PEOPLE NEWS
n. Balakrishnan
few peers. Balakrishnan is a Fellow of
the American Statistical Association and
Institute of Mathematical Statistics and
an elected member of the International
STATISTICIANS
Statistical Institute.
Bala has worked fervently as an ambas-
IN THE NEWS
sador for statistics globally, as manifest-
ed by his contributions to universities Read about your colleagues and friends
in China, Greece, India, Iran, Turkey,
in the news. Go to www.amstat.org and
Taiwan, and many other places.
click on “Statisticians in the News.”
Balakrishnan has supervised 45 master’s
theses and more than 20 dissertations in
the last 12 years. He serves as an advisor to
many, and graciously takes time to review
ideas with both young and seasoned statisti-
cians. Even with his penchant for mentor-
ship, one must marvel that he has won the
McMaster Students Union Teaching Award
on five occasions. It is worth noting that
some of his students were in attendance to
From left: Bob Mason, first recipient of the Don
see Bala receive the Don B. Owen Award.
Owen Award, and N. Balakrishnan, the 25th
anniversary winner
Bala is a beloved teacher, trusted mentor, Love baseball? Sabermetrics
and renowned researcher. May be for You
Balakrishnan graciously accepted the
This year marked the 25th anniversary
Two years after Red Sox manage-
award and a $500 honorarium from the
of the Don B. Owen Award, begun in
ment hired sabermetrician Bill
Taylor & Francis Group. He shared many
1983 to honor the contributions of Owen
James, the Sox won their first World
memories of how he came to be a statisti-
to the profession: excellence in research,
cian and amused the audience with a tale of
Series in 86 years. Three years later,
contributions to editorial activities, and
how he was shuttled between departments
they won again. Coincidence?
service to the statistical community. To
of mathematics and statistics before settling
mark the occasion, the award’s first recip-
in statistics. He also shared his love of litera-
ient—Robert L. Mason of the Southwest
Study: Gender, Other Factors
ture, especially that of Tamil poets.
Research Institute—presented an honorif-
Guide to Preemies’ Survival
The Don B. Owen Award is given
ic plaque to N. “Bala” Balakrishnan, pro-
annually at the Conference of Texas
Statistician John Langer talks about
fessor of statistics at McMasters University
Statisticians, which was held this year from
how the results of a study he coau-
in Canada.
March 28–29, 2008, at the downtown thored will help parents decide the
Balakrishnan has emerged as one of the
campus of The University of Texas at San kind of care needed for extremely
premier scholars in statistics over the past
Antonio. The conference was organized by premature babies, those born after
decade. He has a multitude of publica-
Nandini Kannan and her colleagues at The 22–25 weeks in the womb.
tions, the sum of which is now measured
University of Texas at San Antonio.
in the hundreds. In addition to journal
articles, he has authored or coauthored
Michael Chernick The Rise and Fall of breast
20 volumes in statistics, including many
Cancer
in specialized areas within order statistics
Michael Chernick left United Biosource
Corporation in February 2008 and start-
Writer Jane E. Allen of MAMM
and others in widely read volumes, such
ed a private consulting business he calls magazine uses the December 2006
as Continuous Univariate Distributions,
Volumes I and II, and Discrete Multivariate
MC Stat Consulting. He currently works symposium by statistician Donald
Distributions, with Norman Johnson and
on a part-time basis from his home and A. Berry and oncologist Peter M.
Samuel Kotz.
has four clients. He will be working with Ravdin to answer the question: Can
He has edited 25 research volumes and
Smith-Hanley and Prometrika, a small con-
hormone replacement therapy
handbooks, as well as the 16-volume set
tract resource organization in Cambridge,
explain the swing of the rise and fall
of the Encyclopedia of Statistical Science.
Massachusetts.
of breast cancer?
He has a distinguished record of journal
Chernick also joined the faculty at
editorship, and is currently the editor-
Statistics.com and teaches an online course
in-chief of Communications in Statistics
on bootstrap methods twice per year. The Read these and other stories at
and the executive editor of the Journal of
course is based on the second edition of www.amstat.org.
Statistical Planning and Inference. It suf-
his text, Bootstrap Methods: A Guide for
fices to say that his editorial service has
Practitioners and Researchers.
JUNE 2008 AMSTAT NEWS 33
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