The ASA will celebrate its 175th anniversary in 2014. In preparation, column “175”—written by members of the ASA’s 175th Anniversary Steering Committee and other ASA members—will chronicle the theme chosen for the celebration, status of preparations, activities to take place, and, best yet, how you can get involved in propelling the ASA toward its bicentennial.

Contributing Editors
Dionne Price is a mathematical statistician and team leader at the U.S. Food and Drug Administration. She served as the 2010 program chair for the Biopharmaceutical Section and is the section’s current secretary.

Amy Herring is professor of biostatistics at The University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill and past president of ENAR. She earned her doctorate in biostatistics from Harvard University and is a Fellow of the ASA.

The year was 1839. The president of the United States was Martin Van Buren; the first photo of the moon was captured; Charles Goodyear invented rubber vulcanization; and the American Statistical Association was organized in Boston, Massachusetts. The ASA is the nation’s second-oldest learned society, and in 2014, it will celebrate 175 years of existence with the theme “Celebrate our past, energize our future.”

Members of the 175th Anniversary Steering Committee encourage everyone to become involved in activities that will be planned by chapters, committees, outreach groups, sections, and other organizations to commemorate the anniversary. We are confident the events will highlight the contributions of statisticians throughout history and ignite statistical innovation for the future.

Areas of focus for our 175th anniversary include, but are not limited to, bringing greater exposure to the field of statistics, welcoming colleagues to the Big Tent that is the ASA, and continuing the development and application of methodologies that will have global impact.

In anticipation of the anniversary, we invite all JSM attendees to drop by the 175th anniversary booth at the JSM 2013 EXPO. Attendees will have a once-in-a-lifetime photo opportunity with ASA Fellows who are no longer with us, including David Blackwell, Gertrude Cox, and John Tukey. We know no EXPO booth is complete without souvenirs, so we have a keepsake for you as well (stop by early in the meeting to ensure you get one).

Move over “American Idol,” “America’s Got Talent,” and “Dancing with the Stars”! A significant new talent competition, ASA’s Got Talent, will be launched in 2014 to help energize our future. Entrants will submit a short (<5 min.) video of their statistically themed performance online by January 1, and an esteemed panel of judges will notify finalists by February 1. During the ASA 175th Birthday Party on Tuesday evening at JSM 2014 in Boston, finalists will perform live before the JSM audience, which will vote wirelessly to select the ASA’s Got Talent winners.

Visit the 175 website to stay abreast of activities planned for 2014.