Amstat News

The Membership Magazine of the American Statistical Association

Featured

Additional Features

Greg Ridgeway Earns ‘JASA’ Reproducibility Award  

Greg Ridgeway, Rebecca W. Bushnell Professor of Criminology and professor of statistics and data science at the University of Pennsylvania, was recently awarded the Journal of the American Statistical Association’s 2026 reproducibility award. Read this short interview to learn more about him and his work.

Obituary: George C. Tiao

George C. Tiao, a giant of modern statistics and beloved leader of the international statistical community, passed away peacefully in his sleep in Chicago on April 25, 2026, at the age of 92.

Emery Brown Awarded Honorary Doctorate from Yale 

Emery N. Brown—statistician, computational neuroscientist, and anesthesiologist—was recently awarded an honorary Doctor of Medical Sciences degree from Yale University for his groundbreaking research on anesthesia and the brain.

Peace Recognized for Extraordinary Contributions 

Karl Peace—longtime ASA member, mentor, and philanthropist—was recognized recently by Virginia Commonwealth University and the Medical College of Virginia Foundation for his exceptional contributions.  

Obituary: Gudmund Ragnvaldsson Iversen 

Gudmund Ragnvaldsson Iversen, a well-loved husband, father, grandfather, and professor emeritus at Swarthmore College, passed away peacefully on May 2 in Springfield, Pennsylvania.

Donna Spiegelman Presents Brogan Lecture in Biostatistics 

Donna Spiegelman presented the 2026 Donna J. Brogan Lecture in Biostatistics on April 20 at Emory University. Spiegelman’s lecture, titled “Causal Inference: The Limits of Confounding, the Boundlessness of Measurement Error,” examined two central sources of bias in epidemiologic research.

Ji-Hyun Lee Named Scientist of the Year

The Korean-American Scientists and Engineers Association and Korean Federation of Science and Technology Societies have named former ASA president Ji-Hyun Lee 2026 Scientist of the Year. She will be recognized at the US-Korea Conference in Orlando in August.  

Avery Cloutier: 19, Accredited, and Headed to the Navy

At just 19 years old, Avery Cloutier has become the youngest individual to earn American Statistical Association GStat accreditation, marking a milestone in an already remarkable young career. Now he is preparing for officer candidate school in the US Navy, with a focus on naval intelligence.

ASA, FDA Offer Oncology Fellowship

The American Statistical Association, in collaboration with the Biopharmaceutical Statistics Section and US Food and Drug Administration Oncology Center of Excellence, offers the oncology educational fellowship designed for senior graduate students and postdocs.

Posters, Networking, and Colloquium Highlight North Texas Chapter Meeting

The second annual Dallas and Fort Worth Data Science and Statistics Day (D3) took place on Thursday, March 26. D3 consisted of a student poster competition, networking dinner, and colloquium talk by Jeffrey S. Morris, professor of public health and preventive medicine at the University of Pennsylvania Perelman School of Medicine. 

Privacy and Confidentiality Committee Sponsors Webinar, JSM Sessions

The ASA Privacy and Confidentiality Committee, in partnership with the Federal Committee on Statistical Methodology Confidentiality and Data Access Interest Group, is sponsoring an upcoming seminar series on issues relating to statistical confidentiality and data access. The Committee will also be sponsoring several sessions at JSM in Boston this August.

From Model Accuracy to Data Reliability: A Practical Framework for ML Teams 

Praveen Gupta Sanka discusses the Data Reliability Score, a framework developed with Vidya Sagar Minukuri. She says, “The idea is simple: As machine learning teams use quantitative metrics to decide whether a model is ready for deployment, they should also use quantitative metrics to decide whether the data is reliable enough to support that decision.”

JSM 2026: Communities in Action 

David Corliss provides details about Data for Good-adjacent opportunities and programming scheduled for the 2026 Joint Statistical Meetings in Boston this August.

Events and Opportunities

New professional development opportunities, upcoming conferences, and opportunities to share your story with the ASA community.

Systems Biostatistics: Automate the Plumbing; Never Automate the Judgment 

Margaret Gamalo says, “Statistical stewardship requires embedding statistical principles within AI systems rather than treating AI as an opaque instrument. Causal inference must reside within predictive pipelines; bias correction must occur where it alters actions; and transportability must be made explicit rather than assumed.”

Why I Am Optimistic

In her latest column, ASA President Jeri Mulrow makes the case for genuine optimism about the field. There has never been a more exciting or consequential time to be a statistician, she says.