Stern appointed to the Committee on National Statistics
Hal
SternChair and professor of Statistics, Hal Stern, has been appointed to a three-year term on the Committee on National Statistics (CNSTAT), an affiliate of the National Academies (National Research Council, the National Academy of Sciences, the National Academy of Engineering, and the Institute of Medicine).
Stern is one of two scholars appointed to the 15-member committee effective July 1.
CNSTAT was established in 1972, at the recommendation of the President's Commission on Federal Statistics, to improve the statistical methods and information on which public policy decisions are based.
The Committee serves as an integrative force for the nation’s decentralized federal statistical system through its wide-ranging studies on statistical applications in public policy and its ongoing review of statistical policy activities of the Executive Branch and Congress.
The Committee convenes expert panels to conduct studies on the data and methodology needed to improve our understanding of the U.S. population, the economy, the environment, public health, crime, education, immigration, poverty, welfare, terrorism, and other public policy topics.
An ASA Fellow, Stern conducts research in statistical inference using Bayesian methods, methods for assessing the fit of statistical models, applications of statistics in the social and biological sciences, and application of probability and statistics in sports.
He has more than 60 referreed publications, and is a co-author of the popular statistics text "Bayesian Data Analysis".
Gillen appointed to FDA advisory committee
Daniel
GillenDaniel Gillen, assistant professor of Statistics has been appointed to the Federal Drug Administration's advisory committee for Reproductive Drugs as a statistician for the panel.
Gillen was recommended and selected for the four-year appointment based upon his work in the design and analysis of clinical trials.
Professor Gillen's research focuses on the development of statistical methods for the analysis of survival time data and group sequential methods for the design and monitoring of clinical trials.
In particular, Gillen's interests include the development of methods that robustly incorporate time-varying effects on survival in the settings of observational cohort studies and clinical trials.
His primary areas of application are in nephrology and cancer.
FDA advisory committees offer the FDA advice on related questions posed by the Agency on a product of regulated industry. The FDA has 30 advisory committees, divided along product lines (e.g., food, devices, drugs, and biologics) and body systems (e.g., cardiovascular or gastrointestinal products).
For more on FDA advisory committees please visit, http://www.fda.gov/oc/advisory/
Professor selected as Fellow of the American Statistical Association
Professor David van Dyk has been selected as a Fellow of the American Statistical Association (ASA) by the 2006 ASA Committee on Fellows.
David
van DykEach year, ASA members nominate their peers as fellows of the ASA. Qualifications include having made outstanding contributions in some aspect of statistical work.” ASA annually selects no more than one-third of one percent of its members as fellows.
Professor van Dyk's scholarly work focuses on methodological and computational issues involved with Bayesian analysis of highly structured statistical models and emphasizes serious interdisciplinary research.
He is particularly interested in improving the efficiency of computationally intensive methods involving data augmentation, such as EM-type algorithms and Markov chain Monte Carlo methods.
His primary area of interdisciplinary work is Astro-statistics and focuses on constructing and fitting highly structured models for data obtained with the Chandra X-ray Observatory.
Professor named Editor-elect of the Journal of Computational and Graphical Statistics
Professor David van Dyk named Editor-elect for the Journal of Computational and Graphical Statistics. Established in 1992, this journal contains cutting-edge research, data, surveys, and more on numerical graphical displays and methods, and perception.David
van DykArticles are written for readers who have a strong background in statistics but are not necessarily experts in computing. Published in March, June, September, and December.
