Past, present, and future of statistical science

Table of Contents:


I THE HISTORY OF COPSS


1. A brief history of the Committee of Presidents of Statistical Societies (COPSS) Ingram Olkin

II REMINISCENCES AND PERSONAL REFLECTIONS ON CAREER PATHS

2. Reminiscences of the Columbia University Department of Mathematical Statistics in the late 1940s
Ingram Olkin

3. A career in statistics
Herman Chernoff


4. ". . . how wonderful the field of statistics is . . ."
David R. Brillinger


5. An unorthodox journey to statistics: Equity issues, remarks on multiplicity
Juliet Popper Shaffer

6. Statistics before and after my COPSS Prize
Peter J. Bickel

7. The accidental biostatistics professor
Donna Brogan

8. Developing a passion for statistics
Bruce G. Lindsay

9. Reflections on a statistical career and their implications
R. Dennis Cook

10. Science mixes it up with statistics
Kathryn Roeder

11. Lessons from a twisted career path
Jeffrey S. Rosenthal

12. Promoting equity
Mary Gray


III PERSPECTIVES ON THE FIELD AND PROFESSION



13. Statistics in service to the nation
Stephen E. Fienberg

14. Where are the majors?
Iain M. Johnstone

15. We live in exciting times
Peter Hall

16. The bright future of applied statistics
Rafael A. Irizarry

17. The road travelled: From a statistician to a statistical scientist
Nilanjan Chatterjee

18. Reflections on a journey into statistical genetics and genomics
Xihong Lin

19. Reflections on women in statistics in Canada
Mary E. Thompson

20. "The whole women thing"
Nancy Reid

21. Reflections on diversity
Louise Ryan


IV REFLECTIONS ON THE DISCIPLINE


22. Why does statistics have two theories?
Donald A.S. Fraser

23. Conditioning is the issue
James O. Berger

24. Statistical inference from a Dempster–Shafer perspective
Arthur P. Dempster

25. Nonparametric Bayes
David B. Dunson

26. How do we choose our default methods?
Andrew Gelman

27. Serial correlation and Durbin–Watson bounds
T.W. Anderson

28. A non-asymptotic walk in probability and statistics
Pascal Massart

29. The past’s future is now: What will the present’s future bring?
Lynne Billard

30. Lessons in biostatistics
Norman E. Breslow

31. A vignette of discovery
Nancy Flournoy

32. Statistics and public health research
Ross L. Prentice

33. Statistics in a new era for finance and health care
Tze Leung Lai

34. Meta-analyses: Heterogeneity can be a good thing
Nan M. Laird

35. Good health: Statistical challenges in personalizing disease prevention
Alice S. Whittemore

36. Buried treasures
Michael A. Newton

37. Survey sampling: Past controversies, current orthodoxy, future paradigms
Roderick J.A. Little

38. Environmental informatics: Uncertainty quantification in the environmental sciences Noel A. Cressie

39. A journey with statistical genetics
Elizabeth Thompson

40. Targeted learning: From MLE to TMLE
Mark van der Laan

41. Statistical model building, machine learning, and the ah-ha moment
Grace Wahba

42. In praise of sparsity and convexity
Robert J. Tibshirani

43. Features of Big Data and sparsest solution in high confidence set
Jianqing Fan

44. Rise of the machines
Larry A. Wasserman

45. A trio of inference problems that could win you a Nobel Prize in statistics (if you help fund it)
Xiao-Li Meng


V ADVICE FOR THE NEXT GENERATION


46. Inspiration, aspiration, ambition
C.F. Jeff Wu

47. Personal reflections on the COPSS Presidents’ Award
Raymond J. Carroll

48. Publishing without perishing and other career advice
Marie Davidian

49. Converting rejections into positive stimuli
Donald B. Rubin

50. The importance of mentors
Donald B. Rubin

51. Never ask for or give advice, make mistakes, accept mediocrity, enthuse
Terry Speed

52. Thirteen rules
Bradley Efron

Past, Present, and Future of Statistical Science was commissioned in 2013 by the Committee of Presidents of Statistical Societies (COPSS) to celebrate its 50th anniversary and the International Year of Statistics. COPSS consists of five charter member statistical societies in North America and is best known for sponsoring prestigious awards in statistics, such as the COPSS Presidents’ award.

Through the contributions of a distinguished group of 50 statisticians who are past winners of at least one of the five awards sponsored by COPSS, this volume showcases the breadth and vibrancy of statistics, describes current challenges and new opportunities, highlights the exciting future of statistical science, and provides guidance to future generations of statisticians. The book is not only about statistics and science but also about people and their passion for discovery.

Distinguished authors present expository articles on a broad spectrum of topics in statistical education, research, and applications. Topics covered include reminiscences and personal reflections on statistical careers, perspectives on the field and profession, thoughts on the discipline and the future of statistical science, and advice for young statisticians. Many of the articles are accessible not only to professional statisticians and graduate students but also to undergraduate students interested in pursuing statistics as a career and to all those who use statistics in solving real-world problems. A consistent theme of all the articles is the passion for statistics enthusiastically shared by the authors. Their success stories inspire, give a sense of statistics as a discipline, and provide a taste of the exhilaration of discovery, success, and professional accomplishment.


(https://www.crcpress.com/Past-Present-and-Future-of-Statistical-Science/Lin-Genest-Banks-Molenberghs-Scott-Wang/9781482204964)