The American Statistical Association (ASA) presented the association’s prestigious Founders Award to Sally C. Morton, Ph.D., professor and chair of the Department of Biostatistics at the University of Pittsburgh Graduate School of Public Health.
The honor is bestowed annually to ASA members who have rendered distinguished and long-term service to the association and its membership. The award was presented to Dr. Morton, and to her fellow ASA members James H. Albert and David L. Banks, on August 11 during a presidential awards ceremony at the 2015 Joint Statistical Meetings (JSM 2015) in Seattle. Albert is professor of mathematics and statistics at Bowling Green University and Banks is professor of the practice of statistics at Duke University.
“The Founders Award is the American Statistical Association’s highest recognition for distinguished service and leadership within the association and the statistical science profession,” said ASA President David R. Morganstein. “Jim, David and Sally are proven and effective leaders who have made significant and enduring contributions to the association and profession. Therefore, it is my personal privilege to recognize these great leaders by presenting each the 2015 ASA Founders Award.”
To be eligible for the honor, ASA members must have served the association and its membership over an extended period and in a variety of volunteer leadership roles. These roles include chapter, section, committee, officer or editorial activities in which effective service or leadership was provided within the ASA or on behalf of the association to other professional organizations.
According to the ASA, Dr. Morton was chosen for her “sustained thoughtful leadership of the ASA as its 2009 president, as a representative to other organizations and as a member of the Development Committee; for commitment to maintaining the relevance of the ASA to applied statisticians, as evidenced by the development of the Conference on Statistical Practice and the ASA’s accreditation program; for serving on and chairing numerous ASA committees; for editorial service on several journals, including as a founding editor of Statistics and Public Policy; and for advancing statistical methodology through service on National Academies committees and the Patient-Centered Outcomes Research Institute.”
JSM 2015 was held August 8–13 at the Washington State Convention Center in Seattle. More than 6,000 statisticians—representing academia, business and industry, as well as national, state and local governments—from numerous countries are attending North America’s largest statistical science gathering.
Also recognized at the event was Pitt Public Health’s Abdus S. Wahed, Ph.D., professor of biostatistics, who had recently been named a Fellow of the American Statistical Association.
10/11/2015