ASA President Jessica Utts presents a plaque to 2016 lecturer, Vincent Barabba, at JSM in Chicago, Illinois.

The Deming Lectureship Committee is accepting nominations for the 2017 Deming Lectureship. This prestigious ASA award was established to honor the contributions of W. Edwards Deming, one of the most influential statisticians in history. The award also enhances the statistical community’s awareness of the scope and importance of Deming’s contributions and recognizes the accomplishments of the awardee.

To nominate a colleague for the 2017 Deming Lectureship, do the following:

• Complete a nomination form
• Supply the candidate’s CV
• Provide a cover letter that describes why your candidate deserves the award based on work that continues the tradition of Deming and the names and email addresses of two supporters

Only ASA members may nominate, though supporters need not be members.

The awardee will receive a plaque and honorarium, as well as deliver one of only three plenary lectures at the 2017 Joint Statistical Meetings in Baltimore, Maryland. Additionally, travel expenses to JSM will be reimbursed if requested.

Nominations are due November 15, 2016.

Deming developed and taught methods for quality improvement and quality control in industry using statistical decision theory, as well as methods for statistical sampling and enhancing survey quality. These methods are still used worldwide. In particular, Deming is credited with the following:

• Inspiring the Japanese post-WWII economic miracle, when Japan rose from the aftermath of WWII to become one of the world’s largest economies.
• Leading the innovative program to use sampling with the 1940 census to obtain the first “long form” data (now the American Community Survey).
• Conducting quality management seminars attended by more than 100,000 people that emphasized the benefits of having statistical thinking permeate business practices. The resulting impact on managers throughout the global economy continues today.

These practical outcomes resulted from Deming applying his academic scholarship to solving real-world problems. He published hundreds of articles and books on a range of topics, including sampling, professional conduct for statisticians, quality improvement, systems and systems thinking, physics, and human psychology. In the words of the Deming Institute (www.deming.org), Deming’s unwavering belief in continual improvement “led to a set of transformational theories and teachings that changed the way we think about quality, management, and leadership.”