes- bountiful opportunities that await get involved in promoting statis- sion, especially among high- them,” says Wasserstein. tics in your community. n school and college students Central features of the cam- paign are its website—www. Promote creativity and develop- statistics2013.org—and an infor- ment in the sciences of proba- mative two-and-a-half-min- The Sri Lankan Journal of Applied bility and statistics ute video—“Why Statistics Is Statistics2013 participants Important to You”—that explains Statistics include national and international how statistics improves the lives of P. Wijekoon, Chief Editor professional societies, universities, the world’s 7 billion people. schools, businesses, government The public website, launched The Sri Lankan Journal of Applied Statistics (SLJAS), agencies, and research institutes in Jan. 1, includes the following: published by the Institute of Applied Statistics in Sri countries ranging from Algeria to What Is Statistics?—An explana- Lanka (IASSL), welcomes critical reviews, including Iran and North Korea to Vietnam. tion in layman’s language conceptual discussions, opinions, and book reviews. These groups are helping mil- A refereed journal, SLJAS publishes the results of Stats2013AtSchool—A statistics lions of people around the world original work on applications of statistics and theoreti- quiz for students understand the value of statistical cal and methodical aspects of statistics. science through seminars, work- Statistics as a Career— The official language of the journal is English. The shops, and outreach to students Information about the work preferred form of typesetting is Microsoft Word, but and the media. of statisticians and careers in papers in LaTeX are accepted. Keep the number of The campaign’s primary mes- statistics pages to fewer than 16 in B5 size. sage to lay audiences is that statis- Educational Resources— The paper should contain title, authors’ names, affil- tics is much more than numbers Teaching aids for elementary iation/address, emails, an abstract, up to six keywords, on sports pages. “Statistical science and high-school teachers, introduction, materials and methods, analysis and has powerful and far-reaching including the Census At School results, conclusions and recommendations, acknowl- effects on everyone, yet most peo- program edgements, and references. However, a paper may con- ple are unaware of how it improves tain other sections as appropriate. their lives,” says ASA Executive Informational Resources—A Each paper is reviewed by experts in the particular Director Ronald L. Wasserstein. downloadable flyer and posters subject area of the paper, selected from an international “For most people, statistics Participant Area—A dedicated panel of reviewers. Papers recommended by at least two is an invisible science,” contin- section with a calendar of activ- reviewers are accepted for publication. The review pro- ues Wasserstein. “Through this ities, roster of participating cess is carried out independently and anonymously. yearlong, worldwide awareness organizations, and other helpful Papers and a letter of submission should be sent elec- campaign, we will remove the resources tronically in .pdf or .doc format to the editor of the veil that cloaks statistics from the The launch of Statistics2013 journal at [email protected]. public consciousness.” was hailed in social media circles Instructions to authors are available at the IASSL In addition, the campaign is by ASA members and other stat- website, www.iappstat.lk/journal/ojs/Instructions-to- targeting high-school and college isticians around the world. “Who authors.pdf. Go to the Online Submission page of the students with the message that says that statisticians are never cer- IASSL website, www.iappstat.lk/journal/ojs/index.php/ statistics is a growing, diverse, and tain about anything? I’m 100% sljap/index. rewarding career field.

february 2013 amstat news 31 meetings Call for Proposals for Late-Breaking JSM Sessions Bhramar Mukherjee, JSM 2013 Program Chair April 15. The proposal must Note from the JSM 2013 Program Committee Chair include the following: I would first like to thank the many speakers, organizers, and Session description, including a title, summary of statistical members of the JSM program committee for contributing to and scientific content, an an exciting and diverse program for JSM 2013. From Big Data explanation of the subject’s to the history of statistics, the JSM 2013 program features timeliness, and comments topics that range from the contemporary to the classic. about the target audiences Additionally, there are several wonderful theme sessions celebrating the spirit of the International Year of Statistics. Format of the session (e.g., a chair and four panelists; a chair, two or three speakers, Sponsoring Organizations and Partner Societies and a discussant) American Statistical Association* • Institute of Mathematical Statistics* • International Biometric Society (ENAR and WNAR)* • International Chinese Names, affiliations, and contact Statistical Association • International Indian Statistical Association • International information for the session orga- Society for Bayesian Analysis • Korean International Statistical Society • Statistical Society of Canada* nizer, chair, and all participants *Indicates founding societies of JSM (speakers, panelists, discussants) A title for each presentation in the session International Conference on Web links to relevant technical Health Policy Statistics reports or news reports, if lanning for the JSM 2013 applicable program began last July, so Organizers should make sure most of the technical ses- that all the participants agree to Psions have already been organized. participate before the proposal is While advance planning is needed submitted. The JSM participa- to organize such a large meeting, tion guidelines state that a speak- it prevents us from scheduling ses- er can give a main presentation sions on recent developments of and participate in a late-breaking Chicago, Illinois • October 9-11, 2013 great interest in which statistical session at the same meeting. issues are relevant. Thus, there are Two late-breaking sessions two invited session slots reserved will be selected from the pro- The International Conference on Health Policy Statistics (ICHPS) will focus on creating interfaces between meth- for late-breaking issues, and any posals received by the dead- odologists and sophisticated health service research- member of the sponsoring organi- line (subject to approval by the ers, health economists, and policy analysts so they can zations or partner societies can ASA Committee on Meetings). exchange and build on ideas that they will disseminate to propose such a session. Proposals will be judged on sta- the broader health policy community. A late-breaking session must tistical and scientific quality, cover one or more technical, sci- novelty, and timeliness of the Abstracts will be accepted from entific, or policy-related topics subject matter; potential audi- February 26–April 11, 2013 that arose in the one-year period ence appeal; and completeness. A prior to JSM 2013. Proposals for description of the late-breaking See www.amstat.org/meetings/ichps/2013 for details. late-breaking sessions must be sessions and other special ses- emailed to JSM 2013 Program sions will appear in a future issue Chair Bhramar Mukherjee at of Amstat News. Please submit [email protected] with a copy your proposals and help us put to the ASA Meetings Department this final touch on the impressive at [email protected] by JSM 2013 program. n Organized by the Health Policy Statistics Section of the ASA

32 amstat news february 2013 awards andpeople deadlines news

Gosset Plaque Erected in Honor of ‘Student’

The new plaque honoring statistician William Sealy Gosset is displayed at the Saint Patrick's Boys National Primary School in Dublin, Ireland.

