Matt Hayat

My first JSM was in Chicago in 1996. I was nearly done with my master’s degree program in statistics at Northern Illinois University and had joined the ASA earlier that summer. I remember attending some local talks on statistical topics in pharma put on by the Chicago Chapter, but that JSM was my first real exposure to the ASA. The conference was located a few blocks from my job with the statistical research group at CNA Insurance in downtown Chicago. It was fun to be around so many other people in the same field. It was also easy to figure out who the statisticians were. That JSM bag was a dead giveaway.

Later in 2011, while working as an assistant professor in the school of nursing at Johns Hopkins University, I became interested in networking with statisticians in other academic nursing programs. JSM 2011 was the perfect outlet for this, and it didn’t hurt that it was held in the tropical paradise of Miami Beach.

I teamed up with a handful of others like me to organize both a topic-contributed paper session and a roundtable discussion on statistics in nursing research. There was much interest and excitement, and it has resulted in a decade of community, scholarship, and friendship. We created an electronic mailing list that is in its eleventh year with 52 members and have subsequently organized many sessions at most JSMs since. The network continues to gather annually at JSM for a social hour and numerous collaborations have developed as a result.

At JSM 2018 in Vancouver, I had a fun, rare networking experience of a different kind. Some background: At the end of 2015, I unexplainably lost all my hearing. I was fortunate to have surgery three months later and receive cochlear implants (aka “bionic ears”). Before losing my hearing, I had not known anybody with bionic ears. However, I was asked to present in a topic-contributed paper session about quantitative literacy at JSM 2018. I had not met the last speaker in our group, Regina Nuzzo. When she got up to speak, I was so surprised to see she also had a cochlear implant on her head! What are the chances?! We have still not figured out how to estimate the probability of this rare occurrence but have become good friends and still laugh about the experience. It was great how the ASA brought us together, even accidentally.

From left: Matt Hayat, Martina Mueller, Wei Pan, Janet Rothers, Alai Tan, Yelena Perkhounkova, and Melinda Higgins enjoy happy hour at JSM 2018 in Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada.

I am passionate about statistics education, quantitative literacy, and making statistics knowledge broadly accessible. ASA involvement has offered me so many opportunities to pursue these passions. I became active in the Section on Statistics and Data Science Education and served as its Council of Sections representative for three years.

In 2016, Nick Horton invited me to participate as a founding member of the ASA Committee on Statistical Education Mentoring, and in 2018, I had the opportunity to chair that committee. That has been a meaningful experience, connecting and working with so many ASA community members interested in mentorship or mentoring.

Another incredible venture has been serving since 2014 as an associate editor for the ASA-sponsored Journal of Statistics and Data Science Education. In 2018, we developed a new section of the journal—the first of its kind—focused on statistics education in the health sciences.

More recently, I served on the ASA Accreditation Committee at the invitation of Ron Wasserstein. That has been interesting and helped me to better appreciate the multitude of career paths that exist in our field.

Finally, in the midst of the pandemic and this extraordinary time, I was ecstatic to have been inducted as a 2021 ASA Fellow. My career path as a collaborating biostatistician and statistics educator has brought me much meaning and joy, and the ASA has been a central thread throughout. It was an honor to be recognized along with so many amazing individuals. I look forward to more fun and meaningful JSMs in the future.