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The Section for Statistical Programmers and Analysts promotes discussions of

  • Programming concepts, theories, and techniques that are used for statistical analysis
  • Activities and pre-analysis tasks (e.g., data management) that affect statistical programming
  • Career paths and opportunities

Announcements

Recent Webinar

ASA Section for Statistical Programmers and Analysts invites you to join the Webinar on:

How to Become a Fellow of the American Statistical Association (ASA)

 

 Join us for an informative panel discussion on the process of becoming a Fellow of the American Statistical Association (ASA). This prestigious designation, awarded for nearly 100 years, honors individuals who have made significant contributions to the field of statistical science. Each year, the ASA’s Committee on Fellows can elect up to one-third of one percent of the association’s total membership, recognizing those with an established reputation for excellence and impact in the field.

 

In this session, we will explore the eligibility criteria and application process for ASA Fellowship, focusing on the essential requirements for consideration. We will discuss the nomination procedure, including how to prepare letters of support and supporting statements, as well as the ASA membership prerequisites. Don’t miss this opportunity to gain valuable insights into what it takes to become part of this esteemed group of statistical leaders.

 

 

When: Wednesday, December 04, 2024, from 12 PM – 1 PM Pacific / 3 PM – 4 PM Eastern.

 

Registration: https://us06web.zoom.us/meeting/register/tZ0qceCgrzojGdxbTJy-UF3lR9I-6fzeZ1HR

 

 

Cost: Free

 

Moderator: Tasneem Zaihra Rizvi, PhD, Sr. Biostatistician and Associate Professor, Surgery, School of Medicine, TUFTS University

 

Panelists:

Craig Mallinckrodt, PhD, Distinguished Biostatistician at Pentara

Craig Mallinckrodt is a Distinguished Biostatistician at Pentara, a CRO specializing in neurodegenerative research, where he contributes broadly to support research in Alzheimer’s and other CNS diseases. Craig is a Fellow of the American Statistical Association and won the Royal Statistical Society’s award for Outstanding Contribution to the Pharmaceutical Industry. Dr. Mallinckrodt led several industry working groups, including the DIA Scientific Working Group on Estimands and Missing Data. He has authored four books, including books on longitudinal analyses, Estimands, Estimators, and Sensitivity Analyses and he has over 200 manuscripts on various statistical and clinical topics. Dr. Mallinckrodt led much of the early research into the MMRM analytic approach that resulted in this method’s widespread use. He also has extensive experience in all phases of clinical development and led the statistical work that resulted in global regulatory approvals for drugs in 10 indications.

David B. Allison, PhD, Dean, and Provost Professor at the Indiana University Bloomington

Dr. David B. Allison is Dean, Distinguished Professor, and Provost Professor at the Indiana University Bloomington School of Public Health-Bloomington. His research interests include obesity and nutrition, quantitative genetics, clinical trials, statistical and research methodology, and research rigor and integrity. Co-Chair of the National Academy of Sciences’ Strategic Council for Research Excellence, Integrity, and Trust, he is known as an indefatigable champion for increased rigor in all of science and the unvarnished truthful communication of research. Dr. Allison is also a Fellow of the American Statistical Association.

Steven B. Cohen, PhD, Principal Scientist, RTI International

Dr. Steven B. Cohen is a Principal Scientist at RTI International and has also served as the Vice President of Statistical and Data Sciences for the past 7 years. He has directed the efforts of an experienced staff of over 120 statisticians, biostatisticians, data scientists, and methodologists engaged in programs that include education, international, social, health, and behavioral statistics; data science; statistical methodology; and data analytics. He is currently the Principal Investigator for the National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey (NHANES). Dr. Cohen has authored over 150 journal articles and publications in the areas of biostatistics, survey research methodology, estimation, survey design, and health services research. He is co-author of the text, Methodological Issues for Health Care Surveys. Previously as Director of the Center for Financing, he led the Center's administration of surveys and development of large primary data sets, including the national Medical Expenditure Panel Survey (MEPS), to support healthcare policy and behavioral research and analyses.

He has also served as an Associate Professor at Johns Hopkins University and George Washington University. He is a Fellow of the American Statistical Association and an Elected member of the International Statistical Institute.  

Vipin Arora, PhD, Associate Vice President at Eli Lilly and Company

Dr. Vipin Arora is currently Associate VP at Eli Lilly and Company and has 25+ years of Pharmaceutical Industry experience as a Lead Statistician, Manager, and Group Head in Statistical and Analytical Sciences. Vipin has led several successful projects in multiple Therapeutic Areas, including global regulatory interactions (FDA, EMA, Health Canada, Japan, etc.) and global medical affairs. 

