David R. Cox

The ASA is pleased to announce the creation of the David R. Cox Foundations of Statistics Award. Endowed by a gift from Deborah G. Mayo, professor emerita of philosophy at Virginia Tech, the award honors the contributions of Cox to the foundations of statistical inference, experimental design, and data analysis. It was established to recognize research and teaching that illuminate conceptual, theoretical, philosophical, and historical perspectives on statistical science and to advance understanding of comparative approaches to the interpretation and communication of statistical data.

The award will be for a paper, monograph, book, or cumulative research. Anyone who has made noteworthy contributions to statistics in the spirit of Cox’s contributions as outlined above may be nominated. A prize of $2,000 will be given to the recipient of the award, who will present a lecture at the Joint Statistical Meetings.

Cox—a giant in statistics and recipient of the Guy medals in silver (1961) and gold (1973), the Kettering Prize and Gold Medal in Cancer Research (1990), and the International Prize in Statistics (2017)—passed away in January of this year. He would have been 98 years old on July 15.

Mayo is one of many researchers who was inspired by and collaborated with Cox. “The reason I am creating the David Cox Foundations of Statistics Award,” Mayo explained, “is that his work offers a wealth of clarifying insights and novel solutions to central problems currently being wrestled with by statisticians, data scientists, philosophers of science, researchers in AI/ML, and across the landscape of the social and physical sciences. There is a tremendous amount yet to learn from him.”

“We’re excited to honor the memory of David Cox by recognizing outstanding work of members of the statistical community,” said Ron Wasserstein, ASA executive director. “His towering intellect has inspired many advancements in our field. His mentorship and his ideas have empowered many careers. But what I recall most vividly is his humility. He loved to talk about ideas—but not about himself.”

In a Wall Street Journal obituary, Cox is described as “one of the few rock stars in the world of statistics.” While he gained fame for his innovations in applied statistics (e.g., the Cox Model), he said, “Without some systematic structure, statistical methods for the analysis of data become a collection of tricks that are hard to assimilate and interrelate to one another. … It is important, even at a very applied level, to have some understanding of the strengths and limitations of such [foundational] discussions.”

Initially, the award will be given biennially. However, the ASA will announce a matching gift plan to increase the endowment of the award so it can be given annually. 

Check out a complete list of Cox’s works.