The ASA recently added the open access journal Data Science in Science to its portfolio of publications to showcase statistical science as a core competency for interdisciplinary collaborations. Here, ASA President Bonnie Ghosh-Dastidar shares excerpts of an interview with the journal’s founding editor, David Matteson, and former ASA President Kathy Ensor.

Kobi Abayomi once dreamed of becoming a physicist, but switched majors after he took his first class in statistics at Georgia Institute of Technology. Today, is head of science for Gumbel Demand Acceleration—a Software as a Service (SaaS) company for digital media—and Betaside Recordings, both data science startups at the intersection of demand and supply curves for musicians, artists, and music listeners. He also holds an appointment at Seton Hall University, where he teaches in the undergraduate and master’s in data science program.

In celebration of Black History Month, we recognize eight individuals from the Black/African American collective who have made contributions to the statistics field as mentors, professors, and entrepreneurs.

The January issue of JSDSE leads with a paper that recounts the difficult past of statistics, notably the role of eugenics in the development of the field. The author argues we must confront our history to move forward and provides guidance for addressing the troubling history in the classroom.

Christophe Toukam Tchakoute grew up in Cameroon during the peak of the HIV/AIDS epidemic, which is how he became interested in STEM. His interest was reinforced when he attended the University of Cape Town in South Africa and became curious about the chemistry and cell biology of HIV and how the virus can hijack the immune system for its own benefit. Consequently, he interned in the HIV/AIDS department at the World Health Organization and was introduced to epidemiology and biostatistics. He now works at Genentech and leverages statistics and real-world data to inform clinical trial design for different oncology programs.