2013 Janet L. Norwood Award for Outstanding Achievement by a Woman in the Statistical Sciences

Call for Nominations

The Section on Statistical Genetics and the Department of Biostatistics in the School of Public Health, University of Alabama at Birmingham (UAB), are pleased to request nominations for the Twelfth Annual Janet L. Norwood Award for Outstanding Achievement by a Woman in the Statistical Sciences. The award will be conferred on September 11, 2013. The award recipient will be invited to deliver a lecture at the UAB award ceremony, and will receive all expenses, the award, and a $5,000 prize.

Eligible individuals are women who have completed their terminal degree, have made extraordinary contributions and have an outstanding record of service to the statistical sciences, with an emphasis on both their own scholarship and on teaching and leadership of the field in general and of women in particular, and who, if selected, are willing to deliver a lecture at the award ceremony.

For additional details about the award, please visit our website at https://www.uab.edu/soph/home/news-events/awards/other/janet-l-norwood-award.

To nominate, please send a full curriculum vitae accompanied by a letter of not more than two pages describing the nature of the candidate’s contributions. Contributions may be in the area of development and evaluation of statistical methods, teaching of statistics, application of statistics, or any other activity that can arguably be said to have advanced the field of statistical science. Self-nominations are acceptable.

Please send nominations to:
David B. Allison, PhD, Distinguished Professor, Quetelet Endowed Professor of Public Health, Associate Dean for Science; Director, Office of Energetics; Director, Nutrition Obesity Research Center
e dallison@uab.edu

Deadline for receipt of nominations is June 28, 2013. Electronic submissions of nominations are encouraged. The winner will be announced by Monday July 8, 2013.

Previous recipients of the award are: (2002) Jane F. Gentleman, Dir, Div Health Interview Statistics, NCHS & VP ASA; (2003) Nan M. Laird, Henry Pickering Walcott Prof, Biostatistics, Harvard; (2004) Alice S. Whittemore, Prof & Co-Chair, Health Research & Policy, Stanford; (2005) Clarice R. Weinberg, NIEHS Biostatistics Branch Chief; (2006) Janet Turk Wittes, Pres, Statistics Collaborative Inc.; (2007) Marie Davidian, Distinguished Prof, Statistics at NC State; (2008) Xihong Lin, Prof, Biostatistics, Harvard; (2009) Nancy Geller, Dir, NHLBI Office of Biostatistics Research; (2010) L. Adrienne Cupples, Prof, Biostatistics & Epidemiology, Boston University; (2011) Lynne Billard, University Prof, University of Georgia; (2012) Nancy Flournoy, Prof, Statistics, University of Missouri.

LINEAR ALGEBRA AND ITS APPLICATIONS

Call for papers: Special Issue on Statistics

We are pleased to announce a special issue on Statistics in Linear Algebra and Its Applications (LAA). This commemorates the 30th Anniversary of the very first such special issue edited by Ingram Olkin, C.R. Rao, and George Styan. Traditionally linear algebra has seen applications in a wide variety of problems in multivariate statistics but the last decade has generated a number of new settings in which such techniques are being applied in statistics. We also see statistical and probabilistic techniques being applied back to linear algebra to obtain exciting breakthroughs. Examples include the sparse and low-rank recovery methods in compressive sensing and matrix completion, the exciting advances in random matrix theory, the newfound popularity of concentration inequalities as a powerful tool in computational linear algebra, among many other recent developments. It is the goal of this special issue to showcase results in some of these new areas as well as progress in more traditional areas at the intersection of linear algebra and statistics.

We welcome submissions concerning all areas of statistics. Submitted papers will be expected to present significant new results, in which linear and multilinear algebraic techniques come to bear in an important way. Papers developing new mathematical tools may also be suitable. Papers must meet the publication standards of Linear Algebra and Its Applications and will be refereed in the usual way.

The deadline for submission is September 30, 2013, and the special issue is expected to be published in 2014. Papers should be submitted through the electronic submission system of LAA at: http://ees.elsevier.com/laa choosing the special issue “Statistics” and the responsible editor-in-chief P. Semrl. Authors will have the opportunity to suggest one of the following special editors to handle their submission:
Mathias Orton, Department of Statistics, University of Washington, e-mail: md5@uw.edu
Lek-Heng Lim, Department of Statistics, University of Chicago, e-mail: lekheng@galton.uchicago.edu
Wei-Biao Wu, Department of Statistics, University of Chicago, e-mail: wbwu@galton.uchicago.edu

Lagakos Distinguished Alumni Award

Call for Nominations

The Department of Biostatistics at the Harvard School of Public Health (HSPH) is seeking nominations for the 2nd Annual Lagakos Distinguished Alumni Award. The award was established in memory of Dr. Stephen Lagakos, a faculty member and former chair of the Department of Biostatistics, who passed away in a tragic automobile accident in 2009.

This award serves to honor Steve’s distinguished career, and to recognize Department alumni whose research in statistical theory and application, leadership in biomedical research, and commitment to teaching have had a major impact on the theory and practice of statistical science. The award will be open to all who have an earned degree through the department, regardless of length of time since graduation or type of degree.

The award recipient will be invited to HSPH to deliver a lecture on their career and life beyond the Department. The lecture will be given at 1:30 PM on Thursday, October 31, 2013 at HSPH. Nominations are currently being solicited and should include contact information for yourself and your candidate, and the candidate’s curriculum vita, if available. Please include a letter describing the contributions of the candidate, specifically highlighting the criteria for the award. Supporting letters and materials would be extremely helpful to the committee, but are not required.

The deadline for submission of nominations is May 20, 2013.

Please send nominations to Shaina Andelman e sandelma@hsph.harvard.edu
or by mail to:
Shaina Andelman
Harvard School of Public Health
Building 2, 4th Floor
655 Huntington Avenue
Boston, MA 02115

Statistical Analysis and Data Mining, An American Statistical Association Journal

Call for Papers: Special Issue on Observational Healthcare Data

Guest Editors: Patrick Ryan, J&J, and Marc Suchard, UCLA
Due date: July 1, 2013

The editor of Statistical Analysis and Data Mining is David Madigan. He writes:
Data sciences is the rapidly evolving field that integrates mathematical and statistical knowledge, software engineering and large-scale data management skills, and domain expertise to tackle difficult problems that typically cannot be solved by any one discipline alone. Some of the most difficult, and arguably most important, problems exist in healthcare. Knowledge about human biology has exponentially advanced in the past two decades with exciting progress in genetics, biophysics, and pharmacology. However, substantial opportunities exist to extend the evidence base about human disease, patient health and effects of medical interventions and translate knowledge into actions that can directly impact clinical care. The emerging availability of ‘big data’ in healthcare, ranging from prospective research with aggregated genomics and clinical trials to observational data from administrative claims and electronic health records through social media, offer unprecedented opportunities for data scientists to contribute to advancing healthcare through the development, evaluation, and application of novel analytical solutions to explore these data to generate evidence at both the patient and population level. Statistical and computational challenges abound and methodological progress will draw on fields such as data mining, epidemiology, medical informatics, and biostatistics to name but a few.

This special issue of Statistical Analysis and Data Mining seeks to capture the current state of the art in healthcare data sciences. We welcome contributions that focus on methodology for healthcare data and original research that demonstrates the application of data sciences to problems in public health.

For more information about the journal, please see http://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/journal/10.1002/(ISSN)1932-1872