GOVERNMENT NEWS
Looking for a Few Good … Statisticians
Being a Government Statistician at the Naval
Postgraduate School
Ronald D. Fricker Jr.
T
o me, the term “government
statistician” immediately
brings to mind someone
working at the U.S. Census Bureau.
Or perhaps someone affiliated with a
federal health agency, such as the
National Center for Health Statistics.
What it does not bring to mind is
someone working in the Department
of Defense (DoD), even though, as
Fricker
an associate professor in the
Operations Research Department of
the Naval Postgraduate School (NPS), I am such a statistician.
There are a number of reasons “statistician” is not generally
associated with “DoD,” but a big one is that most applied math-
ematical disciplines are grouped under the rubric of “operations
research” in DoD. As my own department defines it, operations
research is “… the development and application of mathematical
Naval Postgraduate School, Monterey, California
models, statistical analyses, simulations, analytical reasoning, and
Courtesy of Naval Postgraduate School
common sense to the understanding and improvement of real-
world operations.” Hence, though I am a statistician by training
Department of Homeland Security has just begun sponsoring a
and in practice, I am an associate professor of operations research
PhD program in operations research.
in the DoD and at NPS.
One distinguishing feature of NPS is that the majority of stu-
dents are working military professionals. On those days when they
What Is the Naval Postgraduate School?
don’t wear their uniforms, they look pretty much like students
Located in Monterey, California, NPS was founded almost 100 anywhere else—but they’re not. Our students fly jets and pilot
years ago as a graduate school in marine engineering. The institu- ships and submarines. They’re military acquisition specialists and
tion now has four graduate schools and, in addition to traditional logisticians and engineers. In our homeland security program,
engineering sciences, students may study operational and infor- they’re police chiefs and fire chiefs. Prior to coming to NPS, many
mation sciences, information security, modeling and simulation, deployed to dangerous places, and, after completing their educa-
space systems, business and public policy, civil-military relations, tion at NPS, many will deploy back to those dangerous places.
stabilization and reconstruction, and regional studies. Not only are NPS students highly self-motivated—by defini-
In many ways, my position here at NPS is just like that at any tion, they’re all leaders and professionals in their chosen occupa-
other university. But, in other ways, it is quite different. The dif- tions—but they are actually judged in their careers by their level
ferences stem from NPS’ mission: To provide relevant and unique of success at NPS. For them, failure in their graduate education is
advanced education and research programs in order to increase the not an option, and students work as hard and as long as they have
combat effectiveness of the U.S. and Allied armed forces and to to in order to succeed in class. And talk about polite—how many
enhance the security of the United States. of your students routinely call you “sir” or “ma’am”?
The resident student body is predominantly active duty U.S. In addition, because promotion in the military is entirely from
military officers (approximately 1,500 at any given time) drawn within, we have the pleasure of watching our students advance
from all military services. But, it also includes approximately 300 into positions of significant responsibility. For example, the cur-
foreign military officers from more than 50 countries and a small rent chair of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, Adm. Michael G. Mullen,
but growing contingent of civilians. We also have a large distance is an NPS operations research graduate. Indeed, as Jerry Brown,
learning program, with more than 1,000 students located all over a professor and colleague (who was Mullen’s linear programming
the world. Most of our students are enrolled in master’s degree instructor), likes to say, “Take good care of your students. They
programs, though PhD programs are growing. For example, the deserve it, and eventually you’ll be working for one of them.”
AUGUST 2008 AMSTAT NEWS 31
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