COPSS established the R. A. Fisher Lectureship in 1963 to honor the contributions of Sir Ronald Aylmer Fisher and the work of a present-day statistician. The Fisher Lectureship recognizes the importance of statistical methods for scientific investigations, and the list of past Fisher lecturers well reflects the prestige that COPSS and its member societies place on this award. The Lecture is to be broadly based and is to emphasize aspects of statistics and probability that are closely related to scientific collection and interpretation of data, the areas in which Fisher made outstanding contributions. It is anticipated that this lecture will be published in one of the COPSS society journals. Since 1982 COPSS has added a cash prize and a plaque to the Lectureship.
The Award Committee selecting the recipient will consist of six members. Each of the five charter member societies (i.e., ASA, ENAR, WNAR, IMS, and SSC), plus the COPSS Chair, appoints one committee member. These six committee members serve for a three-year term on a rotating basis. The award winner from 6 years previous to the current award is invited by the COPSS Chair to serve as the seventh committee member. His/her term is for one year. In the event that this Award winner is unable (or unwilling) to serve on this committee or is already on the committee, the award winner in the subsequent year will be invited by the Chair to serve and this person then serves for two years. For example, for the 2016 award, the 2010 awardee serves as the seventh member. If he/she cannot serve, the 2011 awardee will be invited to serve. The COPSS Chair appoints the chair of the award committee. Two new members, including the past awardee, are appointed per year.
The award is open to all regardless of age, race, gender, sexual orientation, nationality or citizenship. Nominees must be living at the time of their nomination. Nomination submissions will be invited by October of the previous year and will close on December 15th. Prior nomination does not exclude a nominee from consideration in subsequent years. No member of the Award Committee, the officer of COPSS, or societal member of COPSS shall be eligible to receive the award during his or her term of service.
Eligible candidates are expected to adhere to the highest standards of statistical practice, professional conduct, and personal conduct; see the Ethical Guidelines for Statistical Practice published by the Committee on Professional Ethics of the American Statistical Association: https://www.amstat.org/ASA/Your-Career/Ethical-Guidelines-for-Statistical-Practice.aspx for more information.
Eligible nominations should be sent to the Chair of the Fisher Award Committee in PDF Format, and should include a nomination letter, the candidate’s curriculum vitae and contact information, and three support letters. Award Committee members should not prepare individual nominations or letters of support.
The award consists of a plaque, a citation, and a cash honorarium of $1,500. It is presented at the COPSS Awards and Fisher Lecture session at the Joint Statistical Meetings (JSM), usually on Wednesday at 4:00 p.m. local time. Reimbursement for reasonable travel and hotel expenses to attend the JSM to receive the award is provided to the recipient, if other funds are unavailable. The Fisher Lecture is generally 1 hour long with ample additional time for questions and discussion.
Important Dates
1964
S. Bartlett
University of Chicago and University College, London
“R. A. Fisher and the last fifty years of statistical methodology” (JASA 60, 1965, 395-409)
1965
Oscar Kempthorne
Iowa State University
“Some aspects of experimental inference” (JASA 61, 1966, 11-34)
1967
John W. Tukey
Princeton University and Bell Telephone Laboratories
“Some perspectives in data analysis”
1968
Leo A. Goodman
University of Chicago
“The analysis of cross-classified data: independence, quasi-independence, and interactions in contingency tables with or without missing entries” (JASA 63, 1968, 1091-1131)
1970
Leonard J. Savage
Princeton University
“On rereading R. A. Fisher” (Annals of Statistics 4, 1976, 441-500)
1971
Cuthbert Daniel
Private Consultant
“One-at-a-time plans” ( JASA 68, 1973, 353-360)
1972
William G. Cochran
Harvard University
“Experiments for nonlinear functions” ( JASA 68, 1973, 771-781)
1973
Jerome Cornfield
George Washington University
“On making sense of data”
1974
George E. P. Box
University of Wisconsin
“Science and statistics” (JASA 71, 1976, 791-799)
1975
Herman Chernoff
Massachusetts Institute of Technology
“Identifying an unknown member of a large population” (Annals of Statistics 8, 1980, 1179-1197)
1976
George A. Barnard
University of Waterloo
“Robustness and the logic of pivotal inference”
1977
R. C. Bose
University of North Carolina,Chapel Hill
“R. A. Fisher's contribution to multivariate analysis and design of experiments” (Early history of multivariate statistical analysis. Multivariate Analysis IV, Proc. Fourth International Symposium, Dayton, Ohio, 1977.)
