Nominations Sought for the 2012 Cox Award

Members of the Gertrude M. Cox Award Committee are seeking nominations for the 2012 Gertrude M. Cox Award.

The annual award was established in 2003 through a joint agreement between the Washington Statistical Society (WSS) and RTI International. It recognizes a statistician in early to mid-career (fewer than 15 years after his/her terminal degree) who has made significant contributions to survey methodology, experimental design, biostatistics, and statistical computing.

The award is presented at the WSS annual dinner, usually held in June, with the recipient delivering the keynote address on a topic of general interest to the WSS membership. The award consists of a $1,000 honorarium, travel expenses to attend the WSS annual dinner, and a commemorative WSS plaque.

Nominations should be emailed to Karol Krotki at kkrotki@rti.org by March 16. A supporting statement and CV (or a link to one) for the candidate should be included.

The award is in memory of Gertrude M. Cox (1900–1978). In 1945, Cox became director of the Institute of Statistics of the Consolidated University of North Carolina. In the 1950s, as head of the department of experimental statistics at North Carolina State College, she played a key role in establishing mathematical statistics and biostatistics departments at The University of North Carolina. Upon her retirement from North Carolina State University in 1960, Cox became the first head of the statistical research division at the newly founded RTI. She was a founding member of the International Biometric Society (IBS) and, in 1949, became the first woman elected into the International Statistical Institute. She served as president of both the American Statistical Association (1956) and IBS (1968–1969). In 1975, she was elected to the National Academy of Sciences.

This year’s committee consists of Keith Rust, Jonaki Bose, and Michael Brick from WSS and Marcus Berzofsky, Phil Kott, and Krotki (chair) from RTI.