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Not Just a New Year … An International Year of Statistics!

1 January 2013 1,367 views No Comment
Marie Davidian

Marie Davidian

As I sit down to begin work on my first President’s Corner column, the November election has just taken place. Articles and blogs focusing on the results and what they mean for the next four years abound. However, almost equally plentiful are those heralding the triumph of Nate Silver, author of The New York Times FiveThirtyEight blog, whose dead-on, state-by-state predictions of the presidential election outcome have commentators across the political spectrum debating whether “geeks with statistical models” have rendered the gut instincts of pundits who have dominated the airwaves for the past year hopelessly (and perhaps thankfully) obsolete.

“Nate Silver-Led Statistics Men Crush Pundits in Election,” proclaims a headline from Bloomberg Businessweek. Several articles attempt to explain Silver’s integration of polling data with statistical modeling to produce simulation-based predictions and characterize their uncertainty, and others laud the use of data-driven statistical analysis in journalism.

Whatever our individual affiliations—Republican or Democrat, frequentist or Bayesian—we statisticians could not have asked for a more potent popular spotlight on our discipline. FiveThirtyEight and the accuracy with which the methods used by Silver, Drew Linzer, and others predicted the presidential election outcome have captured the curiosity of the public and press about the power of data and statistics like never before. As a recent Associated Press article in The Wall Street Journal noted, all of this attention has “made statistics sexy again.”

And the timing couldn’t be better! As we usher in 2013, the 174th year of our association, we also welcome the International Year of Statistics (Statistics2013), a year-long, worldwide celebration and recognition of the contributions of our discipline. First conceived and developed by a group of leaders of statistical societies across the globe (and coinciding with the 250th anniversary of Bayes Theorem), the International Year of Statistics has expanded to involve more than 1,200 participating organizations, including professional societies, universities, research institutes, government agencies, and businesses worldwide. All are dedicating this year to promoting the importance of statistical science to fellow scientists, the business community, the media, governments, policymakers, students at all levels, and the public.

Members of the International Year of Statistics Steering Committee—consisting of representatives from several statistical societies and including ASA Executive Director Ron Wasserstein and past-president Sastry Pantula—have been working tirelessly over the past few years to spearhead activities and encourage this phenomenal level of participation.

Throughout 2013, the public face of the celebration will be at www.Statistics2013.org. The website features extensive informational and educational materials for the public, media, and teachers worldwide, which will be updated regularly. Participating organizations can link to the main website and take advantage of these and other resources in their own promotional campaigns, and, likewise, the website serves as a portal to activities developed locally by these organizations.

Of course, the ASA has planned its own initiatives throughout 2013. Look for Statistics2013 updates and promotions all year long on our website and in the ASA E-News. This year’s Joint Statistical Meetings theme is “Celebrating the International Year of Statistics,” and many of our ASA sections have organized sessions aligned with it. Taylor & Francis, publisher of our ASA journals, will raise awareness of Statistics2013 through features such as monthly statistics-related promotional campaigns, interviews with our editors, and International Year of Statistics activities at conferences. And Amstat News will put the spotlight on the celebration in each issue in a special International Year of Statistics section during 2013.

A capstone International Year of Statistics event is tentatively scheduled for November. A workshop devoted to the future of the statistical sciences will be held in London. Like the 2002 workshop that led to the 2004 “Report on the Future of Statistics,” published in Statistical Science, this event will bring together statisticians from government, industry, and academe from across the globe to examine recent developments, future directions, and challenges in statistical research from an international perspective and document the findings.

Interested in learning more? Visit the Statistics 2013 website frequently. And check out Wasserstein’s article on Statistics2013 in this issue.

With the U.S. election drawing attention to our field worldwide in an unprecedented way, we all have an extraordinary opportunity to build on this momentum and make Statistics2013 a watershed event in raising awareness about how statistics affects all aspects of society. If you are already involved in Statistics2013 activities through your participating organization or the ASA, fantastic! If not, I encourage you to consider ways you and your organization can join this worldwide effort to enhance the visibility of statistics and statisticians.

In fact, one way you can participate right now is to enter the ongoing contest soliciting videos illustrating the positive impact of statistics on society and the power of statistical thinking. Top entries will be posted on the Statistics 2013 website throughout the year. The deadline is February 28; visit the website for details.

As ASA president and with input from the ASA Board of Directors, I have had the opportunity to develop three initiatives for 2013 based on elements of our strategic plan. Two of these speak directly to the goals of Statistics2013.

The first establishes a workgroup to conceive of and undertake steps by which the ASA can advance the visibility of statistics and statisticians among our fellow scientists, targeting the American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS), the world’s largest general scientific society.

For the second, a workgroup of ASA members committed to training the next generation of statisticians is developing and documenting strategies to raise awareness of the opportunities presented by our field among U.S. students, encourage more U.S. students to pursue graduate training in our field, and promote partnerships among stakeholders focused on achieving these objectives.

Both workgroups have been actively engaged in these efforts. In future columns, I will discuss these initiatives in more detail and provide updates on the progress that has been made.

A third initiative is focused on improving one of the most significant benefits our ASA membership supports: the Joint Statistical Meetings. The ASA Committee on Meetings has proposed a number of innovations to the JSM program to make the meetings more accessible and productive for attendees. At JSM 2013 in Montréal, one of these ideas will be piloted; see JSM 2013: Call for Contributed Abstracts for more information about the new contributed SPEED sessions.

I am honored to serve as the 108th president of the ASA during the International Year of Statistics, and I look forward to celebrating and raising awareness of our discipline with you throughout Statistics2013. I wish you not only a Happy New Year, but a productive and exciting International Year of Statistics!

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