Medical College of G eorgia Biostatistics
Department Reaches Milestones
T
he Department of Biostatistics at the Medical College of the Medical College of Georgia are already committed to the first
Georgia, the flagship health sciences institution of the cohort of the MCTS program.
University System of Georgia, has gone through a major The Department of Biostatistics was established in 2004 as
makeover throughout the last two years. Most recently, the Board of part of the strategic initiative and research mission of the Medical
Regents of the University System of Georgia approved a doctoral College of Georgia, and Varghese George was recruited in 2005 as
program in biostatistics that is slated to start in the fall of 2008. The the first department chair. Subsequently, Jai Choi, Stephen Looney,
aim of the program is to provide rigorous training in applied and Siuli Mukhopadhay, and Hongyan Xu were added to the faculty.
theoretical statistics that will prepare students for careers as doctoral- There are eight full-time faculty members with primary appoint-
level biostatisticians in academia, government, and health-related ments in biostatistics and six members with joint appointments.
industries. The department is recruiting qualified applicants, who Greg Rempala is expected to start July 1, and additional faculty
will be fully supported by stipend packages. recruitments are ongoing.
A master’s program has been in place since 2006, with nine stu- Jennifer Waller is the director of graduate programs, and Stephen
dents enrolled in the first year and four admitted in 2007. All are fully Looney and Anthony Mulloy codirect the CTS training programs.
supported through graduate assistantships and tuition waivers. Plans are under way to start a division of epidemiology within
Another program approved recently by the Board of Regents the department.
will train young investigators in cutting-edge research methods Faculty research areas include statistical genetics, genetic epide-
in clinical and translational science. A two-year master’s program miology, computational genomics, multivariate analysis, analysis of
(MCTS) and a one-year certificate program (CCTS) will start in clustered and correlated data, complex survey design and analysis,
May 2008. The end product for the master’s program is a complet- and Bayesian analysis. The department also has a strong commit-
ed, competitive grant proposal, submitted or ready to be submitted ment to campus-wide teaching and mentoring and collaborative
to the National Institutes of Health or a similar extramural fund- research. For more information, visit
www.mcg.edu/research/biostat
ing agency. Four junior faculty members in clinical departments at or call (706) 721-3785. ■
Council of Professional Associations on Federal Statistics
Survey Respondent Seminar To Be Held in DC
A
seminar called Survey Respondent visit
www.members.aol.com/copafs/incentives. surveys. The theme of this session is “Who,
Incentives: Research and Practice, htm). Since that time, the use of respondent What, Where, When, Why, and How Do
hosted by the Council of Professional incentives in survey practice has increased We Pay?” Panelists will focus on what we
Associations on Federal Statistics, will be dramatically across all sectors, but there has are doing and what we know about the use
held March 10, 2008, at the L’Enfant Plaza been no professional forum. The purpose of of respondent incentives.
Hotel in Washington, DC. the proposed seminar is to fill that void. The concluding session will bring
Incentive payments to survey respondents The first session will describe current together a panel of survey researchers
have been used for many years to improve practices in the use of respondent incen- who have had considerable experience in
response rates. Considerable evidence sup- tives across the three major domains of the design and implementation of sample
ports the value of monetary incentives to surveys: surveys sponsored by federal surveys. They will attempt to consolidate
increase cooperation and improve the speed agencies; surveys conducted by academic and synthesize the seminar discussion,
and quality of response in a range of data- investigators, including those funded by identify common elements/themes, and
collection efforts. In 1992, a symposium on federal or other grants; and surveys spon- suggest future directions for implementa-
providing incentives to survey respondents, sored and conducted by private sector orga- tion and research.
hosted by the Council of Professional nizations and commercial establishments. Seminar registration is $125. For a
Associations on Federal Statistics, brought Session two will be a panel discussion copy of the program and registration
together a spectrum of survey research bringing together survey research pro- information, email
copafs@aol.com or
professionals from government, business, fessionals who have conducted and are call (703) 836-0404 and ask for Edward
academia, and research organizations to knowledgeable of major research, practices, Spar or Lee Ann Sklar. The program and
focus on these issues in detail—to review and trends on the use of respondent incen- registration form are available at www.
the “state of the art.” (To read the report, tives in government, academic, commercial
copafs.org. ■
8 AMSTAT NEWS FEBRUARY 2008
Page 1 |
Page 2 |
Page 3 |
Page 4 |
Page 5 |
Page 6 |
Page 7 |
Page 8 |
Page 9 |
Page 10 |
Page 11 |
Page 12 |
Page 13 |
Page 14 |
Page 15 |
Page 16 |
Page 17 |
Page 18 |
Page 19 |
Page 20 |
Page 21 |
Page 22 |
Page 23 |
Page 24 |
Page 25 |
Page 26 |
Page 27 |
Page 28 |
Page 29 |
Page 30 |
Page 31 |
Page 32 |
Page 33 |
Page 34 |
Page 35 |
Page 36 |
Page 37 |
Page 38 |
Page 39 |
Page 40 |
Page 41 |
Page 42 |
Page 43 |
Page 44 |
Page 45 |
Page 46 |
Page 47 |
Page 48 |
Page 49 |
Page 50 |
Page 51 |
Page 52 |
Page 53 |
Page 54 |
Page 55 |
Page 56 |
Page 57 |
Page 58 |
Page 59 |
Page 60 |
Page 61 |
Page 62 |
Page 63 |
Page 64 |
Page 65 |
Page 66 |
Page 67 |
Page 68