Congratulations to the 36 statistics undergraduates who made the Fall 2022 Dean's List!

The Department of Statistics is looking to enroll ~30 graduate students (PhD and MS) in the Fall of 2023. 

We have a variety of resources on our website about our program including

Application deadline for full considering is Jan 15. Apply now!

Congratulations to Professor Daniel Nordman on being named Institute of Mathematical Statistics Managing Editor.  Professor Nordman was named Fellow of the Institute of Mathematical Statistics in 2021. 

The C. R. Henderson Fund for Excellence in Predictive Inference and Its Applications is supporting research conducted by Statistics PhD student Danyang Zhang and Statistics Professor Chong Wang.  Zhang and Wang are developing prediction interval methods for predicting wean-to-finish mortality in swine production systems, using support vector machines and mixed-effects split-conformal prediction.  In addition to support from C. R. Henderson Fund, the project receives funding from the USDA National Institute of Food and Agriculture Grant #2022-68014-36668. 

Several statistics and data science students – including first-year honors students – are currently participating in research projects in the Center for Statistics and Applications in Forensic Evidence (CSAFE).  Emily Allen (Statistics), Tyler Christians (Data Science), Caroly Coronado-Vargas (Statistics), Tracie-Lynn Lamoreux (Statistics), Craig Orman (Data Science), Aditi Pokharkar (Economics and Data Science), Nathan Rethwisch (Statistics and Data Science) and Ashlan Simpson (Statistics) are learning by doing, and get to see statistics in action.  Students gain expertise in data collection, database management, visualization and exploratory analyses, and of course, various flavors of statistical analyses.  By working side-by-side with CSAFE graduate students, these undergraduate researchers also learn about graduate school and about

With the support of the Ronald J. and S. Doré Mead Fund for Student Experience in Statistics, Tyler Christians worked with Statistics Assistant Professor Kori Khan on a project aimed at understanding the impact forensic evidence has on trial outcomes. Tyler had previously worked to collect data on approximately 60 felony criminal cases that went to trial. For each of these cases, a defendant was charged with between 3 and 28 offenses. This data included information related to the number and types of forensic evidence presented to the jury as well as the jury’s decision on each offense. About half of the cases resulted in guilty decisions for all offenses and about half of the cases resulted in a mix of guilty and not guilty findings for the offenses.

Jarad Niemi, Associate Professor in the Department of Statistics, serves as a co-PI on the Consortium for Cultivating Human and Naturally reGenerative Enterprises.  Among the goals of this grant are to develop the science and economics behind anaerobic digestion to produce renewable natural gas (RNG) from perennial grass and winter crops. An issue with digester usage in Iowa is that winter temperatures slow bacteria metabolism causing reduced production of RNG. 

Dan Nettleton, Department of Statistics chair, has been elected chair-elect of the American Statistical Association’s Caucus of Academic Representatives (CAR).  CAR members include departmental executive officers, such as chairs and heads, of departments of statistics and biostatistics in the United States.  According to the CAR charter, CAR’s purpose is “to promote the statistics discipline within the academic community and provide resources for academic statisticians to successfully advocate for the discipline.”  Nettleton will serve as chair-elect, chair, and past-chair through August of 2025.

Emily Berg, Associate Professor in the Department of Statistics, began a two-year collaboration with the Bureau of Justice Statistics (BJS) this fall.  Dr. Berg is using her expertise in small-area estimation to improve the National Crime Victimization Survey conducted by BJS.  She will be working from Ames and splitting her time split evenly between Iowa State and BJS.  Congratulations to Dr. Berg on being selected for this important and impactful project!

Assistant Professor Danica Ommen led a successful effort to create an interest group within the American Statistical Association focused on forensic science applications.  The opportunity for statisticians to apply their expertise to problems in forensic science is continuing to grow following two important reports, one by the 2009 National Research Council and the other by the 2016 President’s Council of Advisors on Science and Technology, both of which called for improvement in the foundations of forensic science.  Statisticians have responded to these calls for reform by performing new research, and this research has been received positively by the forensic science community. This interest group will enhance the professional development and growth of its members by providing networking opportunities with other interested individuals

The DEI Committee in the Department of Statistics has started joining efforts to get students of diverse backgrounds interested in Statistics. On October 27^th and November 1^st, we participated in the Go Further Conference organized by the Program for Women in Science and Engineering (WISE). The conference is for 8-10^th grade girls.¹

Ph.D. student Federico Veneri Guarch won second place at the Joint Statistics Meetings Statistical Significance poster competition. 

The poster highlights the work of Fede, Danica Ommen, and the Center for Statistics Applications in Forensic Evidence. Titled, "Ensemble of SLR Systems for Forensic Evidence," the project introduces a sampling algorithm that remediates the dependence structure in forensic comparisons. 

Several members of the Department of Statistics attended the 2022 Joint Statistical Meetings (JSM)    in Washington, D.C. from August 6th-11th. On August 10th, friends and alums of the department gathered to reconnect with current and former scholars from the Department of Statistics. 

The JSM is one of the largest statistical events in the world with more than 6,400 attendees from 52 countries. The conference includes 600+ sessions, more than 1,000 students, 75+ employers, 100+ exhibitors, and more than 40 professional development courses and workshops.