Robert Goldman, Tom Lane, and John McKenzie
The Boston Chapter held a symposium and banquet December 6 to celebrate the 175th anniversary of the founding of the ASA in Boston on November 27, 1839. The event, with the theme “Future of Statistics,” was held at Simmons College, only a few miles from the original ASA meeting place on 15 Cornhill.
More than 80 participants were welcomed by Tom Lane, president of the Boston Chapter. This was followed by a brief history of the chapter, presented by Dominique Haughton of Bentley College.
The symposium featured six panel discussions. Three focused on the future of statistics education at the K–12, undergraduate, and graduate levels. A parallel sequence of panel discussions focused on the future of statistics in sports, the health sciences, and industry and consulting. All the panel discussions were lively, thought provoking, and well attended. At each, attendees were asked to record what they regarded as the most intriguing forecast made by the panelists. Here are the most popular choices:
At the symposium luncheon, ASA Executive Director Ronald Wasserstein presented greetings from the association before Lane announced that Scott Evans, senior scientist at the Harvard University School of Public Health, was the recipient of the 2015 Mosteller Statistician of the Year Award. Evans will be presented with the award at a banquet on February 17.
To celebrate the anniversary, the Boston Chapter named four prominent statisticians as 175th Anniversary Awardees: Herman Chernoff, George Cobb, Herbert Weisberg, and John McKenzie. The event organizers made a special effort to preserve a record of this historic occasion with many photographs, including photos of past Mosteller award winners and past presidents of the Boston Chapter.
Between the end of the symposium and the beginning of the banquet, attendees were invited to watch two historically significant videos: The ASA Sesquicentennial Statistical Science: 150 Years of Progress and The Seven Pillars of Statistical Wisdom by Stephan Stigler.
The evening events began with a cash bar followed by a banquet. Attendees then received greetings from Lane and ASA Past President Nat Schenker. The highlight of the banquet was a historical address given by Nicholas Horton, professor of statistics at Amherst College. The address, titled “Challenges and Opportunities for Statistics and Statistical Science (Looking Forward, Looking Back),” was received warmly and capped a long, but memorable, celebration.
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