The Department of Statistics, jointly administered by the College of Agriculture and Life Sciences and the College of Liberal Arts and Sciences at Iowa State University, seeks a tenure-track assistant professor with expertise in statistics and data science.  The successful candidate will develop and sustain a high-quality and high-impact research program, successfully compete for external funding, and collaborate with world-class researchers at Iowa State in statistics and other disciplines.  Further, the successful candidate will engage in professional and institutional service, teach graduate and undergraduate statistics courses, and advise graduate students in one of the first and largest statistics graduate programs in the country.  For more details and application instructions, please visit the ISU application site.  Applications

The Department of Statistics at Iowa State University seeks a tenure-track assistant professor with expertise in survey statistics and data science. The successful candidate will develop and sustain a high-quality and high-impact research program, successfully compete for external funding, and collaborate with world-class researchers at Iowa State in statistics and other disciplines. The candidate will be part of a team of faculty who provide expertise to the ISU Center for Survey Statistics and Methodology, an academic center that specializes in survey research and practice.

Many alumni visited Ames last fall to launch our department’s 75th anniversary celebration.  We will continue our celebration this fall, September 29 through October 1, with a research conference featuring several distinguished lectures listed below.

Friday, September 29, 2023 (Great Hall of the Memorial Union)

Xiao-Li Meng (Harvard, Snedecor Lecture)

Karen Kafadar (Virginia, Wallace Lecture)

Rina Foygel Barber (Chicago, Henderson Lecture)

Saturday, September 30, 2023 (Alliant Energy – Lee Liu Auditorium of Howe Hall)

Eric Tchetgen Tchetgen (Pennsylvania, Fuller Lecture)

Scott Vander Wiel (Los Alamos National Laboratory, Distinguished Alumnal Lecture)

Soumendra Lahiri (Washington University, David Lecture)

Several students participating in undergraduate statistics research this summer will present posters in the Great Hall of the Memorial Union on Thursday, August 3, beginning at 1:00 PM.  Titles and abstracts are provided below.

 

Estimating Probability of True ‘Hits’:  Cathryn Barbour, Blanca Parker

Advisors: Dr. Alicia Carriquiry, Dr. Heike Hoffmann

LAS Dean's Professor Jae-Kwang Kim published an article on the history of survey sampling at Iowa State University in the latest issue of The Survey Statistician.  The Survey Statistician is the official newsletter of the International Association of Survey Statisticians (IASS).  The current issue of The Survey Statistician celebrates the 50^th anniversary of the IASS.  Thanks to Professor Kim and others who helped with the article (Jon Rao, Sarah Nusser, Mike Hidiroglou, and Wayne Fuller) for sharing ISU's impressive history of contributions to survey sampling.

Congratulations to Statistics graduate student Eryn Blagg, who received the best student presentation award at the 2023 Conference on Applied Statistics in Agriculture and Natural Resources.  Her paper on “Spatial generalized linear mixed models for big data using reduced rank models with a Laplace approximation” is part of her PhD research.

The Department of Statistics is searching for a Graduate Student Services Specialist.  Please visit the job posting to learn more about the position.  All candidates are encouraged to apply by July 4, 2023.

Congratulations to the 42 statistics undergraduate students who made the Spring 2023 Dean's List!

Allen, AngelinaAllen, EmilyAlqallaf, AlhurBaietto, MarissaBarroso Perez, EstephaniBecic, HazerBehrens, EvanCao, FeifanCaptarencu, StephenCastillo Ramos, RogerChino, KassandraCohen, BenjaminDe Mel, WithanageGallagher, MaureenGokakkar, SanikaGroskreutz, BrandtHauser, SamuelHuang, Yu-FangHuang, ZijinKing, WyattKovalenko, SolomiyaLembeck, MacyManternach, ReeseMcTeague, SamuelMinor, AshleyMonroe, BenjaminMorton, NoahNagao, RyanNeo Yao En, BenedictOhmer, AbagailQuigley, JenniferRaja, SrikaReihman, LucasRethwisch, NathanScheuring, AustinSimpson, AshlanSmith, TheodoreSwayne, ZacharyTeggatz, CharlesVyas, PramitWheeler, IsabelYoo, Rachael

W. J. Conover (known as Jay to his friends) attended grade school and high school in Ames before continuing at Iowa State College (as it was known back then) as a midshipman in the NROTC, graduating in 1958 with a degree in mathematics. After three years of active duty, where he taught math at the Naval Academy in Annapolis, he obtained his graduate degrees in math from Catholic University in Washington D.C., where he developed a love for statistics. He taught at Kansas State for ten years and then joined the math department at Texas Tech University for the next fifty years. In the summer of 1977, Professor Conover taught a summer course at Iowa State University as a visiting professor.

