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

Recap of the 2010 JSM
The Biometrics Section held its annual Business Committee Meeting at the 2010 JSM in Vancouver, BC, Canada. Complete minutes of the meeting can be found on the Section website ( http://www.bio.ri.ccf.org/Biometrics ).

Section Chair Barry Graubard called the meeting to order, welcomed members and guests, and introduced the members of the Executive Committee. The minutes of last year's meeting were distributed and accepted.

Barry Graubard introduced James Cochran of Louisiana Tech University , who gave a lively presentation on international work being done by the group Statistics Without Borders. He noted that a key ingredient to being successful in this kind of work is an innate intellectual curiosity, and he encouraged Biometrics Section members to pursue their interests in this direction.

Mike Daniels noted that this meeting is the third largest JSM in terms of attendance, and he reported from the Council of Sections on areas of focus of the overarching ASA leadership. Details of the algorithm for allocating invited sessions were mentioned, and feedback was being sought from sections on how to get young people more involved in ASA. There was follow-up discussion on the prospect of the Biometrics Section co-sponsoring conferences. There was consensus for having the leadership of the section explore such possibilities.

Thanks were expressed to Hormuzd Katki for his efforts on the JSM 2010 program, with Barry Graubard reporting for Hormuzd on the enormous task of organizing 399 abstracts into sessions. It was mentioned that the section's Executive Committee approved a modest budget for the Program Chair in the coming year to host a gathering, such as a pizza party, that would bring in others to help share the workload. Jerry Heatley reported on the CE program at this year's JSM, with a capacity group of 55 people having signed up for Frank Harrell's “Regression Modeling Strategies” short course, which is expected to generate roughly $4,700 in revenues for the section.

Tianxi Cai spoke about the 2011 JSM program. The section will have 4 invited sessions allocated to it and will also be able to participate in the invited session competition. Anyone with invited session proposals should submit them to Tianxi soon. Also, following up on a discussion at the section's Executive Committee meeting, it was reported that there will be drop-down menus with categories available for people to self-classify their submissions, which is expected to ease the task of grouping submissions into sessions. It was also noted that anyone with continuing-education course ideas should submit those soon to Annie Qu, incoming section CE chair.

Barry Graubard gave a heartfelt presentation on David Byar, after whom the section's young investigator award is named. Byar started with medical training but recognized early in his career the importance of statistics, and in addition to his individual contributions to biostatistical methods in cancer research, he had a great gift for identifying talented individuals and inspiring them to greater heights, which he exhibited in multiple leadership roles at the National Cancer Institute. The slides from Barry's presentation on the wonderful legacy of David P. Byar will be made available on the section web site.

Past Section Chair Dan Heitjan introduced X. Jessie Jeng (University of Pennsylvania) as the winner of the 2010 David P. Byar Young Investigator Award and Jaeun Choi (University of North Carolina), Eunhee Kim (Brown University), and Elif F. Acar (University of Toronto) as recipients of the Biometrics Section travel awards. Dan recused himself from the final round of evaluation given his own University of Pennsylvania affiliation. It was also noted that historical information on previous David P. Byar Young Investigator Award winners will be posted on the section's web site, with the added comment that many of this individuals have gone on to excel in other ways in the statistics profession, with some previous winners going on to win the COPSS young investigator award.

Tom Belin reported that the section is in strong financial shape, having started the year with a fund balance of $36,768.95 and having a current fund balance of $36,606.00. One key contribution to the section's financial health was last year's CE program revenue, which netted the section over $10,000, and it was anticipated, as noted earlier, that this year's CE revenue would also be strong. It was noted that section dues were increased last year from $3 to $5 for regular members, with the section Executive Committee confirming this year that student dues would remain at $3. It was noted that there were no expenses last year from the section's Strategic Initiative program due to a lack of applications. Members interested in pursuing strategic initiatives were encouraged to submit ideas.

Barry Graubard explained that for the 2010 Biometrics Section officers election there was supposed to have been two candidates running for representative on the Council of Sections (COS), but this was mistakenly not done. The Section will hold a special election by email sometime during Fall 2010 to elect a COS representative for the term 2011-2013.

