James Landwehr, chair of the Board of Trustees for the National Institute of Statistical Sciences (NISS) announces that Mary Ellen Bock, Lee Wilkinson and James Thomas are the recipients of this year's NISS Distinguished Service Awards. The awards were presented by Alan Karr, director of NISS, at the NISS/SAMSI reception held on August 2 at the Joint Statistical Meetings in Vancouver, British Columbia.
Established in 2005, the distinguished service awards recognize individuals who have given extraordinary service that significantly advances NISS and its mission. As Karr puts it, “The awards recognize people who didn’t have to do what they did, but like you, did it because they care so deeply about NISS."
Bock received the award in recognition of her many years of service to NISS including serving on the Board of Trustees and the Executive Committee for multiple terms, her seminal role in the formation of the affiliates program, and chairing the Awards Committee for the past two years. Bock was also involved with the Statistical and Applied Mathematical Sciences Institute (SAMSI), most recently as a member of the search committee for the new director, which has also manifestly benefitted NISS.
Wilkinson served as chair of the Affiliates Committee for over seven years, as Vice-Chair of the Board of Trustees for four years, and on the Executive Committee for over six years. Wilkinson helped coordinate several workshops for NISS and played a key role in formation of the Affiliate clusters over the past few years.
Thomas has served NISS and SAMSI with their many complicated computing and communication needs for the past ten years. Literally he has been available “24/7,” coming to work at various hours of the day and night whenever a computing problem needed to be solved.
The names of Bock, Wilkinson and Thomas will be added to a plaque that is displayed in the lobby of the NISS building in Research Triangle Park.
About NISS
The National Institute of Statistical Sciences was established in 1990 by the national statistics societies and the Research Triangle universities and organizations, with the mission to identify, catalyze and foster high-impact, cross-disciplinary and cross-sector research involving the statistical sciences. NISS is dedicated to strengthening and serving the national statistics community, most notably by catalyzing community members’ participation in applied research driven by challenges facing government and industry. NISS also provides career development opportunities for statisticians and scientists, especially those in the formative stages of their careers. In particular, NISS has appointed more that 70 postdoctoral fellows with graduate training in statistics, computer science, mathematics, environmental sciences, psychometrics and transportation. NISS is located in Research Triangle Park, North Carolina.
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