UPCOMING EVENTS
PLEASE NOTE: The National Academies continues to hold virtual meetings until further notice in response to COVID-19. All times are Eastern.
Save the Date!
Toward a Vision for a New Data Infrastructure for Federal Statistics and Social and Economic Research in the 21st Century Workshop 2: The Implications of Using Multiple Data Sources for Major Survey Programs will be held on May 16 and 18 see this site for more details.
People News
Passing of Tom Jabine and Leland Wilkinson
CNSTAT regrets the passing of two important members of the statistical and research communities:
- Thomas B. (Tom) Jabine, who served for many years in the federal government and with CNSTAT, died on January 30, 2022, at the age of 97. His federal service included positions as chief of the Statistical Research Division for the U.S. Census Bureau, chief mathematical statistician for the Office of Research and Statistics in the Social Security Administration (SSA), and statistical policy expert for the Energy Information Administration (EIA). He was also a consultant to the United Nations, and the U.S. Agency for International Development, and the editor and author of several books on statistics and survey methods. At the Census Bureau he worked for Morris Hansen and William Hurwitz, but he branched out from sample design to questionnaire design after it became clear to him that minimization of error in surveys required work on both sampling and nonsampling error. Jabine was an ASA Fellow, an elected member of the International Statistical Institute, a president of the Washington Statistical Society, and he received the Roger Herriot Award for Innovation in Federal Statistics. At CNSTAT, over a 20-year span, he coedited, consulted, or served as a panel member on 13 of the committee’s reports. Among them were the 1984 report, Cognitive Aspects of Survey Methodology: Building a Bridge Between Disciplines and the 1993 report Private Lives and Public Policies: Confidentiality and Accessibility of Government Statistics.
- Leland Wilkinson, fellow at H2O.ai, passed away December 10, 2021, at age 77. During the late 1970s and early 1980s, he wrote SYSTAT, the first comprehensive statistical software package designed expressly for microcomputers and the first software implementation of the now widely used heatmap display. He founded SYSTAT, a company of the same name, selling it to SPSS in 1995. He wrote the seminal book on statistical graphics, The Grammar of Graphics, in 1999. He earned a bachelor’s degree from Harvard, a bachelor of sacred theology degree from Harvard Divinity School, and a doctorate from Yale. He was an adjunct professor of computer science at the University of Illinois at Chicago, a fellow of the American Statistical Association, an elected member of the International Statistical Institute, and a fellow of the American Association for the Advancement of Science. He served on the Committee on Applied and Theoretical Statistics of the National Academies, and was vice chair of the National Institute of Statistical Sciences Board. He was a member of the CNSTAT panel that produced the report, Capturing Change in Science, Technology, and Innovation: Improving Indicators to Inform Policy (2013).
CNSTAT Welcomes Alex Henderson
Alex Henderson is a new senior program assistant with the Committee on National Statistics and Committee on Population. She is a lifelong native of Fairfax, VA, who graduated with her B.S. in wildlife conservation from Virginia Tech and immediately went on to complete her M.S. in environmental sciences & policy from Johns Hopkins University. Some of her most interesting experiences include studying abroad in China to learn about solutions to anthropogenic climate change and tracking owls on foot across a national forest for her capstone research. Coming from a blended park-ranger and policy background, her interests lie across a broad spectrum of sociopolitical and environmental issues. Outside of the hard sciences, Alex is also a professional bartender, and loves watching classic films, painting, and running.
DBASSE Welcomes Carlotta Arthur
Dr. Carolotta Arthur joined the Division of Behavioral and Social Sciences and Education (DBASSE), CNSTAT’s parent unit at the National Academies, as its new executive director on February 24, 2022. Dr. Arthur came from the Henry Luce Foundation, where she served as director of its Clare Boothe Luce Program for Women in STEM. Previously she was director of the Mellon Mays Undergraduate Fellowship Program, Diversity Initiatives, HBCU, and Appalachian Colleges Programs at the Andrew W. Mellon Foundation. She was the first African American woman to earn a B.S. in Metallurgical Engineering from Purdue University. After a decade in the aerospace and automotive industries, she completed an M.A. in psychology and Ph.D. in clinical psychology from the State University of New York at Stony Brook. She was a member of the inaugural cohort of W.K. Kellogg Scholars in Health Disparities at the Harvard School of Public Health and has served as an assistant professor at Meharry Medical College; an Andrew W. Mellon postdoctoral fellow at Smith College; and an adjunct assistant professor at the Dartmouth Geisel School of Medicine. Dr. Arthur succeeds Mary Ellen O’Connell, who retired.
RECENT EVENTS AND REPORTS
CNSTAT Seminar: Transparency in Statistical Information for Federal Agencies, December 17, 2021
Video and other materials available from this site.
Toward a Vision for a New Data Infrastructure for Federal Statistics and Social and Economic Research in the 21st Century Workshop 1: The Scope, Components, and Characteristics of a 21st Century Data Infrastructure, December 9 and 16, 2021
Video and other materials available from this site.
Improving Consent and Response Rates in Longitudinal Studies on Aging Workshop, September 27-28, 2021
Video and other materials available from this site.
Research and Development, Global Value Chains, and Globalization Measurement Public Workshop, May 5-7, 2021
Video and other materials available from this site.
CNSTAT Seminar: Principles and Practices for a Federal Statistical Agency, April 21, 2021
Video available here.