n October 16, 2012, the 75th anniversary of William S Gosset’s (“Student’s”) death, a plaque was erected on Saint Patrick’s Boys NationalO (Primary) School, Holly Park, Blackrock County, Dublin, Ireland, as a reminder that Gosset lived in Hollyville Park between 1913 and 1935, when he was employed at Guinness Brewery. The dwelling house, which stood on the site of the school, was demolished in the early 1960s. The erection of the plaque was a joint venture between the Irish Statistical Association and Dun Laoghaire Rathdown County Council, the local authority. It is carved on a piece of smoothly textured purple/ blue slate from Valentia Island, County Kerry, which is in the southwest of Ireland. The inscription is in both Irish and English, and the inscribed curves are based on Diagram II of Gosset’s March1908 Biometrika paper, “The Probable Error of a Mean.” The logos of the Irish Statistical Association and the school are incorporated into the plaque, in addition to that of the county council. A poster outlining the life and work of Gosset, which incorporates period photographs of him with his brothers and children, him with his fellow Guinness employees, and the original house, as well as a repro- duction of the first two pages of the March 1908 Biometrika paper was presented to the principal of Saint Patrick’s School, Helen Kelly. The poster has been put on display in the school. n

february 2013 amstat news 33 people news

The University of Florida (UF) C. F. Jeff Wu is the 2012 has named leading statistics recipient of the U.S. Army Wilks researcher, Peihua Qiu, the Award, presented during the founding chair of its depart- Army Conference on Applied ment of biostatistics. Statistics held last October in Qiu is currently a professor Monterey, California. at the University of Minnesota’s This award was established School of Statistics. He will in 1981 to commemorate the begin heading the new depart- career of Samuel S. Wilks and ment, which is administered his service to the Army. It is jointly by the UF College of given periodically to a “deserv- Public Health and Health ing individual who has made a Professions and the College of substantial contribution to statis- Medicine, on July 1. tical methodology and applica- “The position was attractive tion, impacting the practice of C. F. Jeff Wu to me for several reasons,” Qiu statistics in the Army through said. “I feel the environment at personal research in statistics or the UF Health Science Center application of statistics in the of Waterloo (1988–1993), is very supportive of the bio- solution of Army problems.” University of Michigan (1993– statistics department, especially Wu was honored for his many 2003), and Georgia Institute of the top administrators, who rec- pioneering and landmark con- Technology (2003–present). ognize the importance of biosta- tributions to the advancement He is an elected member tistics. With six health colleges of statistical theory and practice of the National Academy of Read about and several institutes at UF, spanning the fields of survey Engineering and a Fellow of your colleagues there are enormous resources sampling, EM algorithm, asymp- the Institute of Mathematical and friends in and collaboration opportunities totics, resampling methods, Statistics, American Statistical the news. Go for the department. There is experimental design, computer Association, American Society to www.amstat. great potential for the biostatis- experimentation and data syn- for Quality, and Institute for tics department to grow.” thesis, robust parameter design, Operations Research and org and click on Qiu is a Fellow of and industrial statistics. Specific Management Sciences. His “Statisticians in the American Statistical to Army problems, his early publications include 150 ref- the News.” Association and the Institute research on sequential designs ereed papers, one research of Mathematical Statistics for quantal response models monograph, and two widely and an elected member of addressed critical issues of how acclaimed textbooks on modern the International Statistical to conduct sensitivity experi- experimental design. Institute. He also was named ments efficiently when testing is Wu is only the fourth per- editor of Technometrics for a three- destructive and expensive. son to have received both the year term beginning this year. Related contemporary Committee of Presidents of UF’s department of biosta- research results, exploiting recent Statistical Societies’ awards—the tistics was created in 2010 and developments in representing Presidents’ Award, presented to brings together biostatistics fac- intricate physical processes, the best statistician under the ulty from the colleges of public have promoted fast surrogate age of 40, and the Fisher Lecture health and health professions model techniques for accurately Award, venerating accomplish- and medicine. For more approximating sophisticated ments in the advancement of sta- information about the UF simulations and have spawned tistical theory and applications. Department of Biostatistics, a number of innovative design Other notable honors include visit www.biostat.ufl.edu. n and analysis methodologies with the Frank Wilcoxon Prize, broad applicability. Brumbaugh Award, Jack Youden After earning his PhD in Prize (twice), John Wiley Award statistics from the University of in Probability and Statistics, CORRECTION California at Berkeley in 1976, Jerome Sacks Award for ASA member Marc G. Wu began his academic career Outstanding Cross-Disciplinary Genton was inadvertently at the University of Wisconsin- Research, Pan Wen-Yuan left off the list of new AAAS Madison (1977–1988, including Distinguished Research Award, Fellows that appeared in Army Mathematics Research Shewhart Medal, and Einstein the January issue of Amstat Center affiliation). Subsequently, Chair Professorship. n News. We regret the error. he moved to the University

34 amstat news february 2013 awards andpeople deadlines news

During his internship, he longest of any director since the Obituaries had an assignment in the Office Eisenhower administration. Charles Louis Kincannon of Business Economics near Of all his accomplishments Longtime ASA member and for- Dupont Circle, where he worked during his career, Kincannon mer U.S. Census Bureau Director on input/output tables from the once said he was most proud Charles Louis Kincannon passed 1963 business census. After his of his work on the American away on December 14. internship ended in the early Community Survey. Kincannon was born an only 1970s, he returned to the indus- “We had done planning and child in Waco, Texas, in December try division, then the population good formal testing of the ACS by of 1940, right on the cusp of division, before joining the staff the time I was named director,” he World War II. His father traveled of the Office of Management said. “I knew about the program often due to his work for a compa- and Budget (OMB) in 1975. and thought it was the most sen- ny that owned furniture stores. As While at OMB, he worked on sible thing to stop sending out a result, Kincannon’s family moved statistical and regulatory policy the long form of the census when frequently when he was a child. during the Ford Administration people are distracted by so many He was enrolled in three schools and then served as the statistical things. … I was convinced of its each year from first through third liaison to Vice President Nelson utility and was convinced it would grades, which made it challenging Rockefeller’s office. be a miraculous improvement to for him to form friendships. In September of 1981, have data for smaller areas once a When Kincannon was in the Kincannon returned to the Census year instead of just every decade.” fourth grade, his family moved to Bureau and was appointed deputy During his long career at the Corpus Christi, Texas, where they director and chief operating offi- Census Bureau, Kincannon was remained through Kincannon’s cer in January of 1982 by Bruce honored with numerous awards, senior year of high school. He Chapman, President Reagan’s first including the Presidential Rank graduated in 1959 and went on director of the bureau. Kincannon Award of Meritorious Executive, to major in economics at The also served as acting director from the Special Award for Excellence University of Texas at Austin. July 1983 to March 1984 and of the Interagency Committee In December of 1962, dur- again in 1989. During that time, on Information Resources ing his senior year of college, he directed the final preparations Management, and the Commerce Kincannon received a telegram for the 1990 census. Department’s highest civil service from Don Fay, then chief of In 1992, Kincannon and his honor, the Gold Medal. the personnel division of the wife, Claire, moved to Paris after To learn more about employee relations branch. In he was appointed as the first chief Kincannon’s career, you can the telegram, Fay asked him if he statistician in the Organisation read an oral history given would be interested in a job in for Economic Co-operation and by Kincannon in 1992 at economic statistics or computer Development (OECD). He coor- www.census.gov/history/www/ programming. Kincannon, who dinated the organization’s statistical reference/oral_histories/c_louis_ had never taken a statistics class programs and advised the OECD kincannon.html. before, took classes in both sub- secretary general on statistical pol- jects during his last semester and icy. In June of 2000, Kincannon Thomas Lester Bratcher found he preferred statistics to returned to the United States. Thomas Lester Bratcher, from computer science. More than a year later, President Cranfills Gap in Bosque In June of 1963, Kincannon George W. Bush nominated him County, Texas, passed away packed his bags and moved to for director of the Census Bureau. November 3, 2012. Washington, DC, a city he had Kincannon applied for the A graduate of Southern never visited before his move. directorship in the spring of Methodist University, Bratcher After a few years as a statis- 2001 and went through many specialized in Bayesian methods tician in the industry division, interviews with Congress and and formed the PhD program Kincannon was encouraged by the White House. The process at Baylor University, which he Bob Nealon to sign up for an was delayed after the 9/11 terror- directed for more than 20 years. internship offered by the U.S. ist attacks occurred. The Senate He also was the primary orga- Census Bureau. He interviewed confirmed him unanimously on nizer of the Conference of Texas with a panel of executives and March 13, 2002, and he served Statisticians, now in its 32nd year. was then placed on an assign- as the director of the Census Condolences may be sent to ment in the population division, Bureau until his retirement in www.lawsonfuneralhome.net. where Max Shor advised and January of 2008. He served the mentored him.