1978
William Kruskal
University of Chicago
“Statistics in society: problems unsolved and unformulated”
1979
C. R. Rao
Pennsylvania State University
“Fisher efficiency and estimation of several parameters”
1982
F. J. Anscombe
Yale University
“How much to look at the data” (Utilitas Mathematica 21A, 1982, 23-28)
1983
I. R. Savage
University of Minnesota
“Nonparametric statistics and a microcosm”
1985
T. W. Anderson
Stanford University
“R. A. Fisher and multivariate analysis”
1986
David H. Blackwell
University of California, Berkeley
“Likelihood and sufficiency”
1987
Frederick Mosteller
Harvard University
“Methods for studying coincidences” (with P. Diaconis) (JASA 84, 1989, 853-861)
1988
Erich L. Lehmann
University of California, Berkeley
“Model specification: Fisher's views and some later strategies”
1989
Sir David R. Cox
Nuffield College, Oxford
“Probability models: their role in statistical analysis
1990
Donald A. S. Fraser
York University
“Statistical inference: likelihood to significance” (JASA 86, 1991, 258-265)
1991
David R. Brillinger
University of California
“Nerve cell spike train data analysis: a progression of technique” (JASA 87, 1992, 260-271)
1992
Paul Meier
Columbia University
“The scope of general estimation”
1993
Herbert E. Robbins
Columbia University
“N and n - sequential choice between two treatments”
1994
Elizabeth A. Thompson
University of Washington
“Likelihood and linkage: from Fisher to the future”
1995
Norman E. Breslow
University of Washington
“Statistics in epidemiology: the case-control study"
1996
Bradley Efron
Stanford University
“R. A. Fisher in the 21st Century”
1997
Colin L. Mallows
AT&T Bell Laboratories
“The Zeroth Problem”
1998
Arthur Dempster
Harvard University
“Logistic Statistics: Modeling and Inference”
1999
Jack D. Kalbfleisch
University of Waterloo
"The Estimating Function Bootstrap" (Canadian Journal of Statistics, 30, 2000, 449-499)
2000
Ingram Olkin
Stanford University
"R. A. Fisher and the Combining of Evidence"
2001
James O. Berger
Duke University
"Could Fisher, Jeffreys, and Neyman have agreed on Testing?"
2002
Raymond Carroll
Texas A&M University,
"Variability Is Not Always A Nuisance Parameter"
2003
Adrian F. M. Smith
University of London
"On Rereading L. J. Savage Rereading R. A. Fisher"
2004
Donald B. Rubin
Harvard University, and
University of Wiscounsin
"Causal Inference Using Potential Outcomes: Design, Modeling, Decisions"
For fundamental and innovative contributions to scientific investigation through the development and promotion of modern statistical methodologies including missing data methods, causal inference, the EM algorithm and multiple imputations, and for his considerable impact on applied data analysis and Bayesian statistics.
2005
R. Dennis Cook
University of Minnesota
“Dimension Reduction in Regression” (Statistical Science, 22, 2007, 1-26)
For fundamental contributions to statistical analysis through his revolutionary research in the field of regression analysis that has led to numerous methodological contributions and innovations including influence statistics and regression graphics.
2006
Terence P. Speed
University of California, Berkeley, and Walter &
Eliza Hall Institute of Medical Research
“Recombination and Linkage”
For his fundamental contributions to the field, spanning early work on spatial models and contingency tables, through his contributions to classical ANOVA, to his innovative research in statistical genetics and genomics, through which Professor Speed has profoundly influenced the theory and practice of statistical science.
2007
Marvin Zelen
Harvard School of Public Health
“The early detection of disease – Statistical challenges”
For fundamental contributions to the development of biostatistical science, which have had huge and lasting impact on the design, implementation and analysis of clinical trials; and for his vision and leadership that have established biostatistics as a central discipline in modern biomedicine and public health in the US and around the world.
2008
Ross L. Prentice
Fred Hutchinson Cancer Research Center, and University of Washington
“The Population Science Research Agenda: Multivariate Failure Time Data Analysis Methods.”
