Washington Statistical Society
        Washington Statistical Society on Meetup   Washington Statistical Society on LinkedIn

June 2003

Contents:


Richard D. Allen To Receive the Jeanne E. Griffith Mentoring Award

The Jeanne E. Griffith Mentoring Award Committee is pleased to announce that this year's award has been given to Richard D. Allen, Deputy Administrator for Program and Products for the National Agricultural Statistics Service.

To understand the impact of Rich's "gentle guidance" on the lives and careers of junior staff, you need only to read their words.

"Rich Allen is truly one of the unsung heroes of our agency. Though he has met thousands of faces in hundreds of places, he always seems to know each one by first name and [remember] something important about them."

"Rich Allen...has never shied away from the truth, has always shown complete respect for individuals, has helped new and not so new statisticians define their career objectives, has helped develop statistician's analytical processes during agricultural boards, and has communicated disappointing news in a compassionate and caring way."

"In 1984, I received a letter from [Rich Allen stating]...' I have a personal policy of reflecting upon each Agency training school or meeting that I attend, identifying the two or three people who I feel made the most significant contributions, and contacting those individuals to pass on my feelings.' He continued to point out specific examples of my contributions at the workshop and ended with 'Keep up the good work'. That letter meant as much to me as any award that I have received."

The award ceremony honoring Rich Allen will take place on June 18, 2003 at 4:00 in the Conference Center at the Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS). Refreshments will be served. If you are planning to attend, kindly contact Ed Spar at copafs@aol.com so that your name can be added to the security list. BLS is located just across the street from Union Station in the Postal Square Building.

Return to top

WSS Board Open Meeting

The open meeting of the WSS Board of Directors will be held on Tuesday, June 24, 2002; 12:30 pm, in the BLS Conference Center (Downstairs), Postal Square Building, 2 Massachusetts Avenue.

In order to attend the meeting, you will need to contact Tom Mule by email (vincent.t.mule.jr@census.gov) or by phone (301-763-8322) before June 17th so your name can be added to the BLS visitor list.

You will need to check in at the guard's desk. The building is across First Street from the Union Station metro stop.

Return to top

MSMESB Meeting

MSMESB (Making Statistics More Effective in Schools and Business) is holding a conference on Saturday, November 22, 2003 at the McDonough School of Business, Georgetown University, Washington, DC. The theme of the conference is "New Approaches to the First Business Statistics Course" and its purpose designed to bring together statisticians in business, government and academia to explore ways to improve the teaching and learning of statistics and statistical thinking. For more information, please visit our website: www.msmesb.org.

Return to top

Graduate Certificate in Biostatistics at George Mason University

George Mason University announces a new Graduate Certificate in Biostatistics, commencing in August, 2003. The 18 credit hour certificate is jointly taught by the Department of Applied & Engineering Statistics and the College of Nursing & Health Science. The Certificate prepares participants to apply statistical methods to quantitative analysis of health care issues. It is aimed at health scientists and professionals in government agencies such as the National Institute of Health, as well as in pharmaceutical companies, research hospitals, public health agencies and other medical research organizations with the need to design medical experiments and to analyze and interpret increasingly complex health-care data. The program will also help prepare students to begin careers in such organizations. For information on application procedures, admission and graduation requirements, visit the website http://cnhs.gmu.edu/graduate/gradcbio.html.

Graduate Courses in Statistics at George Mason University in 2003-04.

  • Fall 2003
    STAT 501: SAS Language & Basic Proc
    STAT 502: Intro to SAS/GRAPH
    STAT 503: SAS Macro Language
    STAT 530: Math. Methods for Statistics
    STAT 535: Analysis Experimental Data
    STAT 544: Applied Probability
    STAT 554: Applied Statistics
    STAT 574: Survey Sampling I
    STAT 656: Regression Analysis
    STAT 663: Stat. Graphics/Data Explor
    IT 877: Geometric Methods in Statistics
    IT 972: Mathematical Statistics I

  • Spring 2004
    STAT 510: Statistics for Tech. Decisions
    STAT 544: Applied Probability
    STAT 554: Applied Statistics
    STAT 652: Statistical Inference
    STAT 655: Analysis of Variance
    STAT 674: Survey Sampling II
    STAT 753: Computer Intrusion Detection
    IT 871: Statistical Data Mining
    IT 875: Scientific/Statistical Visualization
    IT 973: Mathematical Statistics II
Return to top

Washington Statistical Society Poster Competition 2003

On Saturday April 26, the Washington Statistical Society held the judging of its annual Statistical Poster Competition for all local and regional participants in grades K thru 12. There were a total of 204 regional entries including 48 from local middle and high schools. Top local prizes included a $100 savings bond for first place and a $50 savings bond for second and third place finishes.

