Washington Statistical Society
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December 2012

Contents:


Nominate Your Fellow WSS Member
Requesting Nominations for the Washington Statistical Society's Spotlight on Members Program

The WSS Board of Directors is pleased to announce a new program to highlight members who have made or are making notable contributions to the work of their organization or their professional field of expertise. We know that WSS members are doing interesting work in the fields of statistics, survey methodology, and the social sciences. Through this program, we hope to spotlight the accomplishments of our fellow WSS members.

This is our first request for nominations, to be featured in an upcoming issue of WSS News. We are interested in featuring members at all levels of the employment spectrum including recent graduates, mid-career employees, and those seasoned veterans.

Please feel free to nominate more than one person or a team working together. You may also nominate yourself as well. The nominees must be members of the WSS and not currently affiliated with the Board.

Please provide us with the following information about your nominee or nominees.

  1. Your name, email address, and telephone number
  2. ame or names of nominee(s)
  3. Organizational affiliation
  4. Job title
  5. Their contact information including email address and telephone number
  6. A brief narrative describing the reasons for your nomination
  7. A photo of the nominee, although not required, would be great be greatly appreciated

Please send this information to Mel Kollander, member of the WSS Board. His email address is mellk@erols.com. If you have any questions please contact Mel.

We look forward to hearing from you.

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Seeking Award Nominations
Nominations for 2013 Gertrude M Cox Award

  • In memory of Dr. Cox (1900-1978), one of the founders of modern statistics, President of the American Statistical Association (1956)
  • In recognition of early- to mid-career statisticians who have made significant contributions to areas of statistics in which Dr. Cox worked
  • Sponsored by the Washington Statistical Society and RTI International

The award was established in 2003 through a joint agreement between the Washington Statistical Society (WSS) and RTI International. The award annually recognizes a statistician in early to mid-career (less than 15 years after his/her terminal degree) who has made significant contributions to one or more of the areas of applied statistics in which Gertrude Cox worked: survey methodology, experimental design, biostatistics, and statistical computing.

The award is in memory of Gertrude M. Cox (1900-1978). In 1945, Dr.Cox became director of the Institute of Statistics of the Consolidated University of North Carolina. In the 1950's, as Head of the Department of Experimental Statistics at North Carolina State College, she played a key role in establishing Mathematical Statistics and Biostatistics Departments at the University of North Carolina. Upon her retirement from North Carolina State University in 1960, Dr. Cox became the first head of Statistical Research Division at the newly founded RTI. She was a founding member of the International Biometric Society (IBS) and in 1949 became the first woman elected into the International Statistical Institute. She served as president of both The American Statistical Association (1956) and the IBS (1968-69). In 1975 she was elected to the National Academy of Sciences.

The award is presented at the WSS Annual Dinner, usually held in June, with the recipient delivering a talk on a topic of general interest to the WSS membership before the dinner. This award is made possible by funding from RTI International, and the recipient is chosen by a six-person committee — three each from WSS and RTI. This year's committee consists of Keith Rust (co-chair), Jonaki Bose, and Nancy Bates from WSS; Marcus Berzofsky, Phil Kott, and Karol Krotki (co-chair) from RTI. The award includes a $1,000 honorarium, travel expenses to attend the WSS Annual Dinner, and a commemorative WSS plaque. Past recipients have been Sharon Lohr, Alan Zaslavsky, Tom Belin, Vance Berger, Francesca Domenici, Thomas Lumley, Jean Opsomer, Michael Elliott, Nilanjan Chatterjee, and Amy Herring.

Please email your nominations to Karol Krotki (kkrotki@rti.org) by February 28, 2013 with a supporting statement and cv (or link).

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Seeking Award Nominations
Nominations for 2013 Julius Shiskin Award

Nominations are invited for the annual Julius Shiskin Memorial Award for Economic Statistics. The Award is given in recognition of unusually original and important contributions in the development of economic statistics or in the use of statistics in interpreting the economy. Contributions can be in development of new statistical measures, statistical research, use of economic statistics to analyze and interpret economic activity, development of statistical tools, management of statistical programs, or application of data production techniques. The Award was established in 1980 by the Washington Statistical Society (WSS) and is now cosponsored by the WSS, the National Association for Business Economics, and the Business and Economics Statistics Section of the American Statistical Association (ASA). The 2012 award recipient was William D. Nordhaus, Sterling Professor of Economics at Yale University, for his contributions to the measurement of environmental-economic accounts and economic welfare and his active participation with the U.S. statistical system.

The award is in memory of Julius Shiskin, who had a varied and remarkable public service career. At the time of his death in 1978, "Julie" was the Commissioner for the Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS) and earlier served as the Chief Statistician at the Office of Management and Budget (OMB), and the Chief Economic Statistician and Assistant Director of the Census Bureau. Throughout his career, he was known as an innovator. At Census he was instrumental in developing an electronic computer method for seasonal adjustment. In 1961, he published Signals of Recession and Recovery, which laid the groundwork for the calculation of monthly economic indicators, and he developed the monthly Census report Business Conditions Digest to disseminate them to the public. In 1969, he was appointed Chief Statistician at OMB where he developed the policies and procedures that govern the release of key economic indicators (Statistical Policy Directive Number 3), and originated a Social Indicators report. In 1973, he was selected to head BLS where he was instrumental in preserving the integrity and independence of the BLS labor force data and directed the most comprehensive revision in the history of the Consumer Price Index (CPI), which included a new CPI for all urban consumers.

