While the External Nominations and Awards Committee’s efforts have proven fruitful, committee members recognize they are limited in their ability to identify candidates for nomination across all domains with applications in statistics and data science. To ensure a diverse and inclusive pool of candidates, the committee welcomes the support of the ASA community in bringing potential candidates to its attention via colleague-sponsored and self nominations.

This summer’s release of the 2023 degree completion data from the National Center for Education Statistics shows incremental to solid growth for statistics and biostatistics degrees and doubling and tripling for data science and analytics degrees.

This interview with University of Michigan PhD candidates and STATCOM co-presidents Annie Cohen and Hanna Venera was conducted by Practical Significance co-hosts Donna LaLonde and Ron Wasserstein during a recent episode. STATCOM is a student-run community outreach program that offers students a unique opportunity to apply their statistical expertise by providing pro bono consulting services to community organizations.

Diversity, equity, and inclusion efforts are statistically compelling. In this month’s JEDI Corner, Eric J. Daza examines a Supreme Court decision relating to affirmative action.

Celebrating the accomplishments of statisticians and data scientists helps ASA members see what’s possible for them, too. By nominating colleagues for awards, you support them and the profession.

A new interest group called Statistics in New Approach Methods has been established on the ASA Community.

The journal Survey Methodology established the Waksberg Award and an annual invited paper series in honor of the late Joseph Waksberg to recognize his outstanding contributions to survey statistics and methodology. Each year, a prominent survey statistician is chosen to author a paper that reviews the development and current state of an important topic in the survey statistics and methodology field, reflecting the mixture of theory and practice that characterized Joseph Waksberg’s work.

Students and postdocs interested in journalism and gaining writing experience that advances a statistical perspective can apply for the AAAS Mass Media Fellowship and spend 10 weeks with a media outlet next summer.

The ASA Biopharmaceutical Section Scholarship Award recognizes notable research, academic achievement, and applied project work in biopharmaceutical statistics.

Many ASA sections offer travel awards for students who enter and win their student paper competitions. These awards reimburse registration and travel costs to ASA-sponsored conferences.

The co-chairs of the organizing committee announce the winners for the spring 2024 submission cycle.

The Committee of Presidents of Statistical Societies, known as COPSS, recently opened nominations for its 2025 leadership awards. These are distinguished awards recognizing both early-career and senior accomplishments in the theory and practice of statistics. This month, David Corliss discusses how these awards honor data for good.

Learn about important statistical events that happened in November.

The fifth UConn Sports Analytics Symposium was held April 12–13 at the University of Connecticut. The event offered a comprehensive program designed to showcase the field’s interdisciplinary impact while fostering collaboration between students, academic programs, and the sports industry.

This month, we welcome many new members and spotlight Chris Burger, who answered some questions so we could get to know him better.

The theme for the 2025 Symposium on Data Science and Statistics is “Bridging Disciplines: Advancing AI, Statistics, and Data Science Together.” Taking place April 29–May 2, 2025, at the Hilton in Salt Lake City, Utah, the theme reflects the transdisciplinary role statistics, data science, and now AI have integrated multiple disciplines to push the innovation boundaries of these rapidly evolving fields.

The 2023 statistics and biostatistics master’s graduates who responded to the ASA follow-up survey in spring 2024 came to their graduate program with undergraduate majors in 45 fields and then diverged into careers and studies in a variety of sectors, regions, and fields.

The Washington Statistical Society and George Mason University held a joint seminar on the presidential election on October 11. Edward Wu, election analytics senior producer at CNN interviewed Andrew Gelman, professor of statistics and political science at Columbia University following Gelman’s talk, “Tough Choices in Election Forecasting: All the Things That Can Go Wrong.”

The ASA’s extensive awards program recognizes statisticians who have made outstanding contributions to the association and statistical profession through research, teaching, consulting, and service.

The ASA’s Committee on Career Development hosted its annual networking session, titled “Networking Like a Pro: A Guided Networking Session,” this year at JSM, supporting ASA President Bonnie Ghosh-Dastidar’s initiative on mentoring. The event provided students and early-career statisticians an opportunity to practice networking in a friendly environment before heading out to meet and greet throughout the conference. 

Those interested in the work of US statistical agencies, their international counterparts, or topics related to their work might want to dive into this Stats+Stories podcast episode list.

The 12th IMPACCT Real World Evidence Summit is set to take place October 29–31 in Boston. Featured speaker Kelly H. Zou, who serves as head of global medical analytics, real world evidence, and health economics and outcomes research at Viatris, tells us a little about what participants can expect.

To strengthen the connection between the statistical community and National Science Foundation, we continue the series introduced in the May 2023 issue that poses questions to NSF program officers and awardees. This month, Wen-wen Tung answers questions about the Office of Advanced Cyberinfrastructure and Shrijita Bhattacharya answers questions about National Artificial Intelligence Research Resource pilot program.

