BIOMETRICS SECTION NEWS, July 2010

BIOMETRICS SECTION NEWS, JULY 2010
Edited by Page Moore , Biometrics Section Publications Officer

2010 David P. Byar Young Investigator Award Winners
The David P. Byar Young Investigator Award is given annually to a new researcher in the Biometrics Section who presents an original manuscript at the Joint Statistical Meetings. T he award commemorates David Byar, a renowned biostatistician who made significant contributions to the development and application of statistical methods during his career at the National Cancer Institute. This year, there were 16 papers submitted to the Byar Award Committee, which consisted of Daniel Heitjan (University of Pennsylvania), Barry Graubard (National Cancer Institute), J. Jack Lee (UT M.D. Anderson Cancer Center), Paul Vos (East Carolina University), Kathy Cronin (National Cancer Institute), and Joanna Shih (National Cancer Institute) . The committee chose three travel award winners in addition to the Byar award winner .

X. Jessie Jeng ( University of Pennsylvania ) is this year's winner of the David P Byar Young Investigator Award and will receive a $1500 cash award for the paper "Optimal Sparse Segment Identification with Application in Copy Number Variation Analysis," which will be presented at this JSM. Paper co-authors are T. Tony Cai and Hongzhe Li.

This year's travel award winners are:
Jaeun Choi ( University of North Carolina ) for the paper titled, "Joint Analysis of Survival Time and Longitudinal Categorical Outcomes" (co-authored by Jianwen Cai and Donglin Zeng);

Eunhee Kim ( Brown University ) for the paper titled, "Semiparametric Transformation Models for Multiple Biomarkers in ROC Analysis" (co-authored by Donglin Zeng and Xiao-Hua Zhou);

Elif F. Acar ( University of Toronto ) for the paper titled, "Nonparametric Covariate Adjustment in Conditional Copulas: An Application to Twin Birth Weights" (co-authored by Radu V. Craiu and Fang Yao).

Our travel award winners will each receive a $1000 cash award to present their papers at the JSM. Winners will receive a check, a certificate and a plaque commemorating their awards at the Biometrics Section Mixer and Business Meeting on Monday, August 2, 2010 at the JSM in Vancouver , BC , Canada . The committee was very enthusiastic about the response and the exceptional quality of the applications. The Section thanks all of the applicants and the committee members for their excellent work.

Biometrics Section Mixer & Business Meeting at JSM 2010
Please join us at the Biometrics Section Mixer & Business Meeting at the 2010 JSM in Vancouver, BC, Canada ! It will be held on Monday, August 2 nd from 5:30–7:00 p.m. and is an excellent networking opportunity. The 2010 David P. Byar Young Investigator Award and Section Travel Awards will be presented at the Mixer . In addition, Professor Jim Cochran will take a few minutes to share with us information about Statisticians Without Borders (SWB), such as some of their current projects and how members can become involved. SWB is a group that does pro bono statistical work related to international health issues, particularly in the developing world. The Mixer is open to all JSM attendees. We hope to see you there!

EXCITING PROGRAM AT THE 2010 JSM
The theme of this year's Joint Statistical Meetings, August 1 - August 5 in Vancouver , BC , Canada is "Statistics: A Key to Innovation in a Data-Centric World".

The Biometrics Section is proud to co-sponsor one short course during the 2010 JSM in Vancouver , BC , Canada :

"Regression Modeling Strategies", by Frank Harrell, Jr. on Sunday, August 1 st from 8:30 a.m. to 5:00 p.m.

The Biometrics Section is sponsoring an exciting program of invited sessions and talks spanning a broad range of topics in Biostatistics. The titles and organizers of the invited sessions are given below.

"Statistical Evaluation of Markers Used to Select Treatment", organized by Margaret Pepe, University of Washington .
"Study Design and Statistical Analysis Challenges in Women's Health Studies", organized by Marcia Ciol, University of Washington .
"Evaluation of Risk Prediction", organized by Shulamith Gross, Baruch College .
"Getting More from Genome-Wide Association Studies", organized by Mitchell Gail, National Cancer Institute.

The Biometrics Section would like to thank Jerry Heatley, our JSM Continuing Education Chair, and Hormuzd Katki, our JSM Program Chair for their wonderful job in organizing the course and sessions. Check the online program at the 2010 JSM web site (available through the ASA web site www.amstat.org ) for updates on locations and times.

ENAR 2011
It is time to think about invited sessions for ENAR 2011, which will be held March 20 - 23 in Miami Beach, FL. Anyone who is interested in organizing an invited session or who has ideas for one, please contact our 2011 Program Chair, Jason Fine, at jfine@bios.unc.edu.

A typical session consists of three 30-minute talks followed by a 15-minute
discussant or four 25-minute talks with a 5 minute floor discussion. June 11 is the deadline for proposals. It is best if you have a well-defined topic and have commitments from participants by then. The more detailed the proposal, the better the chance that it will be selected, as this is a highly competitive process.

JSM 2011
It's also time to start thinking about invited sessions for next year's Joint Statistical Meetings, which will be held July 30 - August 4 in Miami Beach, Florida. Anyone who is interested in organizing an invited session or who has ideas for one, please contact our 2011 Program Chair, Tianxi Cai, at tcai@hsph.harvard.edu.

A typical invited session consists of three 30-minute talks followed by a 10-minute invited discussion and 10 minutes of floor discussion. However, other formats are possible. The 2010 program is a good source for examples.

Remember, the most mature ideas will have an advantage in competing for the limited number of slots, so it's best to have your ideas in final form by the middle of June. The Biometrics Section will have at least four invited sessions, but if we generate enough good ideas we will be able to compete for additional slots as well.

Please also submit ideas for short courses to our 2011-2012 Continuing Education Chair, Annie Qu, at anniequ@illinois.edu.