The National Institute of Statistical Sciences (NISS) has been awarded the North Carolina Public Relations Society of America (NCPRSA) InSpire Bronze Best of Category Award for the Social Media category. The award was presented on Wednesday, May 5 at the Brier Creek Country Club. Bill Leslie, anchor for WRAL News, was the emcee.
The NCPRSA Bronze InSpire Awards acknowledge exceptional public relations achievements as well as the individual
components of campaigns. A panel of experts associated with the Public Relations Association of Mississippi (PRAM)
meticulously evaluated the submitted entries.
NISS and its co-located sister institute, the Statistical and Applied Mathematical Sciences Institute (SAMSI), have built up
a following of statisticians and applied mathematicians from around the world on the @NISSSAMSI Twitter account. This
account has 566 followers, most of whom are statisticians and applied mathematicians. NISS and SAMSI use Twitter to
promote research projects, papers reporting the research, workshops and events, as well as other information of interest
to the target audience. They also post photos using Twitgoo, which entices more people to read about events and projects.
Neither institute alone has enough information to tweet, so NISS and SAMSI employ the one account @NISSSAMSI
to promote both at the same time. During conferences and workshops, tweets are delivered about the speakers and
later offer URLs from which people can donwload copies of speakers’ talks.
“We have been amazed at the amount of response we have received from our Twitter account,” remarks Jamie Nunnelly,
director of communications for NISS and SAMSI. “At We Follow.com, @NISSSAMSI is now rated as the #1 most influential
Twitter account for statistics.”
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. NISS is located in Research Triangle Park, North Carolina.
For more information about NISS, go to the website www.niss.org.
ABOUT SAMSI
The Statistical and Applied Mathematical Sciences Institute (SAMSI) is a national institute that is forging a new synthesis of
the statistical and applied mathematical sciences with disciplinary science to confront important data- and model-driven
scientific challenges.
SAMSI is operated by a consortium consisting of Duke University, the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, North
Carolina State University and the National Institute of Statistical Sciences, in whose building it is housed. SAMSI receives
financial support from the Mathematical Sciences Research Institutes program of the National Science Foundation, the
William R. Kenan, Jr. Institute for Engineering, Technology and Science and its consortium partners.
For more information, go to www.samsi.info.