Bimal Sinha of the University of Maryland Baltimore County was recently honored with an endowed chair of statistics named after him.
US Census Bureau
Iowa State Student Wins Jackson Smith Scholarship
Sepideh Mosaferi, a PhD student in the department of statistics at Iowa State University, is the winner of the Government Statistics Section’s 2020 Wray Jackson Smith Scholarship.
ASA Issues Statement on New Political Positions at Census Bureau
The US Census Bureau announced two new political appointments in newly created leadership positions, and the ASA asked the Census Bureau director to provide a justification for the appointments.
Federal Statistical Agencies Praised for Pandemic Response
The first half of 2020 was a busy time for the federal statistical system, requiring quick responses and nimble adaptability from agencies on several fronts.
Social Statistics Section Plans Privacy Discussions
The Social Statistics Section will host a JSM 2020 invited session and an associated roundtable about how differential privacy is applied to various 2020 Census data products to help protect the privacy of individuals and what that means for formal privacy.
Meet Emilda B. Rivers, Director of the National Center for Science and Engineering Statistics
Emilda Rivers directs NCSES, the principal statistical agency housed as a division within the National Science Foundation’s Social, Behavioral, and Economic Directorate. We asked her why this position appealed to her, what she views as the biggest challenges facing the agency, and what she believes are the agency’s greatest accomplishments.
Tommy Wright
An early interest in mathematics shifted slightly when Tommy Wright, then a junior mathematics instructor, was assigned to teach a course in probability and statistics. But as he learned statistics with the students, he discovered what one might do with statistical knowledge, ultimately leading him to graduate study in statistics. Since joining the US Census Bureau in 1996, Wright has led the Center for Statistical Research and Methodology, which focuses on challenges in providing official statistics on the behavior and condition of the nation’s people and businesses.
Summary of JSM 2019 Session on Formal Privacy: Making an Impact at Large Organizations
The Committee on Privacy and Confidentiality organized a JSM session that featured four experts who have implemented formal privacy models or variants of differential privacy.
Kimberly F. Sellers
Inspired to study statistics while earning her undergraduate degree, Kimberly Sellers has gone on to be recognized both nationally and internationally for her work on generalized statistical methods involving count data that contain data dispersion and image analysis techniques. She is also actively committed to diversifying the fields of mathematical and statistical sciences, both with respect to gender and race/ethnicity.
2017 SPAIG Award Winners Announced
After a few years of hiatus, the SPAIG (Statistical Partnerships Among Academe, Industry, and Government) Committee received a number of high-quality nominations in 2017. Two awards were selected; both have equally demonstrated outstanding partnership across two or more sectors.