SECTION NEWS
Biometrics
Meetings, More Meetings…
Membership Initiative
Edited by Ralitza Gueorguieva, Biometrics Section Publications Officer
T
he theme of this year’s Joint Statistical Meetings—to take place
August 3–7 in Denver, Colorado—is “Communicating
Statistics: Speaking Out and Reaching Out.” The Biometrics
ENAR 2009
Section’s mixer and business meeting will be Monday, August 4. Come
speak out about activities you would like the section to undertake. It is time to think about invited sessions for ENAR 2009,
The section is proud to cosponsor the Continuing Education which will be held March 15–18 in San Antonio, Texas.
course “Statistical Challenges in Proteomics,” given by Scott C.
Anyone interested in organizing an invited session or
Schmidler on August 3 from 8:30 a.m. to 5:00 p.m.
who has ideas for one should contact 2009 Program
In addition, the section is sponsoring an exciting program of
Chair Jinbo Chen at jinboche@mail.med.upenn.edu.
invited sessions that span a broad range of topics in biostatistics,
including the following:
A typical session consists of three 30-minute talks
time Series analysis via Mechanistic Models, organized by
followed by a 30-minute discussion, or four
Ed Ionides, University of Michigan
30-minute talks. Decisions will be made in June, so don’t
delay. The more detailed the proposal, the better the
a new Paradigm of Statistical data analysis: ‘Omics’ data,
chance the proposal will be selected in this highly
organized by Susmita Datta, University of Louisville
competitive process.
new Statistical and Computational Methods for analysis
of Genomic data with a Graphical Structure, organized by
Hongzhe Li, University of Pennsylvania
Member Initiative Results
Statistical Methods for Multivariate dental data, organized Page C. Moore and Song T. Ounpraseuth were awarded one of
by Tom Braun, University of Michigan the two grants for the 2007 ASA Biometrics Member Initiative:
Developing the Next Generation of Biostatisticians. The objec-
Challenges of Statistical Inference in ‘Large p, Small n’
tive of their project, “A Synergistic Effort To Recruit Future
Problems, organized by Annie Qu, Oregon State University
Biostatisticians in Arkansas High Schools,” was to raise awareness
directing a Biostatistics Core in Biomedical Research, orga-
of the discipline of biostatistics and career opportunities in bio-
nized by Michael Hudgens, The University of North Carolina
statistics to central Arkansas high-school students involved in the
Advanced Placement (AP) Statistics program.
Section members would like to thank Mahlet Tadesse, the sec-
This was done in two phases: (1) holding one-hour discussions
tion’s JSM Continuing Education chair, and Debashis Ghosh, the
at eight central Arkansas high schools about what biostatistics is,
section’s JSM Program chair for the wonderful job they have done
what biostatisticians do, and how to become a biostatistician and
organizing the course and sessions. Check the online program at
(2) enrolling schools as K–12 ASA members and distributing pre-
www.amstat.org/meetings/jsm/2008/onlineprogram for updates on
sentations and biostatistics materials to all visited high schools and
locations and times.
Arkansas public high schools offering AP Statistics courses.
JSM 2009
In the first phase, 13 AP Statistics classrooms were visited.
Teacher and student feedback was collected and evaluated after
It’s also already time to start thinking about invited sessions for
each presentation; adjustments were made before the next presen-
next year’s Joint Statistical Meetings, which will be held August
tation. The overall reception to the presentations was outstanding,
2–6, 2009, in Washington, DC. Those interested in organizing
and most of the students reported being more interested in the
an invited session or who have ideas for one should contact 2009
field of statistics afterward.
Program Chair Wensheng Guo at wguo@mail.med.upenn.edu.
In the second phase, 30 high schools—every Arkansas public
A typical invited session consists of two to six participants and
school and private school offering an AP Statistics course—were
can be a combination of papers and a discussant. The 2008 pro-
enrolled as K–12 ASA members. This membership includes a
gram is a good source for examples. Online submissions will open
teacher’s subscription to the Statistics Teachers Network newslet-
in mid-July and close in mid-August.
ter, CHANCE, and STATS: The Magazine for Students of Statistics.
Also, ideas for short courses should be directed to the section’s
Teaching packets, including the final version of presentation slides
2009–2010 Continuing Education Chair Gerald Heatley at jerry.
and a letter describing the grant and its purpose, also were mailed
heatley@thoratec.com.
to all schools. n
JUNE 2008 AMSTAT NEWS 39
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