Terry Speed, an ASA member and leader of the bioinformatics division of the Walter and Eliza Hall Institute of Medical Research in Melbourne, Australia, was awarded one of that country’s top science prizes. He was presented the Commonwealth Scientific and Industrial Research Organisation-sponsored (CSIRO) Eureka Prize for Leadership in Science on September 10 for his superb leadership of the bioinformatics team at the Hall Institute and his other contributions to the science of bioinformatics. The Australian Museum presents the Eureka awards, and CSIRO is Australia’s national science agency.To watch Speed’s YouTube video and read more about the award, visit the Australian Museum website.
The National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) has appointed ASA members Hal Stern of the University of California, Irvine, Bruce Weir of the University of Washington, and William Guthrie of NIST to Scientific Area Committees (SAC). Stern was named to the physics/pattern group, Weir to the biology/DNA panel, and Guthrie to the chemistry/instrumental analysis committee. These NIST-administered committees provide the critical bridge between the Forensic Science Standards Board and the 23 discipline-specific subcommittees working to strengthen forensic science through the identification and development of new standards and guidelines.
ASA President Nathaniel Schenker is the recipient of the 2014 Owen Thornberry Excellence in Leadership Award, a major award bestowed annually by the National Center for Health Statistics (NCHS). He was presented the honor September 17. The award was established in 1996 to recognize the outstanding managerial leadership of an NCHS employee. Its namesake, who served as the director of the Division of Health Interview Statistics, led efforts to conduct the first nationwide surveys of health promotion and disease prevention and AIDS knowledge and attitudes. Thornberry is recognized for his contributions to data quality in telephone surveys.
Mike West, the Arts & Sciences Professor of Statistics and Decision Sciences at Duke University, was recognized recently by the International Society for Bayesian Analysis (ISBA) through the award of the Zellner Medal. Named for the founding president of the society, the medal is awarded once every two years to (at most two) statisticians in recognition of their “… outstanding service to Bayesian statistics and the society.” 2014 was the first year of the award. The presentation was made at the latest in the ISBA biennial series of World Meetings in Mexico in July of 2014.West, who was one of the founders and a past president of the society, received the 2014 inaugural award with a citation that noted, “A scientific life spent always at the top, and a vision of the future which became reality, from the work to establish ISBA as a society to its construction on sound bases.”
ASA fellow Nandini Kannan recently was named a Statistics Program director of the National Science Foundation’s Division of Mathematical Sciences (DMS), announced DMS Director Michael Vogelius. Prior to joining DMS full-time, Kannan was a professor of statistics at The University of Texas at San Antonio (UTSA). She brings significant administrative experience to her new position, having served as a department chair at UTSA and as president of the International Indian Statistical Association. Previously, she was a DMS “rotating” Statistics Program director from 2011 to 2013.
ASA Past President Sally Morton was appointed to the Patient-Centered Outcomes Research Institute’s (PCORI) Methodology Committee. This committee assists in developing and updating methodological standards and guidance for comparative clinical effectiveness research. Morton is professor and chair of the department of biostatistics at the University of Pittsburgh’s Graduate School of Public Health. PCORI assists patients, clinicians, purchasers, and policymakers in making informed health care decisions by providing quality, relevant evidence on how best to prevent, diagnose, treat, and monitor diseases and other health conditions.
The Polish Statistical Association recently awarded C. R. Rao the Splawa-Neyman Medal. The citation read, “In appreciation and admiration of your extraordinary scientific work and your invaluable commitment to statistical education all over the world.” The medal was established in 2012 to celebrate the 100th anniversary of the Polish Statistical Association and to appreciate the most outstanding statisticians, teachers of statistics, and all people of science that by their work significantly contributed to the development of statistics or its education.
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