Continuing a tradition initiated during the pandemic, graduate students, staff, and faculty of the Department of Statistics celebrated spring graduation with ice cream from the ISU Creamery on the lawn south of Snedecor Hall on May 11.  Departing PhD students Ricardo Batista and Guoliang Ma said a few words about their experiences at ISU and their future plans.  Enjoy these photos of the event!

  

Statistics graduate students Aniruddha Pathak, Kunal Das, and Subrata Pal received the Best Narrative (Statistics) award in George Mason University's 2023 International Cherry Blossom Prediction Competition.  The goal of the competition was to utilize historical data and other relevant covariates to forecast the peak bloom of cherry blossoms in Washington, D.C. (USA), Kyoto (Japan), Liestal-Weideli (Switzerland), and Vancouver, B.C. (Canada).  Congratulations and thanks to Aniruddha, Kunal, and Subrata for representing our program well in this competition!

Professor Daniel J. Nordman has been named Dale D. Grosvenor Chair in the College of Liberal Arts and Sciences at Iowa State University.  This chair was established through the generosity of the late Dr. Dale D. Grosvenor, a former ISU faculty member who received a Ph.D. in Statistics from ISU and served as a faculty member in the Department of Statistics, the ISU Computation Center, and the Department of Computer Science.  Professor Nordman begins a three-year appointment as the Grosvenor Chair on July 1, 2023.  Congratulations to Dr. Nordman on this well-deserved honor!

On April 22, the Department of Statistics hosted its inaugural AP® Statistics Mock Exam. The event served two main purposes; to help high school teachers learn how AP^® Statistics Exams are scored and to prepare high school students for the actual AP^® Statistics Exam.

 

Congratulations to Teaching Professor Laura Ziegler, who won the LAS Award for Outstanding Achievement in Teaching.  Professor Ziegler does excellent work as the developer, instructor, and coordinator of STAT 104 Introduction to Statistics.  She is also an effective instructor for statistics majors and undergraduate and graduate students studying social sciences.

Professor Karin Dorman is the winner of the LAS Award for Excellence in Graduate Mentoring.  Congratulations to Karin, who has helped many students achieve success in research and their graduate studies.

Statistics Assistant Professor Lynna Chu has been named winner of the Cassling Family Faculty Award for Early Achievement in Teaching and the winner of the Iowa State University Award for Early Achievement in Teaching.  Congratulations, Lynna! 

The Department of Statistics held its annual spring breakfast at the Walnut Shelter of Innis Grove Park on May 6, 2023.  Professor Mark Kaiser served his take on Eggs Sofrito, Professor Laura Ziegler provided homemade bagels, and Kathy Kiesling supplied homemade breakfast potatoes.  In addition, faculty and students made fresh-to-order crêpes.

Undergraduates Emily Allen and Benedict Neo present at the National Conference on Undergraduate Research 2023. 

The National Conference on Undergraduate Research (NCUR) is dedicated to promoting undergraduate research, scholarship and creative activity in all fields of study by sponsoring an annual conference for students. Unlike meetings of academic professional organizations, this gathering of student scholars welcomes presenters from all institutions of higher learning and from all disciplines. Overall, this conference offers a unique environment for the celebration and promotion of undergraduate student achievement; provides models of exemplary research, scholarship, and creative activity; and offers student career readiness development. 

 

 

Speaker: Emily Allen, Undergraduate

Congratulations to Zhiling Gu! Her paper, "TSSS: A Novel Triangulated Spherical Spline Smoothing for Surface-based Imaging" has been awarded the runners-up (second place) in the Theory and Methods track of the 2023 Statistical Methods in Imaging Student Paper Competition. Along with other award winners, she will be giving an oral presentation on it at SMI 2023, on Monday, May 22, 1:10-2:40pm, in the Graduate Hotel, Minneapolis.