technique of Chernoff faces 35 years ago.
Steven Wang demonstrated by several appli-
The Honored Papers
cations the benefits of representing multi-
variate observations as facial expressions, a
Donald B. Rubin. “Multiple
context known to be handled well by the Imputations in Sample Surveys—A
human brain. It’s a unique and very cute (in
Phenomenological Bayesian
Chernoff’s words) way to simultaneously
view multiple dimensions. Wang also pre-
Approach to Nonresponse.” In ASA
miered, with the assistance of Photoshop,
Proceedings, Section on Survey
his updated version using actual human Research Methods, ASA, 1978
faces and another ‘cute’ version with animal
characters, Chernoff pigs. Carl N. Morris. “Parametric
The ‘birthday boys’ having been hon-
Empirical Bayes Inference: Theory
ored, Stephen Stigler took to the podium to
and Applications.” JASA, 1983
deliver his tribute for the 100th birthday of
the underlying form of the t-distribution.
Herman Chernoff. “The Use
Stigler outlined the publication for the
audience, explaining Gosset’s motivations,
of Faces to Represent Points in
his methods, what he achieved, and what he
K-Dimensional Space Graphically.”
left for others after him. As for what would JASA, 1973
make the Student name famous and espe-
cially historically notable, Stigler showed Student. “The Probable Error of a
how Gosset’s work fit into a unique histori-
Mean.” Biometrika, 1908
cal context by showing its influence on the
work and personalities of R. A. Fisher and
Karl Pearson. Gosset was one of the few
people able to get along professionally and
A veteran quizmaster, Thomas presided
personally with both giants.
over a challenging game of bar trivia, with
A presentation by graduate students
special emphasis on questions concerning
rounded out the Quintessential Celebration.
statistics and Guinness beer. Points were
In the session “From Student to students,”
awarded to teams using the probability
Harvard PhD students Paul Baines, Yves
scoring technique, a method Morris uses
Chretien, and Kari Lock attempted, with
in his introductory classes. A team headed
some success, to stump the crowd with
by guest speaker and trivia buff Wang took
trivia about the birthday boys. The three
home first prize.
were interviewed prior to the event, and
Quintessential Contributions was suc-
question by question their responses were
cessful in honoring three landmark achieve-
presented—without identification—to
ments by three eminent Harvard statisti-
the audience. The audience was then chal-
cians. By setting these accomplishments
lenged to match their longtime colleagues
within a historical context and illustrating
to the responses given. Their audience’s
the subsequent development of these ideas,
guesses were generally accurate, although
the speakers revealed the connection of past
there were some exceptions. The audience
innovations with current practice. Each
unanimously agreed that “a psycholo-
generation of statisticians makes its contri-
gist” must have come from Rubin, whose
bution after being a student of the previous
undergraduate degree was in psychology,
generation; how fitting, then, that excel-
in response to the question, “What would
lence in our discipline was honored with
you be right now if you had not become
a tribute to the original Student. For more
a statistician?” Much to everyone’s surprise,
about Quintessential Contributions, visit
this was actually Morris’ answer. Rubin had
http://stat.harvard.edu. n
responded “a retired race car driver.”
After the final session, Meng and PhD
student Andrew Thomas offered closing
remarks as a bridge to the evening’s fes-
tivities, a “Student t Party” at Harvard’s
Correction
Cambridge Queen’s Head pub. In tribute
to Gosset’s lifelong employer, participants
The person in the photo on Page 31 of
were offered Guinness, as well as selections
the September issue is Jeff Thompson,
from the Boston-based Harpoon Brewery.
not Roger Woodard. We regret the error.
6 AMSTAT NEWS NOVEMBER 2008
AMSTAT November 08.indd 6 10/24/08 2:27:37 PM
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