Byar Award Winners Announced

Edited by Page Moore, Biometrics Section Publications Officer

X. Jessie Jeng of the University of Pennsylvania was chosen as this year’s winner of the David P. Byar Young Investigator Award for “Optimal Sparse Segment Identification with Application in Copy Number Variation Analysis.” Jeng received $1,500 and a plaque.

In addition to Jeng, members of the award committee chose three travel award winners:

• Jaeun Choi of The University of North Carolina for “Joint Analysis of Survival Time and Longitudinal Categorical Outcomes”
• Eunhee Kim of Brown University for “Semiparametric Transformation Models for Multiple Biomarkers in ROC Analysis”
• Elif F. Acar of the University of Toronto for “Nonparametric Covariate Adjustment in Conditional Copulas: An Application to Twin Birth Weights”

Each travel award winner received $1,000 to offset the cost of attending the Joint Statistical Meetings and presenting their papers.

The David P. Byar Young Investigator Award is given annually to a new researcher in the Biometrics Section who presents an original manuscript at JSM. The award commemorates David Byar, a renowned biostatistician who made significant contributions to the development and application of statistical methods during his career at the National Cancer Institute.

JSM 2011

It’s time to start thinking about invited sessions for JSM 2011, which will be held July 30 – August 4 in Miami Beach, Florida. Anyone interested in organizing an invited session or who has an idea for one should contact the section’s 2011 program chair, Tianxi Cai, at tcai@hsph.harvard.edu.

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 2010 program is a good source for examples.

Remember, the most mature ideas will have an advantage in competing for the limited number of slots. The Biometrics Section will have at least four invited sessions, but is eligible to compete for additional slots.
Also, ideas for short courses can be sent to the section’s continuing education chair, Annie Qu, at anniequ@illinois.edu.