The San Antonio Chapter vice president, Jonathan Gelfond (right), presents the Don Owen Award to George McCabe of Purdue University (left) on March 2 for his outstanding contributions to statistical research, applications, and teaching.

George P. McCabe

The 2012 Don Owen Award, given by the American Statistical Association’s San Antonio Chapter, was presented to George P. McCabe on March 2 at the Conference of Texas Statisticians by chapter vice president, Jonathan Gelfond.

McCabe is a professor of statistics and associate dean for academic affairs in the College of Statistics at Purdue University. He earned his doctorate in mathematical statistics from Columbia University in 1970 and has served as assistant, associate, and full professor—as well as the director of the consulting center in the department of statistics—at Purdue.

McCabe has published more than 175 articles about statistical methodology and in a variety of application fields, including engineering, medicine, agriculture, veterinary medicine, and pharmacy. He has taught numerous graduate and undergraduate courses and directed a number of doctoral students. His book with David Moore, Introduction to the Practice of Statistics (now in its 7th edition), “has been a major influence in changing statistical education and how it is perceived…,” as stated by Rebecca W. Doerge in her nomination letter.

McCabe has done an enormous amount of statistical consulting work not only in the university setting, but also involving more than 70 government agencies, organizations, and companies. He is an elected Fellow of the American Statistical Association and American Association for the Advancement of Science. He is a senior member of the American Society for Quality and president of the National Statistics Honorary Society, Mu Sigma Rho. He served as associate editor for Technometrics and Computational Statistics and Data Analysis and has served as board or advisory member of many other associations and committees.

The San Antonio Chapter is proud to honor McCabe for his excellence in research, statistical consultation, and service to the statistical community. The Don Owen Award is presented annually by the San Antonio Chapter and Taylor & Francis.

Jerry L. Oglesby

ASA member Jerry L. Oglesby was selected by the Texas A&M College of Science for its highest alumni honor, induction into the college’s Academy of Distinguished Former Students.

Oglesby currently serves as senior director of Global Academic Programs and Global Certification within the education division of SAS Institute Inc. He earned his doctorate in statistics from Texas A&M under the direction of Ronald R. Hocking.

He served 13 years as both an assistant and associate professor of statistics at the University of West Florida and, in 1978, became founder and chief executive officer of SCI Data Systems Inc. Before joining SAS in 1996, he worked for Monsanto Chemical Company as plant statistician.

Oglesby serves on several advisory boards in support of statistics, computer science, and data mining, including five years on the Center for the Management of Information Systems Board in the department of information and operations management at Texas A&M Mays Business School. He also serves as co-chair for several of SAS Education’s data mining, forecasting, and discovery conferences.

C. R. Rao

C. R. Rao (center) receives his award in Tirupati

C. R. Rao recently received three honorary doctorate degrees: DSc from the University of Colombo, Sri Lanka, in December of 2011; DSc from Karanatic University, Dharwad, in January of 2012; and DLitt from International Sanskrit University, Tirupati, in February of 2012. These are his 34th, 35th, and 36th honorary degrees.

Rao was the director of the Indian Statistical Institute, Kolkata, where he worked for 40 years before retiring at the mandatory retirement age of 60. He is the founder of the new institute CRRAO AIMSCS at the University of Hyderabad. At the age of 92, he is still active trying to develop the institute as one of national importance for advanced research in mathematics, statistics, and computer science. He is currently Eberly Professor Emeritus at Penn State and research professor at the University at Buffalo.

Rao started the Statistics Olympiad program, the first in the world, to encourage the study of statistics and has plans to establish a museum for public education of statistics.

He is the recipient of numerous national and international awards, including the India Science Award, National Medal of Science, Guy Medal in Gold of the Royal Statistical Society, and the Wilks Medal.

Rao worked with P. C. Mahalanobis to establish state statistical bureaus to make India one of the most advanced countries in the collection of official statistics. He initiated educational and PhD programs in statistics. In the November 2012 issue of Significance magazine, editor Julian Champkin said, “C. R. Rao is a great name from the golden age of statistics. His work was done in India; his intellect shaped statistics worldwide.”