On behalf of WNAR and the WNAR Award Committee, we would like to congratulate Dr. Bin Yu of UC Berkeley, the recipient of the inaugural WNAR Outstanding Impact Award and Lectureship. Congratulations, Dr. Yu!
The WNAR of IBS Outstanding impact and Lectureship Award was established in 2021 to recognize an outstanding individual or team, regardless of race, gender, sexual orientation, nationality or citizenship, who has made a significant impact on our society through service and/or research in the development and application of statistical, mathematical, and data science theory and methods in the biomedical or environmental sciences. A significant impact can comprise either a single contribution of extraordinary merit or an outstanding aggregate of contributions that significantly impacts to biosciences and environmental sciences.
Dr. Bin Yu is the Chancellor’s Distinguished Professor and Class of 1936 Second Chair in the Departments of Statistics and Electrical Engineering and Computer Sciences at UC Berkeley. Dr Yu’s nomination package clearly demonstrated her fundamental contributions in both statistical theory and practice, which has lasting impacts across the fields of statistics and interdisciplinary domains; her high visible role model, especially for women researchers in multiple disciplines; and her outstanding leadership in professional and community services that positively influenced advancement in and recognition of Biometrics. WNAR is very proud of its outstanding members, represented by Dr. Yu.
Congratulations as well to our other nominees, all of whom were outstanding and highly impressive in their contributions.
As a recipient of the award, Dr. Yu will give a talk in the WNAR Outstanding Impact Award Lecture at the JSM on Monday, August 8, 2022, 10:30. More information about the lecture can be found below.
WNAR members, please plan to submit nomination materials for next year’s award. We look forward to recognizing our outstanding members with this honor. More information about the award process can be found on the WNAR award website.
WNAR Outstanding Impact Award Lecture at the JSM
Session 121, Monday Aug 8, 10:30am-12:20pm
Title: Principles for Impactful Data Science and Statistics: Lessons Learned from Covid-19 Forecasting and Beyond
Speaker: Bin Yu (University of California, Berkeley)
Panel on impactful research with panelists
Amy Braverman (JPL), Ying Lu (Stanford), Marc Suchard (UCLA), Katerina Kechris (Univ of Colorado, Denver), Bin Yu (UC Berkeley), and Hongyu Zhao (Yale)
Abstract:
Impactful data science or statistical research outside statistics is a professional responsibility of statistics as a field and a necessity for its prosperity and funding. In this talk, we distill principles out of the Yu Group’s experience in Spring 2020, when a 12-person rapid-response team used skills of data science/statistics and beyond to help distribute Covid PPE. These principles are useful in general to ensure that our data science and statistics work be impactful in domain fields and society at large.
A data science process towards impact includes tapping into domain knowledge (about epidemiology and medical logistics chains in the covid forecasting project), collecting or curating a relevant data repository, developing models relevant for solving the domain problem (for short-term county-level death forecasting in the US in the covid project), and building an accessible platform for sharing visualization (AI machine website in the covid project). Finally, we emphasize dealing with problems that require rapid response, often resembling agile software development.
