The Joint Statistical Computing and Statistical Graphics Sections of
the American Statistical Association (ASA) are pleased to announce
that the 2021 ASA Statistical Computing and Graphics Award goes to Dr.
Howard Wainer:
"For half a century of dedicated, influential promotion of the role of
graphics, computing and statistical thinking in scientific discovery
and communication and for inspiring others to elevate their data
visualization craft to an art form by being a generous and engaging
teacher, mentor, collaborator, and author."
Dr. Wainer was a Distinguished Research Scientist for the National
Board of Medical Examiners and an Adjunct Professor of Statistics at
the Wharton School of the University of Pennsylvania prior to his
retirement in 2016. He received his Ph.D. in Psychometrics from
Princeton University in 1968. After being on the faculty of Psychology
at the Temple University and the University of Chicago, and a period
at the Bureau of Social Science Research, he was Senior and Principal
Research Scientist at the Division of Statistical and Psychological
Research Services, Educational Testing Service, for 21 years before
joining the National Board of Medical Examiners. He has a
long-standing interest in the use and practice of statistical graphics
in scientific inquiries, published nearly two dozen books on graphics
and statistical thinking, and contributed to the development of
graphical methods and software. He has been writing a column on data
visualization for the statistics magazine Chance since 1990. Dr.
Wainer is a Fellow of the American Statistical Association and a
Fellow of the American Educational Research Association. (See
http://www.statlit.org/Wainer.htm for further details.)
The ASA Statistical Computing and Graphics Award is the most
prestigious award bestowed by the Section on Statistical Computing and
the Section on Statistical Graphics. It recognizes an individual or
team for innovation in computing, software, or graphics that has had a
significant impact on statistical practice or research. The past
awardees are Luke Tierney (2019), Bill Cleveland (2016), and Robert
Gentleman and Ross Ihaka (2010).
The award committee consisted of the past and present chairs of the
Section on Statistical Computing (Wendy Martinetz and John Castello)
and the Section on Statistical Graphics (Di Cook and Isabella
Ghement).
The award will be presented at the two Sections' mixer at the 2021
Joint Statistical Meeting (JSM). An invited session honoring Dr.
Howard Wainer, organized by Dr. David Hoaglin, is reserved for the
2021 JSM.
Jun Yan, Awards Chair
ASA Section on Statistical Computing and Section on Statistical Graphics