Members advise the Census Bureau director on the uses of scientific developments in statistical data collection, survey methodology, geospatial and statistical analysis, and more.
US Census Bureau
State of the Data Infrastructure Series: Census Bureau
For the latest State of the Data Infrastructure feature, Count on Stats spoke with three experts about the US Census Bureau: Margo Anderson of the University of Wisconsin, Milwaukee, an expert on the history of the bureau and federal statistical system; Allison Plyer, chief demographer of The Data Center and recent chair of the bureau’s Scientific Advisory Committee; and Nancy Potok, most recently chief statistician of the US who, most notably, has also been deputy director and chief operating officer of the bureau and deputy undersecretary for economic affairs at the US Department of Commerce.
Highlights of the November 19–20 ASA Board of Directors Meeting
ASA President Rob Santos called to order the final 2021 meeting of the ASA Board of Directors on November 19. Board members discussed several actions and listened to a number of reports.
Carol V. Caldwell Honored with 2021 Jeanne E. Griffith Mentoring Award
The Jeanne E. Griffith Mentoring award acknowledges supervisors, technical directors, team coordinators, or other members of federal, state, and local government statistical staff who make unique efforts to mentor and encourage younger staff at all levels.
Katherine Thompson Appointed Statistics Editor of Journal of Survey Statistics and Methodology
The ASA and AAPOR welcome Katherine Thompson of the US Census Bureau as the next statistics editor for the Journal of Survey Statistics and Methodology. Thompson will serve a three-year term.
Obituary: S. James (Jim) Press
ASA member S. James (Jim) Press passed away in November 2020.
Committee on Privacy and Confidentiality News for June 2021
Members of the ASA’s Committee on Privacy and Confidentiality will present at JSM 2021 and the 2021 World Statistics Congress.
Demystifying Apportionment Computations for the US House of Representatives
Basic arithmetic skill (multiplication, division, and taking square roots) is all one needs to remove any mystery concerning the details of the computations about how to determine the number of seats each state gets based on its population.
Donald Martin
Math was always Donald Martin’s favorite subject in school. In fact, while in elementary school, his father taught him math he didn’t see in school until a few years later and that built his confidence. While at the University of Baltimore, Martin’s graduate adviser, Benjamin Kedem, convinced Martin to quit his full-time job on campus and become his research assistant, which helped Martin focus on his studies. Subsequently, he became one of four African Americans in the US to earn a PhD in mathematics in 1990. Since then, Martin, an associate professor at North Carolina State University, has received several research grants and the College of Sciences Faculty Diversity Professional Development Award.
FY21 Federal Budget Finalized
![Figure 1 shows the budgets of the seven mid-sized statistical agencies normalized to their FY09 levels, along with the GDP deflator to account for inflation. Budget restructuring for ERS in FY15 and ORES in FY19 are accounted for in the graph to allow for comparison over this time period. One-time moving costs in FY16 for BEA are also omitted. [Key: BEA, Bureau of Economic Analysis; BJS, Bureau of Justice Statistics; BTS, Bureau of Transportation Statistics; ERS, USDA Economic Research Service; NCSES, NSF National Center for Science and Engineering Statistics; ORES, Social Security Administration Office of Research, Evaluation, and Statistics; SOI, IRS Statistics of Income Division]](https://magazine.amstat.org/wp-content/uploads/2021/02/FY_Figure1_-150x150.jpg)
The NIH, NSF, and several federal statistical agencies received increases, but many are facing fiscal challenges after years of purchasing power loss.