february 2013 amstat news 35 awards and deadlines

Jeanne E. Griffith ing, analysis, presentation, memorandum summarizing the Mentoring Award and organizational skills and nominee’s actions that support knowledge and encourage junior staff in the Nominations for the Jeanne E. federal, state, or local statistical Griffith Mentoring Award will • Encouraging junior staff community in developing their be accepted until April 5, and the growth and career develop- careers. Nominations may be Award Committee will make its ment through attendance accompanied by up to six sup- determination of the award win- and oral presentations at porting letters, which should be ner by April 30. The award will meetings with higher-level attached to and submitted with consist of a $1,000 honorarium officials and staff members the nomination. Photo copies (to be split if there is more than from other agencies, profes- and email copies of support let- one awardee), a citation, and a sional associations, training ters are acceptable. plaque, which will be presented courses, and conferences Descriptions of what nomi- at a ceremony arranged by the co- nees actually do are the stron- • Motivating junior staff and sponsors in June. gest demonstration of candidate building self-confidence The winning mentor(s) will mentoring. Examples include through feedback on their be selected for his or her efforts in “the mentor is a source of advice,” efforts, being a listener when supporting the work and devel- “counsels with long-term goals that is needed, and creating oping the careers of junior staff. in mind,” “thought I was well- a caring and supportive envi- Examples of typical mentoring qualified even though I had some ronment activities include the following: doubts,” “encourages staff mem- • Advising junior staff to help • Serving as a role model for bers to seek out positions that them create career oppor- junior staff through profession- will increase their visibility and tunities, networking skills, al expertise; information and stretch their professional capabili- and contacts for growth and insights; balancing collegial ties.” These are more explicit and development and personal roles; and includ- unique to the mentor than generic ing everyone across rank, race, statements such as “the mentor is a • Counseling junior staff and ethnicity, and seniority coach … a teacher.” providing resources to help Nomination packages should develop their technical writ- Nominations should be pre- be mailed or emailed to The Jeanne pared in the form of a letter or E. Griffith Mentoring Award Committee, c/o The American Statistical Association, 732 N. 2013 Mortimer spiegelman Award Washington St., Alexandria, VA 22314-1943. Th e Statistics Section of the American Public Health Association (APHA) invites The Jeanne E. Griffith nominations for the 2013 Mortimer Spiegelman Award honoring a statistician, 40 years Mentoring Award was established of age or younger, who has made outstanding contributions to health statistics, especially to honor Griffith, who died in public health statistics. August 2001 after working for more than 25 years in the federal Th e award was established in 1970 and is presented annually at the APHA meeting. statistical system. Throughout her Th e award serves three purposes: to honor the outstanding achievements of both the career, and especially in her later recipient and Spiegelman, to encourage further involvement in public health of the senior management positions at fi nest young statisticians and to increase awareness of APHA and the Statistics Section in the academic statistical community. More details about the award including the list of the National Center for Education the past recipients and more information about the Statistics Section of APHA may be Statistics and the National Science found at http://sites.google.com/site/aphastatistics/benefi ts/spiegelman. Foundation, one of Griffith’s high- est priorities was to mentor and To be eligible for the 2013 Spiegelman Award, a candidate must have been born in encourage younger staff members 1973 or later. Please send electronic versions of nominating letter and the candidate’s to learn, grow, and recognize and CV to the 2013 Spiegelman Award Committee Chair, Nilanjan Chatterjee (chattern@ seize career opportunities as they mail.nih.gov). Please state in the nominating letter the candidate’s birthday. Th e came along. nominator should include one to two paragraphs in the nominating letter that describe For more information about how the nominee’s contributions relate to public health concerns. A maximum of three the nominating process, visit supporting letters per nomination can be provided. www.amstat.org/sections/sgovt/ JEGform13.doc or www.amstat. Nominations for the 2013 Award must be submitted by April 1, 2013. org/sections/sgovt/JEGform13.pdf. If you have questions about the

36 amstat news february 2013 awards and deadlines award, contact Rick Peterson at If you have questions, sound statistical practice in engi- [email protected] or Kevin Cecco at please contact a member of neering and the physical sciences. [email protected]. the scholarship committee at The Natrellas always maintained natrella.scholarship.committee a strong mutual interest in quality Mary G. and Joseph @gmail.com. applications of statistics. Natrella Scholarship Mary was a staff member Scholarship Background of the Statistical Engineering The Quality and Productivity Division of the National Institute Section announces the 2013 The scholarship, funded by the of Standards and Technology Mary G. and Joseph Natrella Mary G. and Joseph Natrella (NIST). Joe’s career was primarily Scholarship, which supports stu- Scholarship Fund and the Quality with the Department of Defense dent participation in the Quality and Productivity Research and NASA as a mathemati- and Productivity Research Conference, was initiated by a cian in charge of data process- Conference (QPRC). Winners contribution to the ASA Quality ing and computations. Mary’s will receive a $3,500 grant, $500 and Productivity Section by Joseph most important publication, stipend toward travel and hous- Natrella at the time of Mary NBS Handbook 91: Experimental ing expenses, and complimentary Natrella’s death to honor her many Statistics, is one of NIST’s best- registration for the conference and contributions to the advancement selling publications. n pre-conference tutorial. In addi- of statistical methodology and tion, winners will give a presen- tation on their research at the Deadlines and Contact Information for ASA National Awards, QPRC, which will be held in Special Lectureships, and COPSS Awards Niskayuna, New York, from June 5–7. www.amstat.org/awards March 1, 2013 Nominations accepted online at www.amstat.org Eligibility ASA Fellows Questions: David L. DeMets, [email protected] Application is open to students March 9, 2013 Philip J. Ramsey, [email protected] who are pursuing a master’s or doc- ASA Statistics in Chemistry Award toral degree full-time in an accred- ited college or university. Students March 15, 2013 Nominations: Pam Craven, [email protected] must have a demonstrated inter- ASA W. J. Dixon Award for Excellence Questions: Mani Y. Lakshminarayanan, est in quality applications as evi- in Statistical Consulting [email protected] denced by course work, research March 15, 2013 Nominations: Pam Craven, [email protected] topic, prior work experience, etc. ASA Founders Award Questions: Robert N. Rodriguez, bob.rodriguez@sas.com Applicants should be prepared March 15, 2013 Nominations: Pam Craven, [email protected] to make a presentation of their ASA W. J. Youden Award in Questions: Michael J. Messner, [email protected] research at the 2013 Quality and Interlaboratory Testing Productivity Research Conference. Applicants will receive equal con- March 15, 2013 Nominations: Pam Craven, [email protected] ASA Waller Education Award Questions: June Morita, [email protected] sideration regardless of age, color, creed, disability, ethnicity, gender, March 15, 2013 Nominations: Pam Craven, [email protected] Karl E. Peace Award for Outstanding marital status, military status, race, Questions: Margaret A. Nemeth, margaret.a.nemeth@ Statistical Contributions for the or sexual orientation. monsanto.com Betterment of Society

