John Bartko

John Bartko was recently named to the Virginia Tech College of Science Hall of Distinction.

According to Lay Nam Chang, dean of the college of science, “Induction into the Science Hall of Distinction honors those individuals who best embody the college’s goal of enhancing the well-being and development of communities, the commonwealth, the nation, and the world.”

The honor is one of many Bartko has received throughout his career as a statistician. He served for 33 years with the United States Public Health Service Commissioned Corps and was stationed at the National Institutes of Health National Institute of Mental Health. He retired in 1995 with the rank of captain.

His contributions to the corps continued after retirement. In 2000, he became a founder of the Commissioned Corps Music Ensemble, the first time the corps formalized a volunteer musical group, becoming the “Surgeon General’s Own.”

Bartko has been a member of the ASA for more than 50 years. He is a fellow, a PStat® accredited statistician, and past statistical editor of the American Journal of Psychiatry.

This past year, Bartko acted on the ASA’s commitment of ensuring excellence by providing a scholarship so students and early-career statisticians will be able to actively participate in the professional community.

What many don’t know is that Bartko’s heritage is Slovak, which he speaks, and he has traveled to the Slovak Republic seven times, twice when it was communist. He is a woodworker and a licensed radio amateur, W3JJB.

Read more about Bartko and his scholarship. Find out more about the Virginia Tech College of Science Hall of Distinction.

Jogesh Babu, Eric D. Feigelson, and Joseph M. Hilbe

Longtime ASA members G. Jogesh Babu and Eric D. Feigelson of Pennsylvania State University and Joseph M. Hilbe of Arizona State University were recently awarded the International Astrostatistics Association (IAA) Outstanding Contributions to Astrostatistics medal, the top award given to members of the global astrostatistics and astroinformatics community by the IAA. All three also were elected IAA fellows, as was another longtime ASA member and fellow, David van Dyk of Imperial College, London.

In 2012, Feigelson and Hilbe founded the Astrostatistics and Astroinformatics Portal (ASAIP), sponsored by the department of astronomy and astrophysics at Penn State. The portal was intended to be the IAA website, as well as a site that could be shared with other astrostatistical interest groups and anyone with an interest in astrostatistics. Today, the site has some 900 members and contains information about almost every article, book, and resource related to astrostatistics in the general sense of including astroinformatics.

The IAA was founded as an independent scientific association for astrostatistics and astroinformatics in 2012, developing from the International Statistical Institute astrostatistics committee and network. The goal of the association from its outset has been to foster collaboration between statisticians and astronomers. It also has a goal of encouraging the production of educational books, articles, white papers, and tutorials in statistics for the benefit of the astronomical community.

Rebecca W. Doerge

Rebecca W. Doerge, the Trent and Judith Anderson Distinguished Professor of Statistics and President’s Fellow for Big Data and Simulation at Purdue, has been awarded Fellow of American Council of Education (ACE) for 2016–2017. Each university nominates only one candidate who shows promise of being an academic leader for ACE fellowship. Read the entire list of fellows here.