Congratulations to Department alumnus Nicholas J. Horton, ScD ’99, the Beitzel Professor of Technology and Society (Statistics and Data Science) in the Department of Mathematics and Statistics at Amherst College, who has been elected vice president of the American Statistical Association (ASA)!
Via the American Statistical Association:
Horton’s term will begin on January 1, 2022. He begins his tenure as ASA vice president after 25 years of active service to the ASA. He has served on the ASA Board, Council of Chapters and Council of Sections and chaired the Guidelines for Undergraduate Programs in Statistics working group, ASA Section on Statistics and Data Science Education and ASA/NCTM Joint Committee. Horton is active in the Boston Chapter.
His ASA awards include the Undergraduate Teaching Award from the Boston Chapter in 2018, the Founders Award for Distinguished Service in 2017, the Distinguished Service Award from the Boston Chapter in 2011 and the Waller Award for excellence and innovation in the instruction of elementary statistics at the undergraduate level in 2009. He was elected an ASA Fellow in 2012.
Horton earned his ScD in biostatistics from Harvard University in 1999. He is the author of more than 180 papers about statistical methodology, clinical research, health services and statistics and data science education, as well as four books about data science and statistics in R. He was the chair of the Committee of Presidents of Statistical Societies. Horton is co-chair of the National Academies of Science, Engineering and Medicine’s Committee on Applied and Theoretical Statistics and served on two National Academies projects related to data science education. He is also the director of the Five College Statistics Program.
Horton’s top two priorities for his tenure are to help ensure statistics is at the core of data science and to work toward a more diverse and inclusive profession that fosters the success of those who have been historically underrepresented and underappreciated.