Important Dates April 1, 2013 Nominations: Pam Craven, [email protected] The application deadline is March ASA Gertrude M. Cox Scholarship Questions: Eleanor Feingold, [email protected] 1. Scholarship recipients will be April 1, 2013 Nominations: Pam Craven, [email protected] selected by March 22, and scholar- ASA Outstanding Statistical Questions: DuBois Bowman, [email protected] ships will be awarded at the QPRC Application Award banquet on June 5. Application materials consist of an applica- April 1, 2013 Nominations: Pam Craven, [email protected] tion at www.amstat-online.org/ ASA Edward C. Bryant Scholarship Questions: Tapabrata Maiti, [email protected] sections/qp/Natrella_Scholarship_ April 1, 2013 Nominations: Pam Craven, [email protected] Application.pdf and reference form ASA Excellence in Statistical Questions: Morteza Marzjarani, [email protected] at www.amstat-online.org/sections/ Reporting Award qp/Natrella_Scholarship_Reference_ April 1, 2013 Nominations: Pam Craven, [email protected] Form.pdf. ASA Samuel S. Wilks Memorial Medal Questions: Paul P. Biemer, [email protected]

february 2013 amstat news 37 sectioncalendar • chapter of events • committee news

Survey Research Methods sectionnews The Survey Research Methods Section (SRMS) Biometrics plans to sponsor short courses and multiple tech- nical sessions during this year’s Joint Statistical Edited by Feifei Wei, Biometrics Section Publications Meetings (JSM) in Montréal, Québec. Also, check Officer the program for the SRMS business meeting and The Biometrics Section would like to introduce the mixer; section members and nonmembers are wel- current members of the section’s executive committee. come to attend and learn more about the section’s Jianwen Cai—Section chair activities, as well as provide ideas for and input into future activities. Mike Daniels—Chair-elect Additionally, SRMS is planning a series of webi- Yu Shen—Secretary/treasurer nars. For information, visit the section’s website at www.amstat.org/sections/SRMS. Wei Sun—JSM program chair Another new development is the launch of the Doug Schaubel—ENAR program chair Journal of Survey Statistics and Methodology (JSSAM). Page Moore—Council of Sections representative The journal will begin publishing in 2013 and aims “to publish cutting edge scholarly articles on statis- To view Scarlett L. Bellamy—Council of Sections represen- section news in tical and methodological issues for sample surveys, tative censuses, administrative record systems, and other its entirety, visit Limin Clegg—Council of Sections representative related data.” Information about JSSAM is available http://magazine. Donglin Zeng—Continuing Education chair at www.oxfordjournals.org/our_journals/jssam. amstat.org. As a supporter of the International Year of Rosyln Stone—Strategic Initiatives Committee chair Statistics, the section is interested in ways to Feifei Wei—Publications officer increase the visibility of our profession or promote Gerald Beck—Online associate editor and webmaster new developments in our field. Share your ideas and suggestion(s) with members of the SRMS Executive Want to get more involved in JSM? Chairing a Committee at [email protected]. Details about session is an important responsibility and a great way the International Year of Statistics are available at to meet your colleagues. If you are interested, contact www.statistics2013.org. Wei Sun, at [email protected]. Visit http://magazine.amstat.org/?cat=17 to read To read the complete section report, visit http:// a message from the section’s incoming chair, Jill magazine.amstat.org/?cat=17. Montaquila, and about this year’s activities. Quality and Productivity The 30th ASA Quality and Productivity Research Conference (QPRC) will be held at GE Global Research, Niskayuna, New York, from June 5–7. The chapternews goal of the conference is to stimulate interdisciplinary Connecticut research among statisticians, scientists, and engineers The 11th Annual Connecticut Chapter Mini- in quality and productivity, industrial needs, and the Conference, “Maximizing Information from Clinical physical and engineering sciences. You are invited to Trials,” will be held March 27 on the Bristol-Myers contribute papers on these topics for presentation at Squibb campus in Wallingford, Connecticut. the conference. The deadline for abstract submission Invited speakers for the conference are Ming- is March 1. Follow the submission instructions at the Hui Chen of the University of Connecticut, conference website, www.qprc2013.com. Neal Thomas of Pfizer, Inc., Tom Trikalinos of Scholarships for participation in the conference Brown University, José Pinheiro of Johnson & include the Mary G. and Joseph Natrella Scholarship Johnson, and Joan Buenconsejo of the U.S. Food and QPRC student scholarships. For more informa- and Drug Administration. tion, visit www.amstat-online.org/sections/qp/Natrella_ Additionally, a contributed poster session will Scholarship.html. be held. For more information about the conference, Visit the conference website at www.amstat. visit http://magazine.amstat.org/?cat=17 or contact org/chapters/Connecticut/home/MiniConference/ the conference chair, Martha Gardner, at Martha. miniconf_index_2012.htm for more information [email protected]. and to obtain a registration form. n