The ASA GivesBack team hosted its third annual GivesBack project at the 2024 Joint Statistical Meetings in Portland, Oregon. The project featured writing letters to older adults and coloring and decorating pages for an organization that distributes cheerful drawings to individuals in nursing homes and hospitals, through the Meals on Wheels program, and to service members.

The ASA’s Government Statistics Section recently awarded the Jeanne E. Griffith Mentoring Award to two women from the National Institutes of Health: Nancy L. Geller, director of the Office of Biostatistics Research at the National Heart, Lung, and Blood Institute and Clarice R. Weinberg, principal investigator in the biostatistics and computational biology branch of the National Institute of Environmental Health Sciences.

ASA President Madhumita (Bonnie) Ghosh-Dastidar discusses JSM 2024, ASA’s membership in the Computer Science Accreditation Board, and ASA’s role in the evolution of safe AI.

Many ASA sections sponsor student paper competitions to help gifted students with the costs of attending JSM, which also offers an opportunity for students to present their work. 

The COPSS Emerging Leader Awards recognize the increasingly important role that early career statistical scientists are playing in shaping the future of the discipline.

Learn more about the winners of the 2024 Waksberg Award, Caucus for Women in Statistics and Data Science Societal Impact Award, and Gottfried E. Noether Distinguished Scholar Award.

In his Stats4Good column, David Corliss discusses the NSF’s 25 national artificial intelligence research institutes to create a cohesive approach to AI-related opportunities and risks.

The ASA ran a video contest and took submissions during JSM 2024. The winner won a $500 gift card in a random drawing.

At the 2024 Joint Statistical Meetings in Portland, Oregon, 47 ASA Fellows were inducted during the ASA’s President’s Address and Awards.

The Ellis R. Ott Scholarship Governing Committee awards two $7,500 scholarships to promising master’s and PhD candidates pursuing degrees in statistics and related disciplines. This year, the honorees are Valeria Ovalle Ocampo and Luke Hagar.

Tel Aviv University’s Yoav Benjamini, Daniel Yekutieli, and Ruth Heller received the Rousseeuw Prize for Statistics for their pioneering work on the false discovery rate.

Regina Liu received the COPSS 2024 Elizabeth L. Scott Award based on her outstanding achievements in research, education, service, and leadership and her superlative contributions to fostering opportunities for women, underrepresented groups, and junior researchers in statistics and nurturing their careers.

Making data visualizations accessible to blind and visually impaired people would help improve equity in higher education and assist them with data-driven reasoning and communication.

The 2024 Joint Statistical Meetings in Portland, Oregon, featured more than 20 sessions and panels about statistical data privacy and confidentiality. Read about the highlights!

Nominate a colleague for the C. R. and Bhargavi Rao Prize for Outstanding Research in Statistics, which recognizes outstanding and influential innovations in the theory and practice of mathematical statistics, international leadership in directing statistical research, and pioneering contributions by a recognized leader in the statistics field.

The Society for Privacy and Confidentiality Research was formed as a nonprofit corporation with the primary focus of placing the Journal of Privacy and Confidentiality on a sustainable path with respect to people and finances.

Obituaries for ASA members who sadly passed away.

The September issue turns to the heavens with a focus on statistics and space, from the Challenger disaster to safe spacesuits.

Learn more about important statistical events that happened in October.

Donna LaLonde and Ron Wasserstein chat with Michael Zyphur, director of Instats, about the ASA’s partnership with the company, which is dedicated to improving research practices by offering expert-led training through its online platform.

The ASA Board convened in August at JSM and approved editor appointments, adopted next year’s budget, and discussed presidential initiatives.

Hadley Wickham is the winner of the 2025 ASA Statistical Computing and Graphics Award for his influence in statistical computing, visualization, graphics, and data analysis through significant contributions to R software.

Four ASA members received the Founders Award at JSM 2024 in Portland, Oregon.

The ASA’s Advisory Committee on Climate Change Policy sponsored the invited panel titled “From Data to Climate Actions” at the 2024 Joint Statistical Meetings. The climate expert panelists discussed data, information, scientific and policy communications, and climate actions.

Beginning in January 2025, we will print Amstat News eight times per year but continue to publish it online every month.

Apply for the National Science Foundation Graduate Research Fellowship Program for outstanding early-career graduate students who have demonstrated the potential to be high-achieving scientists and engineers.

The COPSS Presidents’ Award, which is awarded annually to a young member of the statistical community in recognition of outstanding contributions to the profession of statistics. Veronika Rockova wins

Submit a paper to the Journal of Statistical Theory and Practice for a special issue titled “Emerging Methods and Applications in Bio-Data Science Research.”

COPSS selected Robert Tibshirani for the 2024 Distinguished Achievement Award and Lectureship, which recognizes researchers who have made exceptional contributions to statistical methods with significant impact on scientific investigations.