October 2019 • Issue #508 AMSTATNEWS The Membership Magazine of the American Statistical Association • http://magazine.amstat.org JSM2019 REMINISCING ON THE IMPACT ALSO: SDSS 2020 to Feature Refereed Submissions Hadley Wickham Wins Prestigious COPSS Presidents’ Award Announcing New in Stata 16 f Meta-analysis f Multiple-dose pharmacokinetic modeling f Lasso-based machine learning f Import data from SAS and SPSS f Python integration f Random-effects models with any combination of MNAR outcomes, f Bayesian predictions nonrandom treatment assignment, and unobserved confounding f Multiple chains in Bayesian estimation f Numerical integration f Truly reproducible reporting f Linear programming f Multiple-group IRT f Nonparametric series regression f Sample-size analysis for inference with confidence intervals stata.com/amstat-stata16 Stata is a registered trademark of StataCorp LLC, 4905 Lakeway Drive, College Station, TX 77845, USA. AMSTATNEWS OCTOBER 2019 • ISSUE #508 Executive Director Ron Wasserstein: [email protected] Associate Executive Director and Director of Operations features Stephen Porzio: [email protected] 3 President’s Corner Director of Science Policy Steve Pierson: [email protected] 5 Highlights of the July 26–27, 2019, ASA Board of Directors Meeting Director of Strategic Initiatives and Outreach Donna LaLonde: [email protected] 7 Study Reveals Gender Imbalance on Director of Education (Bio)statistics Editorial Boards Rebecca Nichols: [email protected] 9 Boston University to Hold Symposium on Managing Editor Statistics and Life Sciences Megan Murphy: [email protected] 10 Free 2019 Seasonal Adjustment Practitioners Editor and Content Strategist Workshop Happening in November Val Nirala: [email protected] 11 Stats from the Road: What’s Your Why? 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For annual membership rates, columns see www.amstat.org/join or contact ASA Member Services at (888) 231-3473. 16 STATtr@k American Statistical Association My Path to Accreditation: How to 732 North Washington Street Alexandria, VA 22314–1943 USA Bolster Your Statistical Career (703) 684–1221 STATtr@k is a column in Amstat News and a website geared toward people ASA GENERAL: [email protected] who are in a statistics program, recently graduated from a statistics pro- ADDRESS CHANGES: [email protected] gram, or recently entered the job world. To read more articles like this AMSTAT EDITORIAL: [email protected] one, visit the website at http://stattrak.amstat.org. If you have suggestions ADVERTISING: [email protected] for future articles, or would like to submit an article, please email Megan WEBSITE: http://magazine.amstat.org Murphy, Amstat News managing editor, at [email protected]. Printed in USA © 2019 American Statistical Association 18 STATS4GOOD Joseph Gastwirth Receives Karl E. 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Our members serve in industry, government, and academia in more than 90 countries, advancing research and promoting sound statistical practice to inform public policy and improve human welfare. departments 19 meetings SDSS 2020 to Feature Refereed Submissions JSM 2019 Reminiscing on the Impact Diversity Workshop and Mentoring Program Celebrates 10 Years COPSS Honors Four with Awards Hadley Wickham Wins Prestigious COPSS Giving Day Is November 1 Presidents’ Award Visit www.amstat.org/givingday to learn about what A Conversation with Anirban Basu your donation on Giving Day can do and to find out how you can win one of our prizes this year! 34 education Statistics Workshops for Math and Science Teachers Held in Denver 2019 Beyond AP Statistics (BAPS) Workshop In Memoriam Attracts a Dozen Teachers Sadly, the following members passed away recently: Kenneth Hess, professor of biostatistics at The University of Texas MD Anderson Cancer Center, passed away July 26. His colleagues remember Diversity him as a kind, dedicated biostatistician who was Workshop and committed to quality and safety. Mentoring Program Canadian statistician Marc Moore passed away on Celebrates July 26, after losing a long battle with Parkinson’s 10 Years disease. He was a professor at École Polytechnique de Montréal from 1971 to his retirement at the SEE PAGE 29 end of 2002. Statistical and engineering consultant Raymond Leigh Wilder passed away at his home surrounded by friends and family on August 21. Read about these members online in the People section: https://magazine.amstat.org/blog/category/ membernews/amstatpeople/obits. member news 36 Awards and Deadlines 37 People News 40 Section • Chapter • Committee News Correction 44 Professional Opportunities In the August issue, the student photo was mislabeled in the article “ASA DataFest in Southern California Attracts Hundreds.” The photo caption Follow us on Twitter should have read “Chapman University students.” www.twitter.com/AmstatNews Also, Ryan Millet’s name was misspelled. We Join the ASA Community apologize for the error. http://community.amstat.org Like us on Facebook www.facebook.com/AmstatNews Follow us on Instagram www.instagram.com/AmstatNews 2 amstat news october 2019 president's corner On Becoming Indispensable he voice on my radio at 5 So I asked Appelbaum, how scientists focus on prediction. a.m. one day last month did a bunch of economists And often the target is prediction was that of NPR’s Noel go from nobodies to being for a specific set of circumstances, TKing on Morning Edition: important people? And he said, not for a general set of conditions “It’s pretty simple. In an era of that would require estimation. Picture this. In the early 1950s, a real economic problems, they He shared some insightful views young guy is working at a desk promised solutions.” on the two disciplines. deep inside the Federal Reserve This last sentence reminded Many people frame the “inva- Bank of New York. It’s not exactly me of a statement made by Vijay sion” of data science as “How a corner office. And he com- Nair, D. A. Darling Professor can we convince data scientists plains to his wife that he has no Emeritus at the University of that we are data science?” Or, to Karen Kafadar future there at the Fed. He’s not a Michigan and head of statisti- use Efron’s insight, “How can we banker. He’s not a lawyer. He is a cal learning and advanced com- do more prediction, as people lowly economist. That is what life puting at Wells Fargo, during a want?” But I am not sure we is like for economists in the 1950s. conversation: “People in the real want to go that route. Perhaps world are looking for solutions to the question for us is rather, Her guest, New York Times problems—straight answers, not “How do we convince people columnist Binyamin Appelbaum, ‘If …’ or ‘But …’ or ‘Maybe …’.” they really want statisticians’ MORE ONLINE elaborated: And people will listen to any- insight, estimation, and valid The link to the NPR one who provides these answers. inference from data?” How do story is: https://n.pr/2lZyxTX Nobody respects them, in part, At a House Committee hear- we do what economists did in the just because economics was a ing last, titled “Raising the Bar: 1950s—convince people, espe- new thing in the world. The idea Progress and Future Needs in cially high-level decision-makers, that people could manage eco- nomic conditions, could improve Forensic Science and Standards,” that they cannot live without us? economic conditions—these Rep. Jerry McNerney asked, I do not think all the recent were new ideas in the world. … “How do you see AI methods as attention on p-values will per- This quiet but really important advancing the practice of foren- suade people to listen to statisti- revolution that happens, really, sic science?” It was a good ques- cians. (It may have the opposite member news beginning in the late 1960s and tion for those who understand effect.