38 amstat news february 2013 calendar of events

››27—Connecticut Chapter 2013 The following events are the latest additions to March Mini-Conference, Wallingford, the ASA’s online calendar of events. Announce- Connecticut For more informa- ››4–6—SAMSI-SAVI Workshop ments are accepted from education and not-for- tion, visit www.amstat.org/chapters/ on Environmental Statistics, profit organizations only. To view the complete list Research Triangle Park, North Connecticut/home/MiniConference/ miniconf_index_2012.htm or con- of statistics meetings and workshops, visit www. Carolina For more information, amstat.org/dateline. visit www.samsi.info/workshop/ tact Dan Meyer, 445 Eastern Point Road, MS 8260-2510, Groton, CT samsi-savi-workshop-environmental * Indicates events sponsored by the ASA or one of 06340; (860) 441-5094; daniel. -statistics-march-4-6-2013 or its sections, chapters, or committees contact Jamie Nunnelly, 19 T. [email protected]. W. Alexander Drive, Research ›› Indicates events posted since the previous issue Triangle Park, NC 27709; (919) 685-9300; [email protected]. April 5–7—New Techniques and for Epidemiology and Health ››12—Conference on High- Policy Research, Tel Hashomer, Technologies for Statistics Dimensional Statistics, International 52621, Israel; 972-3- (NTTS 2013), Brussels, Belgium Philadelphia, Pennsylvania 5305390; [email protected]. For details, visit www.ntts2013. For details, visit www.fox.temple.edu/ eu or contact NTTS 2013 support-pages/high-dimensional ››26—Philosophy of Secretariat, Unit B1, Luxembourg, -statistics-conference or contact Information: The Value of International L-2920, Luxembourg, Sanat Sarkar, 1810 North 13th St., Information, Washington, DC 00352430138327; ESTAT-NTTS@ Philadelphia, PA 19122; sanat@ For more information, visit www. ec.europa.eu. temple.edu. american.edu/cas/economics/info- metrics/workshop/workshop-2013 ››7–8—Conference on 22–25—7th Meeting of the -spring.cfm or contact Amos Advanced Statistical Methods Eastern Mediterranean Region Golan, 4400 Massachusetts Ave, for Underground Seismic Event International Biometric Society, NW, Kreeger 104, Washington, Monitoring and Verification, Tel Aviv, Israel For details, visit DC 20016; (202) 885-3770; Arlington, Virginia For more infor- event.pwizard.com/ims or contact [email protected]. mation, visit stat.rutgers.edu/confer- Ilana Lobel, The Gertner Institute ences/monitoringandverification2013 or contact Minge Xie, Department of Statistics, 110 Frellinghuysen Road, Piscataway, NJ 08854; (848) 445-2690; [email protected]. Biopharmaceutical Symposium 13–15—IAENG International Conference on Data Mining to Offer Tutorials, Short Courses and Applications, Hong Kong For details, visit www.iaeng.org/ The 20th anniversary meeting of the Biopharmaceutical Applied Statistics IMECS2013/ICDMA2013.html or con- Symposium (BASS XX) will be held November 4–7 at the Double Tree (by tact IAENG Secretariat, Unit 1, 1/F, Hilton) Hotel in downtown Orlando, Florida. 37-39 Hung To Road, Hong Kong, At least 16 one-hour tutorials on diverse topics pertinent to the research, International HK, Hong Kong; (852) clinical development, and regulation of pharmaceuticals will be presented by 3169-3427; [email protected]. speakers from academia, the pharmaceutical industry, and the Food and Drug Administration (FDA). ››18–23—3rd Joint Two parallel one-day short courses will be presented November 6–7, and the Statistical Meeting Deutsche Arbeitsgemeinschaft Statistik, keynote address will take place on November 5, with a reception following. The FDA biometrics session will be the morning of November 6. Freiburg, Germany For details, BASS is a nonprofit entity, sponsored by the department of biostatistics at visit dagstat2013.uni-freiburg.de or Virginia Commonwealth University and the Jiann-Ping Hsu College of Public contact Jan Beyersmann, Eckerstr. Health at Georgia Southern University. Its purpose is to raise funds for graduate 1, Freiburg, International 79104, fellowships in biostatistics. Germany; dagstat2013@imbi. To date, 50 graduate students have been supported by funds raised by BASS. uni-freiburg.de. For more information, visit www.bassconference.org, contact the BASS registrar at [email protected], or contact Karl E. Peace at (912) 478-7905 or [email protected].

february 2013 amstat news 39 calendar of events

››28–30—Kansas State ››13–17—SAMSI Undergraduate Ireland Maynooth, Maynooth, University Conference on Modeling Workshop, Research International Co Kildare, Ireland; Applied Statistics in Agriculture, Triangle Park, North Carolina +35317083914; caroline.brophy@ Manhattan, Kansas For details, For more information, visit nuim.ie. visit www.dce.k-state.edu/conf/ www.samsi.info/workshop/ To view applied-stats or contact Teresa undergraduate-modeling- ››20–8/16—MBI Undergraduate the entire list Zerbe, 101 Dickens Hall, workshop-may-13-17-2013 or Research Program, Columbus, of statistics Manhattan, KS 66506; (785) 532- contact Jamie Nunnelly, 19 T. Ohio For details, visit www. meetings and 6883; [email protected]. W. Alexander Drive, Research mbi.osu.edu/eduprograms/ Triangle Park, NC 27709; (919) undergrad2013.html or contact ››12–17—Workshop on workshops, visit 685-9350; [email protected]. Stella Cornett, 1735 Neil Ave., www.amstat. Statistical Genomics and Data Integration for Personalized Columbus, OH 43210; (614) 292- org/dateline. Medicine, Ascona, Switzerland ›› 15–17—Conference on 9870; [email protected]. For details, visit www.cbg.ethz.ch/ Applied Statistics in Ireland (CASI) 2013, Co Kildare, Ireland ››*20–22—36th Annual Midwest news/ascona2013 or contact Niko For details, visit www.casi.ie Biopharmaceutical Statistics Beerenwinkel, Mattenstrasse Workshop (MBSW), Muncie, or contact Caroline Brophy, 26, Basel, International 4058, Indiana For more information, Department of Mathematics & Switzerland; ascona2013@bsse. visit www.mbswonline.com or Statistics, National University of ethz.ch. contact Melvin Munsaka, One Takeda Pkwy., Deerfield, IL 60015; (224) 554-2846; melvin.munsaka@ takeda.com. ››23–24—3rd International 6th Annual Conference on Statistical Issues in Clinical Trials Conference: Quantitative and April 17, 2013 Qualitative Methodologies Topic: Dynamic Treatment Regimes in the Economic and Leading scientists will make presentations and lead open discussions about state-of-the-art Administrative Sciences and developing methods in new designs for evaluating treatment strategies when regular time (Q.M.E.A.S. 2013), Athens, varying adaptive changes in treatment are expected. Participants from academic institutions, Greece For more informa- industry, and governmental agencies with an interest in contributing to these discussions are tion, visit users.teiath.gr/cfragos/ encouraged to register. index_files/Page1327.htmor Conference co-sponsors: American Statistical Association and the Society for Clinical Trials contact Christos Frangos, Agiou Faculty Tentative Topics Spyridonos Street, Athens, Phil Lavori, Stanford Introduction to Dynamic Treatment Regimes and SMART Designs International 122 10, Greece; +30 Eric Laber, NC State Estimation of Optimal Dynamic Treatment Regimes 6944162376; [email protected]. Bibhas Chakraborty, Columbia M-out-of-n Bootstrap: A Pragmatic Inference Tool for Dynamic Treatment Regimes ››26–29—41st Annual Meeting of the Statistical Society of Linda Collins, Penn State SMART: An Integral Component of Multiphase Optimization Canada, Edmonton, Alberta Strategy (MOST): Screening, Refining, Confirming For details, visit www.ssc.ca or Kevin Lynch, U Pennsylvania Two- and Three-Stage Adaptive Treatment Regimens in Substance Abuse Research contact Rhonda Rosychuk, 3-524 Edmonton Clinic Health Erica Moodie, McGill Adaptive Dose Finding: Optimal Strategies in a PK/PD Trial for Cardiovascular Use of Warfarin Academy, 11405 87 Ave. NW, Kelley Kidwell, Michigan SMART Designs in Cancer Research: Learning from the Past, Edmonton, AB T6G 1C9, Canada; Current Limitations, and Issues for the Future (780) 492-0318; [email protected]. Panelists Keaven Anderson (Merck); Rick Chappell (U Wisconsin); Christy Chuang-Stein (Pfizer); Estelle Russek-Cohen (FDA); Dean Follman (NIAID); Marshall Joffe (UPenn) and Michael Kosorok (UNC) Venue, Housing, Registration Fee. The conference will be held at the Biomedical Research June Building Auditorium on the campus of the Perelman School of Medicine at the University of ››*2–5—49th SRCoS Summer Pennsylvania. The Sheraton University City is located within easy walking distance. Many Research Conference, Burns, alternative hotels in Center City, Philadelphia, are also a short distance from the UPenn cam- pus. Registration is limited to 220 participants. Registration deadline is April 4, 2013, or Tennessee For details, visit when conference sells out. Conference fee (includes breakfast, lunch, breaks): $200 Industry, louisville.edu/sphis/bb/srcos-2013 $120 Academic & Government. For information, visit http://www.cceb.med.upenn.edu/ or contact Don Edwards, Dept. biostat/conferences/ClinTrials13. For further information, contact Marissa Fox at of Statistics, University of South (215) 573-2728 or [email protected].

