Edited by Feifei Wei, Biometrics Section Publications Officer

The ASA Biometrics Section recently awarded Travis Luox of Saint Louis University (SLU) and Diana Miglioretti of the Radiological Society of North America (RSNA) funding to support career development efforts for assistant professors or associate/full professors interested in moving into a new research area.

An ad hoc committee of Mike Daniels, Yu Shen, and Jianwen Cai read the proposals and chose to fund Luox and Miglioretti for the following opportunities:

• Travis Luox: To attend the Johns Hopkins Summer Institute in Mental Health Research. This training will facilitate efficient and productive collaboration with colleagues in the SLU School of Social Work, investigators at Washington University and the St. Louis VA, and other mental health workers in nonacademic settings.
• Diana Miglioretti: To fund participation in the 2015 RSNA Clinical Trials Workshop by a biostatistician interested in conducting methodological or collaborative research in radiology/imaging clinical trials. The workshop allows RSNA biostatistics faculty members to mentor and train a biostatistician in the relevant methodology and the art of collaborating with radiologists and imaging specialists.

The section expects to put out a similar call for proposals later this year.

ENAR 2015

It is time to think about invited sessions for ENAR 2015, which will be held March 15–18 in Miami, Florida. Anyone interested in organizing an invited session or who has an idea for one should contact, LiHong Qi, 2015 Biometrics Section representative, at lhqi@ucdavis.edu.

A typical session consists of three 30-minute talks followed by a discussion or four 25-minute talks. It is best to have a well-defined topic and commitments from participants by the deadline of June 15. The more detailed the proposal, the better the chances it will be selected in this competitive process.

JSM 2015

It is also time to start thinking about invited sessions for next year’s Joint Statistical Meetings, which will be held August 8–13 in Seattle, Washington. Anyone interested in organizing an invited session or who has an idea for one should contact Rebecca Hubbard, the section’s 2015 program chair, at hubbard.r@ghc.org.

A typical invited session consists of three 30-minute talks followed by a 10-minute invited discussion and 10 minutes of floor discussion. However, other formats are possible. The 2014 program is a good source for examples.

The most mature ideas will have an advantage when competing for the limited number of slots, so it’s best to have your ideas in final form by the middle of June. The Biometrics Section will have at least four invited sessions, but if we generate enough good ideas, we will be able to compete for additional slots.
Also, submit ideas for short courses to Andrea Troxel, the section’s 2015–2016 Continuing Education chair, at atroxel@mail.med.upenn.edu.