News

Forty-two students participated in the student paper competition at the 2022 WNAR/IMS conference (virtually).

There were two winners (tied) in the written category: Anna Neufeld, University of Washington ("Inference after latent variable estimation for single-cell RNA sequencing data") and Shuting Shen, Harvard University ("Fast distributed Principal Component Analysis for large scale federated data").

There were also two winners (tied) in the oral category: Larry Han, Harvard University ("Privacy-preserving and communication-efficient causal inference for hospital quality measurement") and Tianyu Zhang, University of Washington, ("Regression in Tensor Product Spaces by the Method of Sieves").

The students were honored at special zoom event and awardees will receive certificates and monetary awards. We give a special thanks to the chair of the student paper competition, Fan Yang, University of Colorado Anschutz Medical Campus, and the rest of the committee: Jarrett Barber, Fei Gao, Kayleigh Keller, Lihua Lei, John Rice, Subodh Selukar, Krithika Suresh, Katherine Wilson, Fan Xia, Fuyong Xing, Fan Yang, Ting Ye, Ying Zhou.

Congratulations to all!

On behalf of WNAR and the WNAR Award Committee, we would like to congratulate Dr. Bin Yu of UC Berkeley, the recipient of the inaugural WNAR Outstanding Impact Award and Lectureship. Congratulations, Dr. Yu!

The WNAR of IBS Outstanding impact and Lectureship Award was established in 2021 to recognize an outstanding individual or team, regardless of race, gender, sexual orientation, nationality or citizenship, who has made a significant impact on our society through service and/or research in the development and application of statistical, mathematical, and data science theory and methods in the biomedical or environmental sciences. A significant impact can comprise either a single contribution of extraordinary merit or an outstanding aggregate of contributions that significantly impacts to biosciences and environmental sciences. 

Dr. Bin Yu is the Chancellor’s Distinguished Professor and Class of 1936 Second Chair in the Departments of Statistics and Electrical Engineering and Computer Sciences at UC Berkeley. Dr Yu’s nomination package clearly demonstrated her fundamental contributions in both statistical theory and practice, which has lasting impacts across the fields of statistics and interdisciplinary domains; her high visible role model, especially for women researchers in multiple disciplines; and her outstanding leadership in professional and community services that positively influenced advancement in and recognition of Biometrics. WNAR is very proud of its outstanding members, represented by Dr. Yu.

Congratulations as well to our other nominees, all of whom were outstanding and highly impressive in their contributions.

As a recipient of the award, Dr. Yu will give a talk in the WNAR Outstanding Impact Award Lecture at the JSM on Monday, August 8, 2022, 10:30. More information about the lecture can be found below.

WNAR members, please plan to submit nomination materials for next year’s award. We look forward to recognizing our outstanding members with this honor. More information about the award process can be found on the WNAR award website.

WNAR Outstanding Impact Award Lecture at the JSM

Session 121, Monday Aug 8, 10:30am-12:20pm
Title:  Principles for Impactful Data Science and Statistics: Lessons Learned from Covid-19 Forecasting and Beyond

Speaker: Bin Yu (University of California, Berkeley)
Panel on impactful research with panelists
Amy Braverman (JPL), Ying Lu (Stanford), Marc Suchard (UCLA), Katerina Kechris (Univ of Colorado, Denver), Bin Yu (UC Berkeley), and Hongyu Zhao (Yale)

Abstract:

Impactful data science or statistical research outside statistics is a professional responsibility of statistics as a field and a necessity for its prosperity and funding.  In this talk, we distill principles out of the Yu Group’s experience in Spring 2020, when a 12-person rapid-response team used skills of data science/statistics and beyond to help distribute Covid PPE.  These principles are useful in general to ensure that our data science and statistics work be impactful in domain fields and society at large.

 

A data science process towards impact includes tapping into domain knowledge (about epidemiology and medical logistics chains in the covid forecasting project), collecting or curating a relevant data repository, developing models relevant for solving the domain problem (for short-term county-level death forecasting in the US in the covid project), and building an accessible platform for sharing visualization (AI machine website in the covid project). Finally, we emphasize dealing with problems that require rapid response, often resembling agile software development.

Thank you to everyone who participated in the WNAR election.

Congratulations to WNAR President-Elect Elizabeth Juarez-Colunga, Program Coordinator Lingling An, and Regional Committee Representatives Ting Ye and Yiliang Zhu.

Special thanks go out to outgoing WNAR Past-President Ying Lu and outgoing Regional Committee Representative Katie Kerr for their efforts and dedication to WNAR.

Thank you to outgoing Secretary/Correspondent Megan Othus for her decade of extraordinary service to WNAR.

WNAR has initiated an IBS/WNAR Impact Award and Lectureship for outstanding individuals or teams from the WNAR Region.  The inaugural call for nominations is now open, with a submission deadline of January 15, 2022.  

Details can be found in the attached Call for Nominations and also within the WNAR Awards section of the website.

The Lectureship will occur at JSM in August 2022.

The Committee of Presidents of Statistical Societies (COPSS) condemns in the strongest possible terms all forms of racism and hate. The recent, horrendous event in Atlanta that targeted Asians and Americans of Asian ancestry in the United States is but one more manifestation of the systemic racism and exclusion that many of our colleagues and neighbors suffer routinely.

The FBI reports that hate crimes in the United States are at their highest point in over a decade; similar statistics have been reported in Canada. Hate crimes are motivated by biases towards a person’s race, religion, sexual preference and other categories. Critically for us as statisticians, violence against targeted groups occurs when we fail to make our profession — and all of society — more diverse and inclusive. Through our skills in quantitative reasoning, we are best equipped to generate evidence on impacts of inherent biases on targeted groups so that informed actions are taken to prevent hate crimes.