40 amstat news february 2013 calendar of events

Carolina, Columbia, TN 29205; ›› 6–8—BISP8: 8th Workshop on 6100 Executive Blvd., Rockville, (803) 479-4814; edwards@stat. Bayesian Inference in Stochastic MD 20852; (301) 435-6962; liua@ sc.edu. Processes, Milano, Italy mail.nih.gov. For details, visit www.mi.imati.cnr. ››3–7—Workshop on it/conferences/BISP8 or contact 10–12—4th Nordic-Baltic Compositional Data Analysis Biometric Conference, NBBC13, Antonio Pievatolo, Via Bassini 15, (CoDaWork 2013), Vorau, Stockholm, Sweden Milano, International 20133, Italy; Austria For more information, For more information, visit nbbc13. [email protected]. visit www.codawork2013.com org or contact Marie Jansson, Box or contact Peter Filzmoser, 281, Stockholm, International SE- ››7–8—MedicReS International Wiedner Hauptstr. 8-10, Vienna, CME Conference, Istanbul, 17177, Sweden; +46 8 52486150; International 1040, Austria; +43 Turkey [email protected]. 1 58801 10733; P.Filzmoser@ For more information, visit www. ››10–28—SAMSI: Modern tuwien.ac.at. ic2013.medicres.org or contact Statistical and Computational ››4–14—SAMSI Summer Burak Akicier, Mariahilferstrasse Methods for Analysis of Kepler Program: Neuroimaging Data 123 3, Vienna, International 1060, Data, Research Triangle Park, Analysis, Research Triangle Park, Austria; +436769783898; burak. North Carolina For more infor- North Carolina For more infor- [email protected]. mation, visit www.samsi.info/ mation, visit www.samsi.info/ workshop/summer-2013-modern- programs/summer-2013- ››9–12—Joint Statistical statistical-and-computational-anal- program-neuroimaging-data- Conference by the International ysis-kepler-data-june-10-28-2013 or analysis-june-4-14-2013 or con- Chinese Statistical Association contact Karem Jackson, 19 T. W. (ICSA) and the International tact Jamie Nunnelly, P.O. Box Alexander Drive, RTP, NC 27709; Society for Biopharmaceutical 14006, RTP, NC 27709; (919) 685- Statistics (ISBS), Bethesda, (919) 685-9350; admin@samsi. 9350; [email protected]. n Maryland For details, visit www. info. icsa.org/2013 or contact Aiyi Liu,

february 2013 amstat news 41 professional opportunities

n Parexel International is hiring! Senior/ principal statistical programmers (full Professional Opportunity listings may not exceed 65 words, plus equal oppor- time/permanent/remote). Input into and tunity information. The deadline for their receipt is the 20th of the month two negotiate statistical programming time- months prior to when the ad is to be published (e.g., May 20 for the July issue). lines. Coordinate and lead a statistical Ads will be published in the next available issue following receipt. programming team to successful comple- Listings are shown alphabetically by state, followed by international listings. tion of a study within given timelines and Vacancy listings may include the institutional name and address or be identi- budget. Interact with sponsors as the key fied by number, as desired. contact with regard to statistical program- Professional Opportunities vacancies also will be published on the ASA’s ming issues. Proficiency in SAS. Clinical website (www.amstat.org). Vacancy listings will appear on the website for the trial industry experience. To apply: please entire calendar month. Ads may not be placed for publication in the magazine send CV to [email protected] only; all ads will be published both electronically and in print. EOE. Rates: $320 for nonprofit organizations (with proof of nonprofit status), Minnesota $475 for all others. Member discounts are not given. For display and online n advertising rates, go to www.amstat.org/ads. The Biostatistics Division, School of Listings will be invoiced following publication. All payments should be Public Health, University of Minnesota made to the American Statistical Association. All material should be sent seeks applicants for associate/full tenured/ to Amstat News, 732 North Washington Street, Alexandria, VA 22314- tenure-track faculty position. Especially interested in 1.) academic/research records 1943; fax (703) 684-2036; email [email protected]. in survival analysis 2.) methods for sur- Employers are expected to acknowledge all responses resulting from pub- vey sampling small area estimation or 3.) lication of their ads. Personnel advertising is accepted with the understanding SEM, causal analysis, and other methods that the advertiser does not discriminate among applicants on the basis of race, accounting for latent factors in observa- sex, religion, age, color, national origin, handicap, or sexual orientation. tional data. Applicants should submit: Also, look for job ads on the ASA website at www.amstat.org/jobweb. cover letter, CV, names of references at: http://employment.umn.edu/applicants/ Central?quickFind=107994. www.sph. umn.edu/biostatistics. EOE. Nevada n The Department of Mathematical Sciences at the University of Nevada Las California Vegas invites applications for a full-time, n San Francisco VA Medical Center and research. Please send cover letter, CV, 9-month, tenure-track assistant professor NCIRE have an immediate opening for a 3 references to: [email protected]. position in statistics, starting fall 2013. statistician. Qualified applicant will have edu. Go to medschool.umaryland.edu/ The successful candidate is expected to master's degree in statistics, biostatistics, epidemiology/employ.asp for info. The teach effectively at the undergraduate epidemiology, or equivalent, and 3+ years University of Maryland, Baltimore is an and graduate levels, publish in refereed experience in statistical analysis, data Equal Opportunity, Affirmative Action research journals, pursue external fund- modeling, and advanced programming Employer. Minorities, women, veter- ing, and supervise graduate students. For skills. SAS experience and ability to work ans and individuals with disabilities are complete job description, visit http://jobs. with large national administrative datas- encouraged to apply. unlv.edu or call (702) 895-2894. EEO/ ets, such as VA and CMS datasets, highly AA Employer. preferred. Apply at www.ncire.org refer- Massachusetts New York ring to job 2012-1888. EOE n The Department of Mathematics and n Statistics of Mount Holyoke College New York University Stern School of Maryland invites applications for a visiting position Business Statistics Group, tenure-track n The University of Maryland School in statistics at the assistant professor level. assistant professor appointment in sta- of Medicine seeks an experienced The position is for one year, to begin in tistics. Candidates should have evidence biostatistician to be the Director fall, 2013. Qualifications include a PhD of boundary-spanning interests across of the Division of Biostatistics and in statistics (completed or anticipated) fields that reflect significant interfaces Bioinformatics, and Biostatistics and a commitment to teaching and schol- of statistics with areas of relevance in a Shared Service at the Greenebaum arship in a liberal arts environment. For Business School. Expected that candidate Cancer Center. Candidates should further information about the department will be productive researcher and effective have leadership skills and experience see: www.mtholyoke.edu/acad/math/ AA/ teacher at both undergraduate and gradu- in collaborative and methodologic EOE.