CALL FOR PROPOSALS: DEVELOPING THE NEXT GENERATION OF BIOSTATISTICIANS
The ASA Biometrics Section invites applications for funding to support projects developing innovative outreach projects focused on enhancing awareness of biostatistics among quantitatively talented US students. We are particularly interested in projects that will encourage students to pursue advanced training in biostatistics. We anticipate funding up to four projects, with total funding of up to $3,000 per project. All investigators are encouraged to apply.

A three-page application is due OCTOBER 30, 2010 and should be in the following format: Title; Objectives and Specific Aims; Background, Significance, and/or Rationale; Design and Methods; and Budget. The following types of expenditures are allowed: supplies, domestic travel when necessary to carry out the project, and cost of computer time. The following types of expenditures are NOT allowed: secretarial/administrative personnel, tuition, foreign travel, and honoraria and travel expenses for visiting lecturers to the investigator's home institution. A project period with start date no earlier than December 1, 2010 and ending no later than December 31, 2011 should also be specified.

Applications should be submitted electronically to the Strategic Initiatives Subcommittee chairperson, Roslyn Stone at roslyn@pitt.edu. All investigators will be expected to submit a brief report at the conclusion of the project to the Subcommittee chair.

APPLICATIONS INVITED FOR 2011 BYAR YOUNG INVESTIGATOR AWARD AND BIOMETRICS SECTION TRAVEL AWARDS
Do you know a young investigator who is planning to submit an abstract for the 2011 Joint Statistical Meetings (JSM)? If so, you may wish to alert that individual that the ASA Biometrics Section is seeking applications for the 2011 David P. Byar Young Investigator Award. This annual award is given to a young investigator for best emerging work to be presented at the JSM. The award commemorates the late David Byar, a biostatistician who made significant contributions to the development and application of statistical methods and was esteemed as an exceptional mentor during his career at the National Cancer Institute. The winner will receive a $1,500 cash award.

In addition to the Byar Award, the Section may provide travel awards to the authors of other outstanding papers that are submitted to the competition.

Applicants must meet the following criteria:

• Have held a doctorate in statistics, biostatistics or a related quantitative field for three years or less as of April 1 of the current year, or be currently enrolled as a student in a doctoral program in statistics or biostatistics and in active pursuit of a doctoral degree.
• Be a current member of the Biometrics Section (applicant may join at the time of submission for a $5 annual membership fee [$3 for students]). Please note that membership in ASA does not automatically confer Section membership; ASA members must join individual sections in addition to their generic membership.
• Be first author of the paper. The paper may be unsubm itted, submitted or under review, b ut may not have already appeared in a journal either on-line or in print at the time of the application or have been accepted for publication as of January 1 of 2011.
• Be scheduled to present the same paper submitted for the Award at the 2011 Joint Statistical Meetings in Miami Beach, FL as either a talk or poster.
• Not have submitted the paper to any other ASA section 2011 student/young investigator award competition.

Applicants must submit their JSM abstracts to the Biometrics Section, which will organize a series of Topic Contributed sessions to highlight the submitted papers.

For the 2011 competition, applicants should first submit a Topic Contributed abstract to the JSM by the usual abstract deadline of Feb. 1, 2011. Applicants should contact the Section JSM Program Chair, Tianxi Cai ( tcai@hsph.harvard.edu ), prior to the abstract deadline.

Then by March 1, applicants should complete their application by submitting the following materials:

• A cover letter certifying that the applicant meets the eligibility requirements and is not submitting the paper to any other ASA section student/young investigator award competition.
• A current CV.
• One copy of the finished paper.

All materials must be submitted electronically on or before March 1, 2011 . Applications and questions should be sent to Barry Graubard at graubarb@mail.nih.gov .

The 2011 Awards Committee is composed of the 2011 current and past Section Chairs and Chair-Elect as well as three additional individuals to be appointed by the Section Chairs prior to the competition. Information regarding this award is also available on the Section webpage, easily accessed by clicking on the “Section” tab at the top of the ASA website ( www.amstat.org ).