SECTION NEWS
Biometrics
Host of Topics Covered at Business Meeting
Edited by Ralitza Gueorguieva, Biometrics Section Publications Officer
T
he Biometrics Section held its annual business meeting during The new ASA Director of Science Policy, Steve Pierson, is will-
JSM 2008 in Denver, where chair-elect Dan Heitjan reported ing to meet with people if they are in DC. He wants to go to
the following election results:
Congress next year when JSM is in DC. He wants feedback
Barry Graubard, chair-elect
on what issues he should take to Congress. The executive com-
mittee decided to invite Pierson to the section’s Monday mixer
Tom Belin, secretary/treasurer
next year.
Denise Roe, Council of Sections representative (2009–2011)
There are five specific areas in which the council seeks feedback:
The following appointments also were announced:
What are ways to attract new members and provide
Wensheng Guo, JSM 2009 Biometrics Section program chair
member benefits?
Jinbo Chen, 2009 ENAR Meeting Program
Committee member
Should the ASA generate revenue by providing staff services to
other organizations?
Jerry Heatley, continuing education coordinator
What topics should Pierson address to
Secretary/Treasurer Jianwen Cai reported that the section’s finan-
influence decisionmaking?
cial account stands at more than $38,000. Therefore, the finances
are in good order. The executive committee will consider possible What are examples of contributions of statistics in such areas
ways to use the section’s funds to benefit members.
as the economy, health, agriculture, the environment, and
national security?
2008 Byar Award
Section Chair Jeremy Taylor acknowledged past-chair Tom TenHave
Are there any comments about the two proposed sections:
and the 2008 Byar Award committee members. The competition
Statistical Learning and Data Mining Section and Statistical
yielded 30 paper submissions, and, in addition to the Byar Award,
Programming Section?
three travel award winners were named. The Byar Award winner is
Rebecca Hubbard of the University of Washington for the paper
Section members are encouraged to send responses to these
“Modeling Risk Factors for Alzheimer’s Disease Progression Using a
questions to Miglioretti at miglioretti.d@ghc.org or Council of
Non-Homogeneous Markov Process.” The three travel award win-
Sections Representative Mike Daniels at mdaniels@stat.ufl.edu.
ners are Ronglai Shen of Memorial Sloan-Kettering Cancer Center
Peter Imrey invited special guest David Swanson from the
for “Reconstructing Tumor-wise Protein Expression in Tissue
National Board of Medical Examiners to speak about the United
Microarray Studies Using a Bayesian Cell Mixture Model,” Hongyu
States Medical Licensing Examination, which covers basic concepts
Miao of the University of Rochester for “Differential Equation
in biostatistics and epidemiology. Swanson gave some background
Modeling of HIV Viral Fitness Experiments: Model Identification,
about the exam and showed example questions used in past exams.
Model Selection, and Multi-Model Inference,” and Megan Othus
He encouraged members to send him information about what is
of Harvard University for “A Class of Semiparametric Mixture
important to cover at dwanson@nbme.org. He also encouraged
Cure Survival Models with Dependent Censoring.” The winners
members to volunteer to write questions.
received award plaques and monetary prizes. Hubbard’s cash award
It was announced that the section will begin sending the
was $1,000, while Shen, Miao, and Othus received $500 each.
Biometrics Section newsletter through email in addition to post-
Congratulations to all the winners!
ing it on the section web site.
Jeremy Taylor reported on behalf of Debashis Ghosh for the
Council of Sections Meeting
JSM 2008 program and on behalf of Tim Johnson for the 2008
Council of Sections Representative Diana Miglioretti attended the
ENAR program. The Biometrics Section sponsored seven invited
Council of Sections meeting and reported the following:
sessions, 10 topic-contributed sessions, and 31 contributed sessions
at JSM 2008 and either sponsored or cosponsored 136 talks, pan-
This year, the ASA is having a virtual open meeting, which
els, and posters. At ENAR 2008, the Biometrics Section sponsored
is open during JSM and shortly afterward. Members can
or cosponsored 22 sessions in addition to numerous poster and
email suggestions/comments to ASA Executive Director Ron
contributed sessions.
Wasserstein at ron@amstat.org.
The deadline for JSM 2009 proposals was September 9, 2008.
Ten were received and four allocated sessions have tentatively been
The possibility of webinars was discussed. Members are in gen-
chosen on functional data analysis, dimension reduction, analysis
eral support of the executive committee looking into organiz-
on genomics data, and causal inference.
ing/cosponsoring a webinar.
OCTOBER 2008 AMSTAT NEWS 53
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