42 amstat news february 2013 ate levels. See http://www.stern.nyu.edu/ experience-stern/about/departments- centers-initiatives/academic-departments/ ioms/faculty-staff/position-openings/ statistics/index.htm for full details, includ- ing information on application proce- dure. www.stern.nyu.edu/ioms. New York University is an Affirmative Action/Equal Opportunity Institution. North Carolina n Assistant professor. Posting number: 940687. East Carolina University invites applications for a tenure-track assistant professor position in statistics begin- ning August 12, 2013. PhD required in statistics or closely related area and commitment to teaching, research, and service to the university, community, and profession is expected. Screening will begin January 15, 2013 and continue until the position is filled. Visit this job posting at ecu.peopleadmin.com/applicants/ Central?quickFind=70523. AA/EOE.

The International Year of Statistics

JoinRecognizing the Contributions of Statistics to Society Worldwide

Register* your organization today at www.statistics2013.org.

*Registering your organization does not obligate you; it simply indicates you support the goals of the International Year of Statistics.

february 2013 amstat news 43 Position Description for the Position of President of Frontier Scienceand Technology Research Foundation (FSTRF)

The Board of Directors is seeking candidates for the position of President (& CEO) of FSTRF as a successor to Dr Marvin Zelen who founded FSTRF and has served as President since its beginning. Dr Zelen has announced his desire to step down as President while remaining as Chairman of the Board of Directors for FSTRF.

FSTRF is a not-for-profi t foundation established in New York State in 1974, and now has offi ces in Boston MA, Amherst NY, Madison WI, Kincraig Scotland and Athens Greece. A Tokyo offi ce is in the planning stages. The international offi ces are all independent legal entities in their respective countries, but with a degree of oversight by the FSTRF Board. The mission of FSTRF is to advance the applications of statistical science in biomedical science, healthcare and education by developing and providing educational and research opportunities for investigators and students pursuing research which combines statistics, empirical science, mathematics, computer science and other related disciplines. FSTRF collaborates with investigators and institutions on the quantitative and management aspects of the planning, monitoring and analysis of research studies, particularly clinical trials, targeted at fi nding more benefi cial therapies for the treatment of disease as well as studies leading to a better understanding of the natural history and epidemiology of these diseases.

The President reports to a Board of Directors, made up of statistical scientists, clinical investigators, the Foundation¹s attorney and the directors of the individual offi ces. The President is the operational head of the organization, taking the lead in the efforts to expand FSTRF¹s project base, providing broad oversight of activities in all the Frontier offi ces and ensuring that the Board¹s policies are communicated to the FSTRF offi ces. Each of the individual offi ces has a director who reports to the President while being responsible for day to day operations of his/her individual offi ces.

FSTRF currently has close to 400 employees, the majority of whom are located in either Boston or Amherst. FSTRF staff is engaged in a wide range of activities with a very large number of collaborators and clients worldwide. FSTRF serves as the data management center for three major NIH funded clinical trial networks, the Eastern Cooperative Oncology Group (ECOG), the AIDS Clinical Trial Group (ACTG) and the IMPAACT. The annual FSTRF budget is approximately $50M of which $10M is ³Pass-through funds² given to ECOG institutions. The primary sources of funding are from two National Institutes of Health (NIH) institutes, the National Cancer Institute (NCI) and the National Institute for Allergy and Infectious Disease (NIAID), as well as several pharmaceutical companies The major strengths of FSTRF are its not-for-profi t status, and its philosophy to function as an independent clinical trials organization.

This philosophy promotes FSTRF¹s independence from a project or trial sponsor. It also means that FSTRF does not take on business purely for fi nancial reasons, but also considers the scientifi c validity of the project. This aspect of FSTRFs operations is critical, providing a focus that many other organizations do not share. This philosophy should continue to form the cornerstone of FSTRF¹s business model.

Desirable qualifi cations for this position would include, but are not be limited to, an accomplished career having achieved stature and recognition, an advanced degree in a fi eld related to FSTRF¹s mission, some experience in a senior management role with fi nancial oversight in either an academic or industry medical research environment, demonstrated leadership and vision plus a successful track record in attracting new funded research projects including but not limited to federal and industry sources.

Submit resume & cover letter to [email protected] and include PRES in the subject line. Those unable to use email may mail their material to

Frontier Science 4033 Maple Rd Amherst, NY 14226

Frontier Science is an Equal Opportunity Employer.