The top local prizewinners are:

For Grades 10-12:

  • First Place:
    Title: "Do Women Smoke More Than Men?"
    By: Allison Kendrick, Katie Riley, Matt Hulse, and Mike Cordingley
    School: Oakton High School
    City, State: Vienna, VA

    Second Place:
    Title: "Is the Presidential Election More Attractive than the Mid-term Election?"
    By: Jiahui Li
    School: Oakton High School
    City, State: Vienna, VA

    Third Place:
    Title: "Is there a Relationship Between Energy Orientation and House Pet Preference Among High School Seniors"
    By: Lien Kratzke
    School: Oakton High School
    City, State: Vienna, VA

For Grades 4-6:

  • First Place:
    Title: "Has the Bluebird Population at Bear Branch Nature Center Increased?"
    By: Nick Bitzel, Alex Bitzel, and George Robertson
    School: E.O.O. Homeschool Group
    City, State: Hampstead, MD

My co-chair and I would like to thank the following people who volunteered to judge both the local and regional entries. Your help is greatly appreciated! They are: Eugene M. Burns -- Office of Statistical Quality, Bureau of Transportation Statistics; Jurate Maciunas Landwehr -- U.S. Geological Survey;Bruce Murrie -- Department of Education; John Schollenberger -- Biostatistics, Otsuka Maryland Research Institute; Wendy Rotz -- QUEST, Ernst & Young LLP ;Steve Miller -- QUEST, Ernst & Young LLP. Chair: Archana Joshee -- QUEST, Ernst & Young LLP Co-Chair: Ryan Petska -- QUEST, Ernst & Young LLP

Return to top

International Chinese Statistical Association (ICSA)
ICSA 2003 Applied Statistics Symposium
June 22-24, 2003 San Diego, California

Please see website for more information on the symposium.

THEME: Statistics in Bio-tech Research and Computing Intensive Methodologies

DATE: June 22 to 24, 2003. Short courses on Sunday, June 22, and technical sessions on Monday, June 23 and Tuesday, June 24.

LOCATION: University of San Diego. For local attractions, please visit the hotel website http://www.sandiego.org/whattodo.asp.

CALL FOR PAPERS: The program committee invites you to submit statistical papers to be considered for presentation at the symposium. Abstracts are due March 31, 2003. Please submit abstracts to: Professor Gang Li, University of California at Los Angeles, email address: gangli@sunlab.ph.ucla.edu. The abstract should include the name, affiliation, mailing address, telephone number, fax number, and e-mail address of the author, and should not exceed 200 words. A template for the abstract can be downloaded from the ICSA website at http://www.icsa.org.

STUDENT AWARDS AND TRAVEL FELLOWSHIPS: The deadline is February 28, 2003 (see a separate page in this issue for detailed information). For further questions, please contact Professor Kung Jong Lui, San Diego State University, kjl@rohan.sdsu.edu.

PRELIMINARY PROGRAM

Keynote Speakers (June 23-24,2003):
Bradley Efron, Professor of Statistics and Biostatistics, Stanford University, President-Elect, ASA. http://www-stat.stanford.edu/people/faculty/efron.html
and
George Tiao, W. Allen Wallis Professor of Econometrics and Statistics, University of Chicago, http://gsb.uchicago.edu/fac/george.tiaoM.A<

Plenary Sessions (June 23-24, 2003): Recent developments in nonparametric inferences with applications to biomedical studies and financial modeling, by Janqing Fan, Current Statistical Issues in Clinical Trials for Drug Development, by Tze Leung Lai , AND Banquet Speaker: Arlene S. Ash, Boston University.

Return to top

The Quality Technology and Quantitative Management:
Call for Papers

The Quality Technology and Quantitative Management (ISSN 1684-3703) is an international refereed journal publishing original work in quality, reliability, queuing service systems, applied statistics (including methodology, data analysis, simulation), and their applications in business and industrial management. The journal publishes technical and practical research work using statistical methods or presenting new results, which solve or have the potential to solve real-world management problems. Academic researchers as well as practitioners are all encouraged to submit articles for consideration. Authors should submit three copies of the manuscript, to one of the chief editors. For more information, please check our journal website.

URL: http://www.nctu.edu.tw/~qtqm

Return to top

Note From The WSS NEWS Editor

Items for publication in the September 2003 WSS NEWS should be submitted no later than July 29, 2003. E-mail items to Michael Feil at michael.feil@usda.gov.

Return to top

Click here to see the WSS Board Listing (pdf)
Return to top