2011 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 26 papers submitted to the Byar Award Committee, which consisted of Barry Graubard, Committee Chair (National Cancer Institute), Jack Lee (MD Anderson), Dianne Finkelstein (Massachusetts General Hospital, Harvard University), Kathy Cronin (National Cancer Institute), Joanna Shih (National Cancer Institute, Peter Kraft (Harvard University). The committee chose five travel award winners in addition to the Byar award winner .

Daniela Witten , University of Washington , is this year's winner of the David P Byar Young Investigator Award and will receive a $1500 cash award for the paper "Penalized Classification using Fisher's Linear Discriminant" which will be presented at this JSM.

This year's travel award winners are :

Genevera Allen , Rice University , for the paper titled, "A Generalized Least Squares Matrix Decomposition"

Qunhua Li , University of California at Berkeley , for the paper titled, "Measuring Reproducibility of High-Throughput Experiments"

Jessica Minnier , Harvard University , for the paper titled, "Risk Classification with an Adaptive Naïve Bayes Kernel Machine Model"

Layla Parast , Harvard University , for the paper titled, "Landmark Prediction of Long Term Survival Incorporating Short Term Event Time Information"

Sihai Dave Zhao , Harvard University , for the paper titled, "Grouped Variable Selection via Hierarchical Models"

Our travel award winners will each receive a $800 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 1, 2011 at the JSM in Miami Beach , Florida . 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.

Congratulations to the award winners on their notable accomplishments!

Biometrics Section Mixer & Business Meeting at JSM 2011
Please join us at the Biometrics Section Mixer & Business Meeting at the 2011 JSM in Miami Beach , FL ! It will be held on Monday, August 1 st from 5:30-7:00 p.m. and is an excellent networking opportunity. The 2011 David P. Byar Young Investigator Award and Section Travel Awards will be presented at the Mixer . The Mixer is open to all JSM attendees. We hope to see you there!

EXCITING PROGRAM AT THE 2011 JSM
The Biometrics Section is pleased to sponsor two CE courses and six invited sessions during the 2011 JSM in Miami Beach , FL. The titles, instructors, and organizers are given below.

CE Courses

• Mixed effects models, Instructor: Charles McCulloch (UC San Francisco)
• Semiparametric theory and missing data, Instructor: Butch Tsiatis (NC State)

Invited Sessions

• Classification in the Real World: The Development of Practical Predictions from High-dimensional Markers, Organizer: Karen Bandeen-Roche ( Johns Hopkins University )
• New Advances in Censored Data Analysis, Organizer: Lu Tian ( Stanford University )
• Statistical Methods for Risk Prediction Using High-Throughput Genomic Data, Organizer: Xihong Lin ( Harvard University )
• Recent Advances in Statistical Genomics, Organizer: Hongyu Zhao ( Yale University )
• Innovative Applications of Non- or Semiparametric Methods in the Fields of Biology and Medicines, Organizer: Naisyin Wang ( University of Michigan )
• New Developments in Sufficient Dimension Reduction, Organizer: Xiangrong Yin ( University of Georgia )

The Biometrics Section thanks Annie Qu, our JSM Continuing Education Chair, and Tianxi Cai, our JSM Program Chair, for their wonderful job in organizing these courses and sessions. Check the online program at the 2011 JSM web site (available through the ASA web site www.amstat.org ) for updates on locations and times.

ENAR 2012
It is time to think about invited sessions for ENAR 2012, which will be held April 1-4 in Washington , DC . Anyone who is interested in organizing an invited session or who has ideas for one, please contact our 2012 Program Chair, Daniel Scharfstein, at dscharf@jhsph.edu.

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

JSM 2012
It's also time to start thinking about invited sessions for next year's Joint Statistical Meetings, which will be held July 28 - August 2 in San Diego , California . Anyone who is interested in organizing an invited session or who has ideas for one, please contact our 2012 Program Chair, Timothy D. Johnson, at tdjtdj@umich.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 2011 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 our 2011-2012 Continuing Education Chair Annie Qu at anniequ@illinois.edu.