Don Owen

The San Antonio Chapter is accepting nominations for the 2013 Don Owen Award from ASA chapters in North America. The award is given to a statistician who embodies the three-fold accomplishments of Donald B. Owen: research, statistical consultation, and service to the statistical community.

The nominee must be a member of the ASA, but is not required to be a member of the nominating chapter. In addition to a cover letter highlighting the accomplishments of the nominee, the nomination packet must contain the following supporting information:

1. Name of the nominee

2. Degrees (titles, dates, schools)

3. Present position(s), followed by significant former positions (with dates)

4. List of major publications having statistical content

5. List of activities related to teaching and dissemination of statistical knowledge

6. List of consulting activities related to statistical problems or editorial contributions

7. List of activities supporting the mission of the ASA and related professional organizations

To submit a nomination, send six copies of the nomination packet to Peter Olofsson, Mathematics Department, Trinity University, One Trinity Place, San Antonio, TX, 78212 or email the packet in PDF format to polofsso@trinity.edu.

The deadline for nominations is February 1, 2013.

Before his death in 1991, Owen was distinguished professor of statistics at Southern Methodist University in Dallas, Texas, and the author of seven textbooks, seven monographs, and more than 75 articles in refereed journals. He also trained 19 doctoral and master’s students, served as an applied statistician for 10 years at the Sandia Corporation, and operated his own consulting firm that specialized in quality control. Owen was editor of Communications in Statistics for both series A and B and associate editor of Technometrics and JASA. Additionally, he edited more than 50 textbooks, including many for Taylor & Francis.

As the sponsor of this award, Taylor & Francis promotes scientific research, supports educational programs, and rewards outstanding academic achievement in the sciences.

Excellence in Statistical Reporting

Members of the Committee on Excellence in Statistical Reporting are accepting nominations for the 2013 award. The award is designed to encourage and recognize members of the communications media who have best displayed an informed interest in the science of statistics and its role in public life. The award can be given for a single statistical presentation or sustained worthy contributions, as would clearly be a credit to the statistical profession.

Consideration shall be given to the following:

• Correctness, clarity, fairness, brevity, and professionalism of the communications
• Importance, relevance, and overall effectiveness in affecting the intended audience
• Impact on the growth and national or regional exposure of statistics
• Appreciation and emphasis of the statistical aspects of a particular issue or event
• Excellent coverage of research on statistics or statistical issues

For additional information, contact Morteza Marzjarani at marzjara@svsu.edu. Visit the ASA website for instructions and the nomination form.

Julius Shiskin

Nominations are invited for the annual Julius Shiskin Memorial Award for Economic Statistics. The award is given in recognition of unusually original and important contributions to the development of economic statistics or in the use of statistics to interpret the economy.

Contributions can be in development of new statistical measures, statistical research, use of economic statistics to analyze and interpret economic activity, development of statistical tools, management of statistical programs, or application of data production techniques.

The award was established in 1980 by the Washington buy ativan with mastercard Statistical Society (WSS) and is now cosponsored by the WSS, National Association for Business Economics, and Business and Economics Statistics Section of the American Statistical Association.

The 2012 award recipient was William D. Nordhaus, Sterling Professor of Economics at Yale University, for his contributions to the measurement of environmental-economic accounts and economic welfare and his active participation with the U.S. statistical system.

The award is given in memory of Julius Shiskin, who had a varied and remarkable public service career. At the time of his death in 1978, “Julie” was the commissioner for the Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS) and earlier served as the chief statistician at the Office of Management and Budget (OMB) and chief economic statistician and assistant director of the U.S. Census Bureau. Throughout his career, he was known as an innovator. At the Census Bureau, he was instrumental in developing an electronic computer method for seasonal adjustment. In 1961, he published Signals of Recession and Recovery, which laid the groundwork for the calculation of monthly economic indicators, and he developed the monthly census report Business Conditions Digest to disseminate them to the public.

Joe Waksberg

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

The recipient of the Waksberg Award will receive an honorarium and give the 2014 Waksberg Invited Address at the Statistics Canada Symposium, to be held in the autumn of 2014. The paper will be published in a future issue of Survey Methodology (targeted for December 2014).

The author of the 2014 Waksberg paper will be selected by a four-person committee appointed by Survey Methodology and the American Statistical Association. Nomination of individuals to be considered as authors or suggestions for topics should be sent before February 28, 2013, to the committee chair, Steve Heeringa, at sheering@umich.edu .

Previous Waksberg Award honorees and the titles of their papers include the following:

2001

Gad Nathan, “Telesurvey Methodologies for Household Surveys: A Review and Some Thoughts for the Future” Survey Methodology, 27(1):7–31.

2002

Wayne Fuller, “Regression Estimation for Survey Samples” Survey Methodology, 28(1):5–23.

2003

David Holt, “Methodological Issues in the Development and Use of Statistical Indicators for International Comparisons” Survey Methodology, 29(1):5–17.

2004

Norman Bradburn, “Understanding the Question-Answer Process” Survey Methodology, 30(1):5–15.

2005

J.N.K Rao, “Interplay Between Sample Survey Theory and Practice: An Appraisal” Survey Methodology, 31(2):117–138.

2006

Alastair Scott, “Population-Based Case Control Studies” Survey Methodology, 32(2):123–132.

2007

Carl-Erik Särndal, “The Calibration Approach in Survey Theory and Practice” Survey Methodology, 33(2):99–119.

2008

Mary Thompson, “International Surveys: Motives and Methodologies” Survey Methodology, 34(2):131–141.

2009

Graham Kalton, “Methods for Oversampling Rare Subpopulations in Social Surveys” Survey Methodology, 35(2):125–141.

2010

Ivan Fellegi, “The Organisation of Statistical Methodology and Methodological Research in National Statistical Offices” Survey Methodology 36(2):123–130.

2011

Danny Pfeffermann, “Modelling of Complex Survey Data: Why Is It a Problem? How Can We Approach It? Survey Methodology 37(2):116–136.

2012

Lars Lyberg, “Survey Quality” To appear in the December 2012 issue of Survey Methodology

2013

Ken Brewer, Manuscript topic under consideration