Amstat News regularly profiles government statisticians. For this issue, we feature two leaders from the statistics group at Los Alamos National Laboratory.
LANL
Alyson G. Wilson
Alyson G. Wilson’s interest in statistics grew out of a summer internship in the clinical statistics department of Burroughs Wellcome, a pharmaceutical company in North Carolina. This was the first time she understood how math could be applied to real-world problems. Today, she is a professor in the department of statistics and associate vice chancellor for national security and special research initiatives, and her work has contributed to improving the use of data and quantitative methods in defense.
Claire McKay Bowen
Claire McKay Bowen was raised on a small farm in Idaho, where she was encouraged to explore and question the world around her. Eventually, she pursued a degree in mathematics and physics, but what intrigued her most in the research projects was statistical analysis and how it was applied to solve real-world problems. She received several fellowships and the Gertrude Cox Women’s Scholarship, going on to earn a doctorate in statistics. She is now the lead data scientist for privacy and data security at the Urban Institute.
ASA Leaders Reminisce: Ray Waller
In the 15th installment of the Amstat News series of interviews with ASA presidents and executive directors, we feature a discussion with 1995–2001 executive director, Ray A. Waller.