While Asian, Asian-Americans and Pacific Islanders (AAPI) are not alone in terms of how frequently they are subjected to hate and prejudice, 2020 saw a sharp increase — as high as 150% relative to earlier years — in the number of crimes reported by AAPI persons. This is intolerable. COPSS, on behalf of its partner societies and all their members, stands firmly in support of all Asian, Asian Canadian, and Asian-American statisticians.

As a profession, we have benefited from the many and important contributions of our AAPI colleagues. There is no question that the influx of talent from other nations, but particularly from Asian countries, has enabled the United States and Canada to sustain its leadership role in science, technology, and innovation. Science and technology are the engine that drives economic development and opens more opportunities for advancement in society.

COPSS states in no uncertain terms that hate, prejudice, and exclusion have no place in any of its partner societies and will not be tolerated. We all need to do our part to build a more just society. COPSS has established a Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion Taskforce to develop strategies and activities to ensure that our profession is welcoming to all, regardless of race, gender, sexual orientation, religion and any other personal attributes. Furthermore, COPSS will continue to reflect on its own role in the perpetuation of any implicit biases against any member of our professional community by examining the fair representation of all deserving statisticians (including members of Asian and Pacific Islander descent) among recipients of COPSS awards, identifying any systematic underrepresentation or historical exclusion, and implementing more equitable solutions.

We all need to do more to promote justice, fairness, and respect. Let us commit to doing everything we can to ensure that those values guide our profession. Please join COPSS in expressing its deepest appreciation to all its members in these difficult times and in expressing its solidarity with the entire Asian community, and especially our cherished members of Asian descent and their loved ones.

 

*This statement was approved by leadership of all five COPSS societies.
—
American Statistical Association (ASA)
Eastern North American Region of the International Biometric Society (ENAR)
Institute of Mathematical Statistics (IMS)
Statistical Society of Canada/Société statistique du Canada (SSC)
Western North American Region of the International Biometric Society (WNAR)

Congratulations to WNAR President-Elect Gary Chan from University of Washington, Secretary-elect Jessica Minnier from Oregon Health Sciences University, Program, Coordinator Elizabeth Juarez-Colunga from University of Colorado Anschutz Medical Campus, and Regional Committee Representatives Charlotte Gard from New Mexico State University and Julia Palacios from Standard University.

Special thanks go out to outgoing WNAR Past-President Katerina Kechris, outgoing Program Coordinator Dongseok Choi, and outgoing Regional Committee Representatives Ed Bedrick, Roy Mendelssohn, and Cristina Murray-Krezen for their efforts and dedication to WNAR. 

In addition, the WNAR By-Laws proposed amendments were approved.

We would like to thank all the WNAR members who volunteered to be candidates for these offices. WNAR is fortunate to have so many talented members willing to dedicate their time and energy to WNAR, which makes each election a choice among outstanding individuals.

The first virtual WNAR Business Meeting was held successfully on December 5, 2020.  The slide deck and Zoom screenshot can be found here.

Congratulations to Professor Tomi Mori, President of WNAR in 2018, who has received the prestigious Award for Outstanding Contribution to the Development of the IBS. 

Professor Mori is the Chair and Member of the Department of Biostatistics at St. Jude Children's Research Hospital.  Prior to January 2020, she was the Walter & Clara Brownfield Professor of Cancer Biostatistics at Oregon Health & Science University and Portland State University School of Public Health.

She has been a member of IBS since 1998 a long record of serving in leadership roles for WNAR and IBS, including serving as WNAR President-Elect, President, and Past-President between 2017-2019.

Among her many accomplishments, she has forged ongoing relationships between WNAR and the IBS Japanese and Argentinian Regions and with the Korean International Statistical Society.  Due to her role as the ASA representative to the AAAS Medical Science Section she was a liaison between WNAR and AAAS and was instrumental in helping WNAR become a founding member of the Societies Consortium on Sexual Harassment in STEMM.  She has made many contributions to making meetings more accessible and promoting participation in IBS.  

 

Congratulations to Professor Mori!

Although the 2020 WNAR meeting was cancelled due to COVID-19, WNAR was committed to support student researchers and transitioned to a virtual Student Paper Competition.

• Twenty-four students participated in the virtual student paper competition. 

  The winners in the written category were: 

•      Lingjing Jiang, University of California San Diego: “Assessing Reproducibility of Selected Features with Big Data"
•      Kwangho Kim, Carnegie Mellon University: “Causal Clustering” 

• The winner of the oral category was:

•      Jinyuan Liu, University of California San Diego: “Regression Models for within-subjects Responses with between-subject Explanatory Variables: Applications to Microbiome Data”

The students received their award at a virtual meeting. 

We give a special thanks to the chair of the student paper competition, Harold Bae from Oregon State University and the other Student Competition judges: Jay Barber (Northern Arizona University), Fang Chen (SAS), Charlotte Gard (New Mexico State University), Tusharkanti Ghosh (University of Colorado), Jessica Minnier (Oregon Health & Sciences University), Camille Moore (National Jewish Hospital), Debmalya Nandy (University of Colorado), and Laura Saba (University of Colorado). Summary (and photo) here.

NISS has several upcoming events for junior researchers: a virtual academic career fair on April 23rd (link) and the NISS Writing Workshop to be held at the Joint Statistical Meetings in August (link).

WNAR is proud to be a participating society in NISS and sponsor of the Writing Workshop and encourages eligible WNAR members to apply and register for both events.