44 amstat news february 2013 Ohio n The Department of Mathematics University of Kentucky and Statistics at Wright State University

invites applications for a tenure-track Tenured/Tenure-Track positions in sta- tistics, beginning 8/15/13. All research position in biostatistics at the rank of areas in statistics/probability welcome, assistant or associate professor starting including mathematical statistics. fall 2013. More info is available at www. math.wright.edu, and application is online Applicants at associate/full level ex- at https://jobs.wright.edu/postings/6039. pected to have record of external fund- WSU is an affirmative action/equal ing and doctoral dissertations directed; applicants at assistant level expected to opportunity employee.. aspire to the same. Experience/inter- n est in online teaching and/or develop- The Department of Quantitative ing new graduate courses is a plus. Health Sciences at the Cleveland Clinic is recruiting for faculty and master's-level Selection begins 1/15/13 and con- positions. Many areas are being sought, tinues until positions are filled. Email including biostatistics, health econom- ([email protected]) CV, teaching and ics, health status measures, analysis of research statements and have three letters of reference sent to Dr. Arnold population-based registries, diagnostic J. Stromberg, Chair, University of test assessment, ROC analysis, and psy- Kentucky, Department of Statistics, chometrics. Details for all positions, as 725 Rose Street, Lexington, Kentucky well as application instructions, are on 40536-0082. our website: www.lerner.ccf.org/qhs/jobs/. Cleveland Clinic is an AA/EOE. Visit our website at http://stat.uky.edu.

Positions subject to budgetary approval. EOE: To Pennsylvania enrich education through diversity, the University of Kentucky is an affirmative action, equal oppor- n Possible teaching-track position. tunity employer. Collegial environment emphasizing dis- ciplinary and cross-disciplinary research and teaching. Position emphasizes teach- ing, program administration, curriculum development. Joint appointments pos- sible with other units at CMU. See http:// www.stat.cmu.edu (email: hiring@stat. cmu.edu). Send CV, teaching statement, relevant transcripts, and three recom- mendation letters to: Faculty Search Committee, Statistics, Carnegie Mellon University, Pittsburgh, PA 15213, USA. Application screening begins immedi- ately, continues until positions closed. Women and minorities are encouraged to apply. AA/EOE. Looking for a Job? The ASA JobWeb is a targeted job database and résumé-posting service. www.amstat.org/jobweb

february 2013 amstat news 45 n Possible tenure-track and visit- ing positions. Collegial environment emphasizing disciplinary and cross- disciplinary research and teaching. All areas of statistics welcome. Joint appoint- ments possible with other units in the Pittsburgh area. See http://www.stat.cmu. Director, Division of Biostatistics and Bioinformatics and edu (email:[email protected]). Send Director, cancer center Biostatistics shared services CV, research papers, relevant transcripts, Th e University of Maryland School of Medicine invites applications from experienced biostatisticians to serve as and three recommendation letters to: the Director of the Division of Biostatistics and Bioinformatics in the Department of Epidemiology and Public Faculty Search Committee, Statistics, Health, as well as the Director of the Greenebaum Cancer Center’s Biostatistics Shared Service. We are seeking a Carnegie Mellon University, Pittsburgh, research leader with a track record of multidisciplinary biostatistics research in cancer—evidenced by productivity in collaborative and methodologic publication, as well as successful grant funding. Th ose with a primary interest in PA 15213, USA. Application screening cancer informatics and/or with data coordinating center expertise are also encouraged to apply. Resources include begins immediately, continues until posi- funding to promote faculty growth, reward productivity, and hire additional faculty members. tions closed. Women and minorities are Th e Department of Epidemiology and Public Health has six divisions with 51 full-time faculty members. It encouraged to apply. AA/EOE. is #1 in NIH funding among departments of its type in public schools of medicine and second among all medical school departments of its type. n The Statistics Department at Temple University seeks tenure-track and non- Details: http://medschool.umaryland.edu/epidemiology/employ.asp tenure track candidates at the assistant, Requirements: Ph.D. (or equivalent) in the statistical sciences currently holding the rank of Associate Professor associate and/or full professor levels, or Professor, with demonstrated leadership ability. starting in September 2013. Candidates must have a PhD in statistics, a record or To Apply: Please send a cover letter, CV, research statement, and contact information for 3 references to: [email protected] potential of publishing in top-tier jour- nals, evidence of teaching, and strong Th e University of Maryland, Baltimore is an Equal Opportunity, Affi rmative Action Employer. Minorities, theory/application background. Apply women, veterans and individuals with disabilities are encouraged to apply. electronically to Dr. William Wei, stat. [email protected], with cover letter,

46 amstat news february 2013 CV, teaching evidence & three recom- mendation letters. www.fox.temple.edu/ dept/statistics/. Temple University is an Equal Opportunity/Affirmative Action Employer.

FACULTY POSITION AT THE FRED HUTCHINSON CANCER RESEARCH CENTER International n The National Academy of Sciences e Clinical Research Division of the Fred Hutchinson Cancer Research Center (FHCRC) seeks scientists to fill two biostatis- invites applications for a biostatistician at the Assistant Member /Associate Member level to tics positions at the Radiation Effects provide collaborative statistical support for the clinical research activities of the division and Research Foundation (RERF) in the a liated Cancer Consortium with the University of Washington. Independent research Hiroshima, Japan. Primary responsi- in statistical methodology is strongly encouraged. Requires Ph.D. in statistics or biostatistics bilities are statistical consulting on the and excellent communications skills. Prior experience in a biomedical research environment design of radiation research protocols is highly desirable. Possibility of joint appointment with the Division of Public Health Sciences and analysis of research data in consulta- at the FHCRC. Position to remain open until  lled. tion with RERF epidemiologists, clinical Please send curriculum vitae, a letter describing research interests, and the names of four researchers, and laboratory scientists, references to with additional independent research on related statistical methodologies Barry Storer, PhD, Director of Clinical Statistics and applications. Please visit http://tbe. Fred Hutchinson Cancer Research Center, 1100 Fairview Ave. N, D5-360, PO Box 19024, taleo.net/NA4/ats/careers/requisition. Seattle, WA 98109-1024 or bstorer@ crc.org. jsp?org=NAS&cws=1&rid=7342. EOE, M/F/D/V. n

 e Fred Hutchinson Cancer Research Center is an a rmative action, equal opportunity employer. It is dedicated to the goal of building a culturally diverse and pluralistic faculty and sta committed to teaching and working in a multicultural environment and strongly encourages applications from women, minorities, individuals with disabilities and covered veterans.

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february 2013 amstat news 47 February 2013 • Issue #428

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misc. products and services American Association for Public Opinion Research. .p. 18 Cambridge University Press...... p. 16 John Wiley & Sons ...... centerfold Mortimer Spiegelman Award...... p. 36 Myrto Lefkopoulou Lecture ...... p. 22 Northwestern University...... p. 25 Penn State World Campus...... p. 33 University of Michigan...... p. 21

professional opportunities Fred Hutchinson Cancer Research Center. . . . . p. 47 Frontier Science and Technology Research. . . . .p. 44 NORC...... p. 45 University of Kentucky...... p. 45 University of Maryland...... p. 46 U.S. Census Bureau...... p. 43, 46 Westat...... p. 45, 47

software Cytel Inc...... p. 41 JMP, a business unit of SAS...... cover 4 Minitab Inc...... centerfold NCSS...... p. 23 Salford Systems...... p. 26 SAS...... cover 3 SigmaXL, Inc...... p. 20 Statistical Solutions...... p. 30 StatSoft, Inc...... cover 2

48 amstat news february 2013