Congratulations to Dr. Thomas Lin, Recipient of the First Robert Newcomb Fellow of the Chapter award!!
Thomas is a founding member of the OCLBASA Chapter and has served as President of the Chapter for 3 years and as an Officer of the Chapter since its inception. Thomas has served the Chapter in various capacities including all three areas of the Chapter’s mission. Following is the summary of Thomas’s achievement, contributions to the Chapter and to the field of statistics in general.
Academic Development: Thomas received PhD in statistics and has been working in the field of statistics at various pharmaceutical companies until he retired in 2015. He has served in pharmaceutical companies primarily in the field of statistics and related functions such as data management, programming, and medical writing in increasing capacity up to the Vice President of Biometrics at Allergan. During this time, he was instrumental in developing and launching multiple drugs and pharmaceutical products. He is currently a consultant and teaches as a part-time lecturer at UCI. He has mentored many statisticians while in industry and at academics.
Career Development: Thomas has made great efforts in creating learning opportunities for many college students while teaching at university, working in industry, and at the Chapter’s academic and networking events.
Community Development: As President, founding member and an Officer of the Chapter, Thomas’s contribution to the Chapter is numerous and invaluable. During his time, he was successful in getting more membership to the Chapter, hosting various events to cater to diverse membership from academic to industries. He also has collaborated with other local chapters such as SCASA and SDASA to create a comprehensive event driven environment.
More importantly, Thomas has dedicated his efforts in various ways to the Chapter’s mission and always has the patience, motivation, passion and interest in the Chapter. His attendance and voluntary service to the Chapter is invaluable and has made Chapter’s activities successful. He connects with Chapter committee and members, junior or senior well and provides valuable guidance to students as well as professionals. For all of the above reasons, Thomas exemplifies the mission of the Chapter and is the recipient of the Robert Newcomb Fellow of the Chapter award.
Section on Statistical Consulting
The American Statistical Association (ASA) Section on Statistical Consulting states "Statistical consulting is a challenging and rewarding part of statistics. A consultant uses the art and science of statistics to solve a practical problem from many fields, including marketing, product design, manufacturing, medicine, agriculture, or genetics. Good consulting requires a strong technical background in statistics, good people skills, and, for many, good business sense".
The Orange County/Long Beach Chapter Section on Statistical Consulting has been formed to offer an opportunity for Chapter members and others who share an interest in statistical consulting to interact with one another regarding their shared interst in and experience with statistical consulting. Within this Chapter Section, Special Interest Groups (SIGs) will be formed to facilitate activities within more focused topic areas and thereby better serve the needs and interests of subgoups of statistical consultants in the Orange County/Long Beach area.
Special Interest Groups:
Internal Consulting: Member of a consulting group within an institution
Independent Consulting: Isolated/Independent consulting
The Inaugural Chapter-Wide Meeting was a Great Success
The inaugural Chapter-wide Meeting was held on Saturday, December 8, 2012, from 9:00 AM to 12:00 PM in the Allergan Auditorium located on the Allergan Irvine Campus at 2525 Dupont Drive in Irvine and attracted nearly 100 people. The Meeting was primarily a "Meet & Greet" event designed to give Chapter members an opportunity to interact with one another. Attendees learned more about their new Chapter at information tables that were set up in the auditorium lobby and manned by Chapter Officers.
ASA President, Robert Rodriguez, was the honored speaker at this inaugural Chapter-Wide Meeting. He expressed his positive reaction to the establishment of our new Chapter and presented his views about the importance of the Chapter's establishment to the ASA.
Robert N. Rodriguez joined SAS in 1983 and is a Senior Director in SAS Research and Development with responsibility for the development of statistical software, including SAS/STAT and SAS/QC. He received his PhD in statistics from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill and worked as a research statistician at General Motors Research Laboratories before joining SAS. Rodriguez is a Fellow of the American Statistical Association and is the 2012 President of the ASA.
The Founding of the Orange County/Long Beach Chapter (OCLBASA)
On July 30, 2012, the ASA Council of Chapters Governing Board (COCGB) voted to approve the formation of the new Orange County/Long Beach Chapter (OCLBASA)! Formal notification of the COCGB approval was subsequently sent to the Chapter in the letter seen below. The letter can also be printed or saved as a pdf file by clicking here.
