Lehana Thabane was always fascinated by numbers and the information one can get from a single number. He took all the mathematics courses offered to him as an undergraduate. Then, when he ran out, he took statistics courses.
A Statistician's Life
Kobi Abayomi
Kobi Abayomi once dreamed of becoming a physicist, but switched majors after he took his first class in statistics at Georgia Institute of Technology. Today, is head of science for Gumbel Demand Acceleration—a Software as a Service (SaaS) company for digital media—and Betaside Recordings, both data science startups at the intersection of demand and supply curves for musicians, artists, and music listeners. He also holds an appointment at Seton Hall University, where he teaches in the undergraduate and master’s in data science program.
Celebrating Black History Month 2024
In celebration of Black History Month, we recognize eight individuals from the Black/African American collective who have made contributions to the statistics field as mentors, professors, and entrepreneurs.
Christophe Toukam Tchakoute
Christophe Toukam Tchakoute grew up in Cameroon during the peak of the HIV/AIDS epidemic, which is how he became interested in STEM. His interest was reinforced when he attended the University of Cape Town in South Africa and became curious about the chemistry and cell biology of HIV and how the virus can hijack the immune system for its own benefit. Consequently, he interned in the HIV/AIDS department at the World Health Organization and was introduced to epidemiology and biostatistics. He now works at Genentech and leverages statistics and real-world data to inform clinical trial design for different oncology programs.
Lloyd J. Edwards
Lloyd Edwards earned a master’s in mathematical statistics at the University of Maryland, College Park, in 1982 and then worked for TRW Defense Systems for three years as a software engineer focusing on antisubmarine warfare. He graduated from The University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill in 1990 with a PhD in biostatistics, leading to a career as a faculty member in the University of North Carolina Department of Biostatistics for close to 25 years. Since 2017, Edwards has been a professor in the department of biostatistics in the school of public health at the University of Alabama at Birmingham.
Chandra Erdman
Chandra Erdman started college at 15 and earned her first degree in mathematics by 20. Eventually, she become the first Black person to earn a PhD in statistics from Yale University.
A Statistician’s Life: Chris Barker
Chris Barker shares the path his life has taken as a statistician, from his days in academia to his work in the pharmaceutical industry and his membership with the ASA.
Pamela McGovern
Pamela McGovern grew up in Connecticut and majored in mathematics in college while working as an actuarial intern during the summer. Being an actuary seemed like a good fit for a math major, but the job also exposed her to statistics and she changed course. McGovern went on to earn a master’s degree at the University of Connecticut. Through the ASA, she learned about career opportunities in the federal government and decided to pursue a mathematical statistician position. After graduating, she began her career in the federal statistical system at the US Census Bureau. She currently works as a senior mathematical statistician at the US Department of Agriculture National Agricultural Statistics Service. Throughout her 27-year career as a federal statistician, her work has focused on survey statistics and methodology.
Leah Jager
Leah Jager was born and raised in Grand Rapids, Michigan. Her dad was a college mathematics professor and her mom taught middle-school math and English. From a young age, she liked playing school and hoped to someday be a professor like her dad. Jager’s first encounter with statistics occurred during a summer internship in a food lab within the R&D division at Amway Corporation. The goal of her project was to improve the taste of a beverage using varying concentrations of a flavor additive. She never succeeded in making the drink taste better, but she did become interested in statistics. Today, as a statistics and biostatistics professor at Johns Hopkins, she is inspired when she sees a student realize the relevance statistics has in their life.
Cathy O’Neil
Cathy O’Neil grew up in Lexington, Massachusetts, and was always interested in both music and math. She entered finance in 2007, right before the credit crisis, and became alarmed by what she saw as the misuse of mathematics as an intimidating cover used to exploit less sophisticated investors. In 2011, she became a data scientist and joined Occupy Wall Street. It was there she saw how data science was being used to make lucky people luckier and unlucky people unluckier. The result was the book Weapons of Math Destruction and the formation of her algorithmic auditing company, ORCAA. The mission of ORCAA is to develop standards around algorithmic accountability in general and algorithmic fairness towards individuals in protected classes specifically.