Nominations for the 2013 award are now being accepted. Individuals and groups in the public or private sector from any country can be nominated. The award will be presented with an honorarium of $1000 plus additional recognition from the sponsors. A nomination form and a list of all previous recipients are available on the ASA Website at www.amstat.org/sections/bus_econ/shiskin.html.

For questions or more information, please contact Steven Paben, Julius Shiskin Award Committee Secretary, via e-mail at paben.steven@bls.gov or call 202-691-6147. Completed nominations must be received by March 15, 2013.

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International Year of Statistics News
The Université de Moncton Will Celebrate the International Year of Statistic In Style

The Department of Mathematics and Statistics at the Université de Moncton in Canada will use Statistics2013 to showcase the strong relations between Statistics and other disciplines of study. An inter-faculty committee, chaired by Dr. Thu Pham-Gia, professor of the department of Math-Stat, began its work last summer, with Prof. Paul Deguire, chair of the department, and Donald Violette as advisors.

Celebrations will begin this month and will consist of two parts:

  1. Local Celebrations: Ten conferences/presentations are planned for 2013 in Moncton, with speakers coming from Biology, Computer Science, Statistics, Civil Engineering, Environment , Pedagogy and Linguistics.
  2. InternationalCelebration:Aconference,titled"StatisticsandItsInteractionswithOther Disciplines", will be held in collaboration with four Vietnamese universities in Ho Chi Minh City, VietNam, on June 5 to 7. Nine professors from the Universite de Moncton will be on different scientific committees, which include more than 25 world experts. The conference has received the support of several organizations, including ISBIS, ISBA, Minitab, Pfizer, Sanofi-Pasteur et TD Bank, and speakers of international reputation will be at the conference.

Registration is now open here.

Amstat News, Significance Magazine to have Features & Posters

The International Year of Statistics will be featured in upcoming issues of the American Statistical Association's (ASA) Amstat News and Significance magazine, a joint publication of the ASA and the Royal Statistical Society in Great Britain.

The January issue of Amstat News will feature a Statistics2013 kick-off article by ASA Executive Director Ron Wasserstein as well as a special pull-out promotional poster. Additionally, Editor Megan Murphy will be promoting Statistics2013 throughout next year with special articles each month. In February, Significance magazine will spotlight the International Year of Statistics with a special the cover. Inside the commemorative issue readers will find a poster of the cover that they can pull out and post in a public area.

We encourage you to check out each magazine, pass the issues around your offices, and use the pull-out posters to promote the International Year of Statistics.

Help Make Statistics2013 Website Global

The International Year of Statistics Steering Committee is seeking content contributions in several subject areas from participating organizations for the Statistics2013 public website. Those areas and a brief explanation of each are:

  1. Statistic of the Day—A series of four or five brief, informative statistical facts about your country, for example, its population, economy and education system; the health of its citizens; and similar social, economic, government and other relevant topics.
  2. Around the World in Statistics—A short 150 to 200 word article about how statistics makes life better for the people of your country.
  3. Statistician Job of the Week—A short 150 to 250 word article written by one of your organization's members talking about his/her job as a statistician and how he/she is contributing to improving our global society.
  4. Statistics in Action—A photo with a brief caption that shows how statistics improves the quality of life of your country's people.
  5. Careers Information—The hyperlink to the statistics career information that is posted on your organization's website.
  6. Educational Resources—The hyperlink to the primary and secondary school statistics education resources that are posted on your organization's website.

Your contributions will help make the International Year of Statistics website a worldwide representation of the reach and impact of statistics. The Statistics2013 public website will be launched soon, so send us your content or links as soon as possible. To contribute, email the items to Jeffrey@amstat.org.

U.S. Government Agencies Promoting Statistics2013

Numerous U.S. government statistical agencies are promoting Statistics2013 on their websites. Here's a sampling:

ASA Launches Significance Gift Subscription Program

In observance of the International Year of Statistics, the American Statistical Association (ASA) has created a new Significance magazine high school gift subscription program for its members. Through this special program, ASA members can give a tax-deductible gift subscription to Significance magazine to the high school of their choice—either a local school or their alma mater.

The ASA will promote this unique gifting program throughout 2013 and beyond to its members as an excellent way to introduce high school students—and possibly the next generation of statisticians—to the in-demand and rewarding careers in the statistical sciences field.

Participation Continues to Increase

As of Nov. 8, 2012, there are 1,123 organizations participating in the International Year of Statistics. Thank you all for your participation!

- Donsig Jang, WSS Liaison for the International Year of Statistics

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Note From The WSS NEWS Editor

Items for publication in the January 2013 issue of the WSS NEWS will be accepted until the 15th day of the preceding month.

Email items to wss.editor@gmail.com.

Please submit all materials in MS WORD or plain text.

Please do not submit your items in pdf or include them in the body of an email.

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Click here to see the WSS Board Listing (pdf)
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