Many Honored at Presidential Address, Awards Ceremony
Other Awards
Many more people were honored during the Presidential Address and Awards Ceremony for their contributions to various causes that advance the field of statistics. Following is a list of awards and recipients:
Samuel S. Wilks Memorial Award
The Samuel S. Wilks Memorial Award was established in 1964 to honor the memory and distinguished career of Sam Wilks by recognizing outstanding contributions to statistics that carry on the spirit of his work. The 2009 Wilks award winner is Lee-Jen Wei of Harvard University, who is honored for statistical methods used in clinical trials. The Wilks award is made possible in part by a donation from Alexander Mood, a student of Wilks.
Gottfried E. Noether Awards
The Noether awards were established in 1999 by the wife and daughter of the late Gottfried Emanuel Noether of the University of Connecticut as a tribute to his memory. They recognize distinguished researchers and teachers and support research in nonparametric statistics. The Gottfried E. Noether Young Scholar Award winner for 2009 is Harrison Zhou of Yale University. The Gottfried E. Noether Senior Scholar Award winner for 2009 is Grace Wahba of the University of Wisconsin-Madison.
Outstanding Statistical Application Award
Each year, the ASA recognizes a paper that is an outstanding application of statistics in the physical, biological, or medical sciences. This year’s winner is Robert D. Gibbons of the University of Illinois for the development of new and innovative statistical approaches to drug safety and for clarifying the relationship between antidepressant pharmacotherapy and suicide.
W. J. Youden Award in Interlaboratory Testing
The W. J. Youden award was established in 1985 to recognize publications that make outstanding contributions to the design and/or analysis of interlaboratory tests or that describe ingenious approaches to the planning and evaluation of data from such tests. This year’s awardee is Blaza Toman of the Statistical Engineering Division of NIST in recognition of her paper, “Bayesian Approaches to Calculating a Reference Value in Key Comparison Experiments,” published in Technometrics, Vol. 49, No. 1.
Edward C. Bryant Scholarship Trust Fund Award
The Bryant scholarship trust is a permanent scholarship fund endowed by Westat to honor its co-founder and long-time leader, Edward C. Bryant. The award honors an outstanding graduate student who is studying survey statistics. The 2009 scholarship recipient is Qixuan Chen of the University of Michigan for her outstanding graduate work in survey statistics.
W. J. Dixon Award for Excellence in Statistical Consulting
Established through a gift from the family of William Dixon, this award recognizes outstanding contributions to the practice of statistical consulting. The 2009 awardee is Doug Zahn of Zahn & Associates for his outstanding contributions to advancing the art and science of statistical consulting.
Waller Education Award
Retired ASA Executive Director Ray Waller and his wife, Carolyn, established the Waller Education Award in 2002 to recognize a statistics teacher early in his/her career for excellence and innovation in teaching introductory statistics at the undergraduate level. The 2009 Waller Award winner is Nicholas J. Horton of Smith College for his outstanding contributions to and innovation in the teaching of elementary statistics.
The SPAIG Award
The ASA established the SPAIG Award in 2002 to recognize outstanding partnerships between academe and business, industry, and government organizations and to promote new partnerships. It is the only ASA award that recognizes organizations. This year’s SPAIG award is given to Iowa State University and Los Alamos National Laboratory for their partnership since 2000.
20th Annual Gertrude M. Cox Scholarships
Grace Deforest of Stanford University and Martha Skup of Yale University are the winners of the 20th annual Gertrude M. Cox scholarships. Since 1989, the Cox scholarship has been awarded by the ASA Committee on Women in Statistics and the Caucus for Women in Statistics to encourage women to enter statistically oriented professions. The following women were awarded honorable mentions: Katherine Furgol of the University of Iowa, Shira Mitchell of Harvard, Gina-Maria Pomann of North Carolina State University, and Andrea Rau of Purdue University.













