|
Statistics
in Service to the Nation
Dr.
Stephen E. Fienberg
Maurice Falk
University Professor of Statistics and Social Science
in the Department
of Statistics, the Machine
Learning Department and Cylab
Carnegie Mellon
University
http://www.stat.cmu.edu/
Abstract
All too often academic statisticians
think of their role as the production of new theory and methods.
But at least as important is the role we can fulfill in support national
activities and projects requiring statistical insights and rigor. Many
(but far from all) of these are based at the National Research Council
and its committees and panels. I will illustrate the value and
creativity of statistical thinking in a diverse set of projects that
span the past half century---from the "National Halothane
Study", through "Cognitive Aspects of Survey
Methodology," to "The Polygraph and Lie
Detection," "Protecting Individual Privacy in the Struggle
Against Terrorists," and the effects of smoking bans on public
health. A crucial feature of several of these activities has been
the impetus for development of new research. I will
also emphasize the role I believe statisticians should be playing in
such activities in the future.
|