International Year of Statistics Strives to Increase Visibility of Profession
Ron Wasserstein, ASA Executive Director
The ASA has joined other leading statistical societies to declare 2013 the International Year of Statistics in order to promote the importance of statistics to the broader scientific community, business and government data users, media, policymakers, employers, students, and the general public. The goals of the International Year of Statistics (also known as Statistics 2013) include the following:
- Increasing public awareness of the power and effect of statistics on all aspects of society
- Nurturing statistics as a profession, especially among young people
- Promoting creativity and development in the sciences of probability and statistics
The ASA is encouraging its chapters, sections, and outreach groups to participate in this celebration of statistics. In addition, universities, government agencies, businesses—in short, any organization that recognizes the importance of statistics—are invited to participate. To register your organization’s interest in participating, simply send your organization’s name and the name and email address of a contact person to ASA Executive Director Ron Wasserstein at ron@amstat.org. To see who else is participating, visit the International Year of Statistics website.
There is a variety of ways organizations and societies might choose to recognize an international year of statistics, including the following:
• conferences
• workshops
• symposia
• career fairs
• outreach fairs
• public service announcements
• videos
• op-ed pieces in local and national media
• blogs
• weekly “featured statisticians”
• special editions of magazines or journals
We hope many groups will emphasize activities that engage students and potential students of statistics, helping them to become more aware of statistics as a key scientific discipline. Some organizations might consider special foci, such as a broad statistical literacy outreach or promoting the ways in which statistics advances science and improves the human condition.
These ideas are intended to stimulate thinking about possibilities, not to limit it in any way. If you have ideas regarding ways to celebrate statistics in 2013, drop a note to Wasserstein or any of the other members of the International Year of Statistics Steering Committee:
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Richard Emsley
Adam Jakubowski
Denise Lievesley
David Madigan
Sastry Pantula
Ada van Krimpen
Vijay Nair
With Statistics 2013 and the 175th anniversary of the ASA in 2014, the next few years promise to be exciting.
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