During his career, Vipin coached and mentored statisticians with diverse backgrounds and built new capabilities locally and internationally. 

Outside his core job, Vipin has chaired (or co-chaired) scientific workshops, organized and/or spoken at several JSM and other Scientific meetings. Dr. Arora is also a Fellow of the American Statistical Association.

Other Information:

The ASA’s Section on Statistical Programmers and Analysts (SSPA) invites students to apply for:
Grants:
SSPA Conference Grant Program for Students and Recent Graduates: A grant program to pay the primary registration fees for section members who have recently graduated and want to attend an ASA conference. 

Details and requirements for both applications can be found here.

Recent News

2024 AISPAA Awardees

We are delighted to announce the recipients of the 2024 Award for Innovation in Statistical Programming and Analytics (AISPAA). This award recognizes individuals and teams who have made significant contributions to the development and enhancement of tools, software, and methodologies that address problems in statistical programming and analytics. It also honors those who have made large contributions to the community of statistical programmers and analysts.

This year, we proudly present the award to two outstanding recipients:

Dr. Byron C. Jaeger
Department of Biostatistics and Data Science, Wake Forest University School of Medicine

Dr. JaegerDr. Jaeger is honored for his pioneering work in developing methods for oblique random forests, which he has effectively disseminated through his R package, aorsf. This package is the first to support oblique random forests for classification, regression, and survival analysis. It also introduces novel methods for variable importance and selection. Dr. Jaeger's 'accelerated' models enable aorsf to perform as quickly as other popular R packages such as ranger and randomForestSRC. He has optimized the code in aorsf for efficient computation of partial dependence and individual conditional expectation curves. Since its release, aorsf has been downloaded 14,000 times from CRAN and has received 5 citations for its companion paper since 2023.

Dr. Cynthia Rudin, Yingfan Wang, and Haiyang Huang

Department of Computer Science, Electrical and Computer Engineering, Statistical Science, Mathematics, and Biostatistics & Bioinformatics - Duke UniversityDrs. Cynthia Rudin, Yingfan Wang, and Haiyang Huang

Dr. Rudin and her team are recognized for their development of PaCMAP (Pairwise Controlled Manifold Approximation), a dimensionality reduction method designed for visualization that preserves both local and global structures of data in its original space. PaCMAP features a simpler loss function than previous approaches, making it more accessible and easier to troubleshoot. It is robust to hyperparameter selection and initial conditions due to its loss terms that maintain global structure and stable cluster locations. The method's versatility is evident as it is available in both Python and R, with fewer dependencies than most other dimensionality reduction methods. PaCMAP also offers interoperability by sharing an API with existing machine learning pipelines like scikit-learn. Its efficiency is demonstrated by its faster performance, scaling to large datasets through the use of "mid-near pairs." PaCMAP has gained significant recognition, boasting over 460 GitHub stars and an active user base. It has been applied in various fields, including the analysis of Parkinson's disease, name-ethnicity classification, and natural language embeddings.

We congratulate Dr. Jaeger and Dr. Rudin's team on their remarkable achievements and their invaluable contributions to the field of statistical programming and analytics. Their innovative work exemplifies the spirit of the AISPAA, and we are excited to see the continued impact of their contributions on the community.

Please join us in celebrating the accomplishments of this year’s AISPAA recipients!

2023 Activities

The SSPA officers meet the first Friday of each month at 11:00 am Central. 

  1. A Charter amendment has been proposed to handle the situation when an elected Executive Committee member
    of SSPA (referred as an officer) is not able to continue in their role.
    • The amendment is currently under review by officers until the end of June 11.
    • Following the officers’ review, it will be sent to SSPA members for review, which will last for two weeks.
  2. Dhuly Chowdhury is appointed as SSPA nominated officer.
  3. JSM-related: The list of SSPA-sponsored or co-sponsored sessions (invited, contributed, and poster) included in the JSM program is available. 

    Testimonials

    • SSPA provides a venue for us statistical programmers to discuss interests, share experiences, knowledge and challenges, and support each other across organizations, career stages and geographic locations.
    • Joining SSPA is an investment in my career and provides a solid platform to me for interacting effectively with peers.
    • SSPA increases awareness of our roles in the entire statistical and analytics community.

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