Featuring news about: Peter Hall; J K Ghosh; Jean Opsomer; JP Morgan; NISS news; AMS Fellows; Shahjahan Khan

Peter Hall honored in Australia

On 26 January, former IMS President Peter Hall was named an Officer (AO) in the General Division of Order of Australia. His citation reads, “For distinguished service to mathematical science in the field of statistics through international contributions to research, as an academic and mentor, and through leadership of advisory and professional organisations.” Peter is Professor of Statistics and Australian Laureate Fellow in the Department of Mathematics and Statistics at the University of Melbourne, and Distinguished Professor of Statistics at the University of California, Davis. Previously, from 1988 to 2006, he was Professor of Statistics at the Australian National University. See http://www.gg.gov.au/australia-day-2013-honours-lists

Jayanta K Ghosh Honorary Degree

Jayanta K. Ghosh, Purdue University, has received an honorary DSc degree from the Indian Statistical Institute. He was presented with the degree at the 47th ISI Convocation in Calcutta in January.

IMS Treasurer Jean Opsomer

IMS Council has reappointed Jean Opsomer as Treasurer for a further term from 2013–2016. He has been Treasurer since August 2010. Jean’s website: http://www.stat.colostate.edu/~jopsomer/

J.P. Morgan named Assistant Dean in College of Science, Virginia Tech

J.P. Morgan, professor of statistics, has been appointed to assistant dean for graduate studies and strategic initiatives in the College of Science at Virginia Tech. Morgan has been a faculty member in the Department of Statistics since his arrival at Virginia Tech in 2000 and was previously a professor at Old Dominion University, and a visitor to the Isaac Newton Institute for Mathematical Sciences; Queen Mary University of London; and Goldsmith’s College, University of London. He is an associate editor of The American Statistician, and past AE of JASA and the Journal of Statistical Planning and Inference.

NISS News

The National Institute of Statistical Sciences (NISS) named Robert Rodriguez from SAS Institute to the Board of Trustees for three-year terms beginning July 1, 2013. Karen Kafadar, Indiana University and Fritz Scheuren, NORC at the University of Chicago, were also elected for a second three-year term. Mary Batcher, Ernst & Young, and Tim Hesterberg, Google, were also elected. Robert Rodriguez is Senior Director of R&D for SAS Institute, Cary, NC. He has long been active with the NISS affiliates program, of which SAS is one of the original members. Rodriguez has been with SAS Institute since 1983, after spending six years as staff research scientist at General Motors. Rodriguez was ASA president last year. During its reception and dinner, the Board also recognized Alan Karr, director of NISS, his twenty-and-counting years at NISS (pictured below, with the NISS Chair Susan Ellenberg).

American Math Society’s inaugural Fellows

The American Mathematical Society (AMS) has named their inaugural class of Fellows: AMS members who have made outstanding contributions to the creation, exposition, advancement, communication, and utilization of mathematics. Among this group were 35 IMS Fellows: David Aldous, University of California, Berkeley; Martin Barlow, University of British Columbia; Richard F. Bass, University of Connecticut, Storrs; Krzysztof Burdzy, University of Washington; Donald L. Burkholder, University of Illinois, Urbana-Champaign; Herman Chernoff, Harvard University; Arthur Herbert Copeland, University of New Hampshire; Donald A. Dawson, Carleton University; Persi W. Diaconis, Stanford University; David L. Donoho, Stanford University; Richard M. Dudley, Massachusetts Institute of Technology; Richard Durrett, Duke University; Eugene B. Dynkin, Cornell University; Steven N. Evans, University of California, Berkeley; Stuart Alan Geman, Brown University; Ronald K. Getoor, University of California, San Diego; Luis G. Gorostiza, Centro de Investigación y de Estudios Avanzados del Instituto Politécnico Nacional (CINVESTAV); Richard F. Gundy, Rutgers The State University of New Jersey New Brunswick; Peter J. Huber; Robert V. Kohn, New York University, Courant Institute; Gregory F. Lawler, University of Chicago; Thomas M. Liggett, University of California, Los Angeles; Robin Pemantle, University of Pennsylvania; Yuval Peres, Microsoft Research; Gilles Pisier, Texas A&M University; Loren D. Pitt, University of Virginia; Donald St. P. Richards, Pennsylvania State University; Herman Rubin, Purdue University; Laurent Saloff-Coste, Cornell University; Lawrence Shepp, University of Pennsylvania; Gordon Slade, University of British Columbia; Charles J. Stone, University of California, Berkeley; Alain-Sol Sznitman, ETH Zürich; Srinivasa S.R. Varadhan, New York University, Courant Institute; and Ruth J. Williams, University of California, San Diego.

See http://www.ams.org/profession/ams-fellows/ams-fellows

EDIT, JULY 11, 2013:
The above list of AMS Fellows should have included two more IMS Fellows: Jacques Neveu and Charles M. Newman. It also included in error Robert V. Kohn and Arthur H. Copeland, Jr., neither of whom are IMS Fellows. (Robert J. Kohn is an IMS Fellow, not Robert V. Kohn; Arthur H. Copeland, Jr. is the son of an IMS Fellow, Arthur H. Copeland, Sr.)

Q M Hossain Gold Medal for Shahjahan Khan

The Bangladesh Statistical Association (BSA) recognised the world-class scientific contributions and global professional leadership of Australia-based Bangladeshi scientist Professor Shahjahan Khan, University of Southern Queensland, by awarding him their prestigious Q M Hossain Gold Medal at a conference at Dhaka University on 27 December 2012. The award was in recognition of his “outstanding fundamental research in the area of estimation and test with non-sample prior information, predictive inference for Student-t and elliptical models and statistical meta-analysis; supervision and mentorship of young statisticians; effective promotion of statistics and its wide range of applications; world class international professional leadership by leading ISOSS and organising many international conferences; and exceptional professional services through founding and editing international journals and conference proceedings.” He is the youngest recipient of the Gold Medal.

Professor Shahjahan Khan received his PhD and MSc degrees in Statistics from the University of Western Ontario, Canada, and his BSc Hons and MSc degrees in Statistics from Jahangirnagar University, Bangladesh. He received the ISESCO-ISOSS Gold Medal in Pakistan (2001) and ISOSS Gold Medal in Malaysia (2007) for his outstanding contributions to statistical research and development of statistics at the international level. He also received the Multicultural Service award from the Premier of Queensland, Australia in 2002. Currently he is Chief Editor of Journal of Applied Probability and Statistics. He served as President of ISOSS from 2005–11 [see his report from the ICCS meeting].