Pharmaceutical statisticians have come a long way over the past half century, evolving from backroom number-crunchers to essential contributors across the entire drug development spectrum. Haoda Fu and Amy Xia discuss where the field may be headed.
Archives for July 2026
Meet New Member Jovana Mitic
This month, we’re spotlighting Jovana Mitic, a PhD statistics student at Clemson. She wants to be a data scientist or applied statistician doing modeling that actually gets used, particularly in public health applications.
From Awareness to Action: The ASA’s Strategic Planning on AI
ASA President Jeri Mulrow discusses recent commitments and priorities outlined by the ASA Board related to strategic planning on AI.
Events and Opportunities
New professional development opportunities, upcoming conferences, and opportunities to share your story with the ASA community.
‘Wanna Bet?’ Making Decisions Under Uncertainty
Mark Otto and MinJae Lee discuss a principle proposed by poker pro and cognitive psychologist Annie Duke: Treat decisions as bets.
JSM 2026: Communities in Action
David Corliss provides details about Data for Good-adjacent opportunities and programming scheduled for the 2026 Joint Statistical Meetings in Boston this August.
From Model Accuracy to Data Reliability: A Practical Framework for ML Teams
Praveen Gupta Sanka discusses the Data Reliability Score, a framework developed with Vidya Sagar Minukuri. She says, “The idea is simple: As machine learning teams use quantitative metrics to decide whether a model is ready for deployment, they should also use quantitative metrics to decide whether the data is reliable enough to support that decision.”
Privacy and Confidentiality Committee Sponsors Webinar, JSM Sessions
The ASA Privacy and Confidentiality Committee, in partnership with the Federal Committee on Statistical Methodology Confidentiality and Data Access Interest Group, is sponsoring an upcoming seminar series on issues relating to statistical confidentiality and data access. The Committee will also be sponsoring several sessions at JSM in Boston this August.
Posters, Networking, and Colloquium Highlight North Texas Chapter Meeting
The second annual Dallas and Fort Worth Data Science and Statistics Day (D3) took place on Thursday, March 26. D3 consisted of a student poster competition, networking dinner, and colloquium talk by Jeffrey S. Morris, professor of public health and preventive medicine at the University of Pennsylvania Perelman School of Medicine.
Colorado-Wyoming Chapter Celebrates Students, Awardees, Research, and Community
The spring meeting of the Colorado-Wyoming Chapter drew more than 40 attendees and included 13 talks by members from industry, academia, and government. The meeting was held at the Colorado School of Mines in Golden, Colorado.