In December, the University of Nebraska Board of Regents voted to eliminate its statistics department, prompting faculty to raise concerns about flawed evaluation metrics; lack of shared governance; and significant impacts on students, research programs, and faculty careers.
University of Nebraska
Q&A with Statistical Graphics Section Officers
We interviewed a few current and former officers of the Statistical Graphics Section to find out why statistical graphics are an important component of the profession. Here’s what they said.
Susan VanderPlas
Susan VanderPlas loved math but didn’t want to be a statistician like her father. To her, what he did looked boring, and she wanted to know how the brain worked. During her master’s project, she became interested in statistical graphics because it reminded her of her first love—psychology and how the brain works. Because she is red-green colorblind, she began investigating how perception differed from the raw data presented in charts and what people took from the visualizations. She also helped organize the 2019 Uncoast Unconference—a workshop and hackathon for R users in “flyover country.” Today, she is an assistant professor in statistics at the University of Nebraska and involved in the ASA Section on Statistical Graphics.