Countries and regions around the world have developed and deployed COVID-19 contact tracing software or mobile apps. While contact tracing plays an important role in the pandemic, red flags have been raised regarding the privacy risk associated with the contact tracing apps and software. Tune in to this webinar hosted by ASA Committee on Privacy and Confidentiality as Fang Liu discusses the effectiveness of privacy-preserving measures.
epidemiology
Significance Allows Statistics to Tell COVID-19 Story
Significance issued an open call for contributions, asking statisticians and data scientists “to help us explain the statistics of COVID-19.”
ASA Members Stop the Presses with New Book About Disease Outbreaks
It’s not often statisticians get to shout, “Stop the presses,” but that’s what longtime ASA members Steve Rigdon and Ronald Fricker found themselves doing earlier this year. Just as their book, Monitoring the Health of Populations by Tracking Disease Outbreaks: Saving Humanity from the Next Plague—the latest in the ASA’s collaborative series with CRC Press—was going to the printer in early 2020, news was emerging about the novel coronavirus.
International Epidemiologist Awarded ASA/AAAS Mass Media Fellowship
Jess Craig—an epidemiologist who has worked in Africa, Asia, and the Middle East—has been selected as the ASA’s 2020 AAAS Mass Media Science and Engineering Fellow and will train as a science journalist with NPR.
ASA Members Show Leadership During COVID-19 Crisis
In January—when COVID-19 sprang up in China and the world seemingly began to transform daily—statisticians, biostatisticians, data scientists, and epidemiologists went to work turning data into information people could use. Here are some of the ASA members who forged ahead during the crisis and provided direction based on sound statistical practice.
Data for Good Takes on the COVID-19 Pandemic
From the very beginning of the COVID-19 pandemic, data and analysis have played a central role in understanding the crisis, informing health officials and hospitals, and driving data-driven decisions to address and mitigate the impact. It’s been all hands on deck for the D4G community, with everyone working together to make a difference.
Section on Statistics in Epidemiology Announces Award Winners
The Section on Statistics in Epidemiology grants annual young investigator awards to new researchers for the best papers in statistics in epidemiology. Among the winners, the Breslow Award further recognizes the top paper.
Janet Wittes
Janet Wittes was leaning toward a major in biochemistry at Radcliffe College until faculty mentor John Edsall noted her preference for inference and guided her to statistics. In 1970, with two toddlers in tow, Wittes and her husband—physician Robert E. Wittes—moved to Bethesda, Maryland, where she worked part time as a postdoctoral researcher with Jerome Cornfield at The George Washington University and he served in the USPHS Commissioned Corps as a Yellow Beret. She founded a consulting firm, Statistics Collaborative, in 1990 and remains its president.
L. Adrienne Cupples
After earning her undergraduate degree in American studies, L. Adrienne Cupples married and worked for several years. But in 1968, she decided to take math courses at night school “just for the heck of it.” She is now professor of biostatistics and epidemiology at Boston University School of Public Health. For the past 30 years, she has been involved in genetic epidemiology in neurological diseases, mentored many students on their doctoral research, and won numerous awards.
Significance Explores Statistics in Court
The latest issue of Significance features articles about gerrymandering, epidemiology on trial, and dealing with ethical dilemmas.