For fundamental contributions to the theory and practice of statistical science; for his influential and innovative research in the areas of survival analysis, life history processes, case-control and cohort studies; and for his influential role in the conception, design, and implementation of the Women’s Health Initiative.
2009
Noel Cressie
Ohio State University
“Where, When, and then Why.”
For pioneering advances in statistical methodology inspired by science and engineering, particularly in the areas of spatial and spatio-temporal statistics; and for his vision and leadership in the statistical modeling of uncertainties in environmental science.>
2010
Bruce G. Lindsay
Pennsylvania State University
“Likelihood: Efficiency and Deficiency.”
For fundamental contributions to statistical theory that have had a profound impact on the practice of statistics; this includes significant results on mixture models, conditional score functions and composite likelihood that have influenced later developments in measurement error models and spatial statistics among other areas.
2011
C.F. Jeff Wu
Georgia Institute of Technology
“Post-Fisherian Experimentation: from Physical to Virtual”
For fundamental contributions to the planning, analysis and interpretation of statistical studies that have had a profound impact on the practice of statistics, especially in engineering; this includes significant results on resampling methods, theory of experimental design and pioneering work in industrial statistics that have changed the way statistical studies are used to optimize products and processes.
2012
Roderick J. Little
University of Michigan
“In praise of simplicity not mathematistry! Simple powerful ideas for the statistical scientist”
For outstanding statistical research in the modeling and evaluation of missing data, sample survey and causal inference; for the clear and comprehensive application of these and other methodologies in science and public policy arenas; and for diverse and effective professional and academic leadership contributions
2013
Peter J. Bickel
University of California, Berkeley
"Big Data: Continuities and Discontinuities”
For groundbreaking contributions to semiparametric and nonparametric methods, adaptive estimation, and robust statistics; for applying in-depth and intricate theoretical analysis to realistic problems in the biological sciences; for penetrating and insightful analysis of scientific methodology which has yielded a lasting impact on our understanding of both theory and methods; and for exceptional training and mentoring of students, leadership of professional societies, and leadership of his academic department.
Grace Wahba
University of Wisconsin-Madison
“Positive Definite Functions, Reproducing Kernel Hilbert Spaces, and All That”
For fundamental contributions to many areas of statistics, including time series, splines, smoothing, nonparametric statistics, likelihood estimation, density estimation, and to interdisciplinary areas including climatology, epidemiology, bioinformatics and machine learning. In particular, her work in reproducing kernel Hilbert space representation and generalized cross-validation have become standard practice in scientific research and industry.
Stephen E. Fienberg
Carnegie Mellon University
“R. A. Fisher and the Statistical ABCs"
For wide-ranging and highly influential contributions to the theory and practice of statistics; for fundamental advances in methodology, interpretation and computation in the analysis of categorical data; for broad-reaching contributions to statistical methods for sample surveys; for seminal work on record linkage, privacy and social network analysis; for outstanding and prolific service to the profession and to society; and for being a role model, advocate and mentor to young statisticians.
Alice S. Whittemore
Stanford University School
of Medicine
“Personalizing Disease Prevention: Statistical Challenges”
For fundamental contributions to biostatistics and epidemiology, covering a wide range of topics from environmental risk assessment to genetic linkage analysis, genetic association studies and cancer epidemiology; for bringing her statistical and mathematical insight to bear on the collection and interpretation of scientific data; for her leadership in large consortia of cancer studies; and for being a role model for many young scientists.
Robert E. Kass
Carnegie Mellon University
“The Importance of Statistics: Lessons from the Brain Sciences”
For ground breaking contributions to several areas of statistics including use of differential geometry in statistical theory as well as theory and methodology of Bayesian inference; for strong commitment to the application of principled statistical thinking and modeling to problems in computational neuroscience; and for his strong dedication to training of students and users of statistics.
Susan A. Murphy
Harvard University
“The Future: Stratified Micro-randomized Trials with Applications in Mobile Health”
For scientific contributions to statistical theory and methods at the highest level and for fundamental advances in the innovative use of statistics to further behavioral and mental health research.
Paul R. Rosenbaum
University of Pennsylvania
“An Observational Study Used to Illustrate Methodology for Such Studies”
For pioneering contributions to statistical methodology for observational studies, important applications of such methodology to health outcomes studies, lucid books on statistical principles and methodology for observational studies and excellent mentoring.