PEOPLE NEWS
Jianqing Fan
Occupational Mortality Study for Gil
Beebe of the National Cancer Institute
Jianqing Fan recently was awarded the
and many subsequent occupation studies
Morningside Gold Medal of Applied
for the Office of Tax Analysis.
Mathematics for his groundbreaking and
seminal work in nonparametric modeling • In the 1980s and 1990s, Sailer improved
and inference; fundamental contributions
the statistical uses of W-2 and other infor-
to high-dimensional statistical learning,
mation returns for statistical purposes,
nonlinear time series, and biostatistics; and
including their use in census taking.
achievements toward the development of
novel statistical techniques in finance and
• In the last decade, Sailer and his staff
molecular biology.
have been among the leaders in the move-
The Morningside Gold Medal honors
ment to increase deidentified access to
outstanding mathematicians of Chinese statistical microdata files.
descent who are under the age of 45. The
Sailer is the author of approximately 25
highest honor of the International Congress
papers, given mainly at the Joint Statistical
for Chinese Mathematicians, it is awarded
Meetings over the years. These can be found
Särndal (left) receives the 2007 Waksberg
once every three years and carries a gold
in the Proceedings of the Section on Survey
Award from Gordon Brackstone, president of
medal, citation, and cash award. Fan is
Research Methods.
the award committee.
the only recipient of the medal this year,
He graduated from Georgetown
which was presented at the fourth ICCM
on Statistical Methods. Särndal’s deep
University in 1963 with a bachelor’s of sci-
on December 17 in Hangzhou, China. For
and lasting influence earned him the 2007
ence in foreign service. He went on to get a
details, visit
www.cms.zju.edu.cn/iccm2007.
Waksberg Award, which is one of the
master’s of economics degree in 1966 from
most prestigious honors a statistician can
Howard University.
receive in recognition of his or her work
In all of Sailer’s 41 years at SOI, he never
in survey sampling.
Peter J. Sailer gave up his first love: music. He is an all-
The workshop consisted of presenta-
Peter J. Sailer—a
around, determined, and committed musi-
tions by statisticians who have made con-
great leader, col-
cal maestro. He is well known for directing
tributions in areas related to Särndal’s work.
league, and friend to
the famous IRS Choir from 1985–1997. In
Abstracts are available on Statistics Canada’s
many—retired after
fact, Sailer was awarded the Commissioner’s
web site at
www.statcan.ca, and proceedings
41 years of dedicated
Award by Commissioner Larry Gibbs for
are being prepared.
service to the Statistics
his work with the IRS Chorus. The cho-
of Income Division of
rus, in addition to its other activities, regu-
the IRS on November
larly greeted taxpayers visiting the local IRS
30, 2007.
Washington office on tax day (April 15)
Mangala Prasad
Sailer first came
with patriotic songs from the WWII era
(M. P.) Singh
Sailer
to work for the SOI
that, you guessed it, were about the reasons
In December 2007,
(then called the Statistics Division) on
for paying taxes.
Statistics Canada post-
October 3, 1966. He became part of the
Sailer works as organist, choir director,
humously awarded its
Individual Income Statistics Section of
and bell choir director at Unity Presbyterian
highest honor—the
the Income, Finance, and Wealth Branch
Church. He also directs a madrigal group,
Career Excellence
under Jack Blacksin. He remained and
which performs at various private functions.
Award—to Mangala
flourished in that section until he was
Prasad Singh. The
promoted to its supervisor in 1982 by
Career Excellence
then Director Fritz Scheuren.
Carl-Erik Särndal Award is presented
Sailer took on various projects and
A special methodological workshop
to a retired employ-
Singh
assignments in addition to the normal
on calibration and estimation in sur-
ee, regardless of their
statistical studies and publications of his
veys was held in honor of Carl-Erik
position within the agency, who has dem-
section. A sample of his numerous accom-
Särndal October 31 and November 1 at
onstrated outstanding personal achieve-
plishments includes the following:
Statistics Canada. Särndal is a leading
ment over the course of their career.
• In the 1960s, Sailer began research that
survey statistician whose work, teach-
Singh joined Statistics Canada in 1970.
led to the first publication of tax return
ings, and writings have had a profound
He rose to the position of director of the
data by ZIP code.
impact on the way methodologists carry
Household Survey Methods Division in
out their daily duties. He has been a con-
1994, a position he held until his death
• In the 1970s, he conducted research
sultant to Statistics Canada (and other
in August 2005. M. P. was closely associ-
on the quality of the “Occupation” entry
national agencies) for many years and is
ated with the Labour Force Survey, one of
on the tax return. This led to the 1979
a member of the Advisory Committee
the agency’s most important surveys. He
FEBRUARY 2008 AMSTAT NEWS 27
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