Greetings and best wishes for the season to all alumni, friends, and former faculty and staff of the Department of Statistics. Another year has passed, all too quickly, and a number of changes have occurred in the department. We have seen several of you, either at professional meetings or when you have come by the department for a visit. As always, you are invited to drop by any time you are in Columbia. We also would like to stay informed about your activities, so please take a few minutes to complete and return the form at the end of the newsletter any time you would like to let us know about promotions, awards, weddings, births, or other happenings. Feel free to e-mail as well; all e-mail addresses are listed at the department's Web site given in the heading.

The Department continues to grow as enrollments steadily increase by about 3-5% per year. We now typically teach over 1,000 students per semester, with approximately 700 of them in the 100- and 200-level courses. The number of undergraduate majors is steady at around twenty-five, and we have about twenty-two graduate assistants. The total number of graduate students this fall is at thirty. All graduates entering the job market in recent years have obtained excellent positions, and the demand for statistics graduates is very high with an excellent outlook for several years to come! The "information technology" age is certainly good for our field!

The departmental facilities continue to improve. We expect to be able to expand our space in the next couple of years and are continually updating the computational facilities for faculty, staff and students. A main goal of USC is to become a top teaching and research university, to join the ranks of the elite Association of American Universities, which means that all programs are striving for excellence. The Statistics programs are no exception, and our visibility is increasing, thanks to our faculty, alumni, former faculty, staff and students.

You can help us make further advances! Don Edwards, as the current Director of Graduate Studies, is already recruiting outstanding students for 1999. An important element of our recruiting strategy involves friends and alumni. Please help by informing your network of colleagues and potential students of the excellent opportunities for study here at USC. Also, your Educational Foundation contributions go directly to these efforts by allowing us to offer fellowships and awards to outstanding students at all levels. We thank each of you for your great support and wish you continued success in your career!

Joe Padgett, Chair

Several changes in the faculty and staff occurred this year. We welcome Brian Habing as an Assistant Professor this fall, replacing Tony Rossini who left last year to move to Seattle. Brian completed the Ph.D. in the Department of Statistics at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign and works on applications of probability theory, bootstrap, and inference to item response theory and on problems in psychometrics.

Joe Padgett continues as the Department Chair and Don Edwards is the Director of Graduate Studies and Assistant Chair. Walt Piegorsch took over from Lori Thombs as the Director of Undergraduate Studies in August. Lori remains an undergraduate advisor, along with Todd Ogden. Also, John Grego is in his sixth year as the Statistical Laboratory Director, with Holmes Finch as the Manager. Holmes enjoyed teaching a section of STAT 201 last year so much that he is continuing this year! Jim Lynch is on sabbatical leave this fall semester and is still directing the Center for Reliability and Quality Sciences, offering short courses to industrial, business and government personnel.

In the Departmental Office, Nancy Brazzell resigned as the Business Manager and Office Manager in May to stay at home with her children. Debra Williams, who worked in the Biological Sciences Department at USC for twenty years, joined us in that position on June 1. Kim Aaron moved to Florida at the end of February and was replaced by Anita Wood as the Administrative Specialist. Anita had worked in the Theatre Department and at the S.C. Department of Natural Resources for several years. We also have two work-study office assistants this year, Gail Doyle and Willia Robinson. Gail is a senior in advertising and Willia is a sophomore. Also, Sue Castles, who retired from the Department Office in Mathematics, worked part time in our office from January until July.

In the spring semester, Professor Hans Nyquist was a visitor to the University and interacted with our department. Hans is in the Department of Biometry, Swedish University of Agriculture, and was the President of the Swedish Statistical Society. He gave a featured presentation at the annual meeting of the South Carolina Chapter of the American Statistical Association in Columbia.

Lorenzo Pascual was a visiting scholar in the department during July-September. Lorenzo is from the Universidad de San Carlos III, Spain, and works on time series problems. He and Lori Thombs collaborated during his visit.

In 1994 the College of Science and Mathematics (COSM) began awarding a scholarship to an outstanding senior in each major program. The statistics majors receiving the scholarship in the past four years were Scott Sheridan (1994-95), Anne McNair (1995-96), James Watts (1996-97), and Michele Nichols (1997-98). For 1998-99, Megan Meece is the recipient of the COSM scholarship. Megan also received the department's Mu Sigma Rho Award last spring for her outstanding academic record, and is working on a double major in Statistics and Mathematics.

The W. J. Padgett Graduate Fellowship for 1998-99 was awarded to Wilma Sims. Wilma is a first-year graduate student and completed her bachelor's degree in Mathematical Sciences at Clemson University. We are trying to convert her to a Gamecock!

Megan Meece

Wilma Sims

At the University's Graduate Student Awards luncheon our 1998 Outstanding Graduate Student Award was presented to Arzu Onar. Also, the Outstanding First Year Graduate Student Award went to Michael Dowd. The 1998 Departmental Outstanding Graduate Assistant Awards were given at the spring picnic to Obaid Al-Saidy, Susan Simmons, Eleanne Solorzano, and Sarah Thomas Crawford.

Arzu Onar received the Ph.D. degree in August. She is currently Assistant Professor in the Department of Management Science, University of Miami, Coral Gables, Florida. Arzu experienced her first hurricane right away when Hurricane Georges passed near!

Arzu and Her Parents!

In addition, two master's degrees (the first M.I.S. degree) and two bachelor's degrees were awarded.

At the Annual Joint Statistical Meetings in Dallas in August, we had a nice get-together on Monday evening, August 10, at the Atrium Bar in the meeting hotel. Three former faculty, L. J. Wei (now at Harvard University), Charles Locke (now at Abbott Laboratories in Chicago), and Kai Yu (now at NIH) and a number of alumni, as well as six of the current faculty who were in Dallas, attended. Everyone had a great time meeting each other and reminiscing. We hope to have an even larger gathering of alumni and faculty at the annual meetings in Baltimore in 1999!

Shiow-jen, Ping, Don, Sneh and Mindy in Dallas.

"The Gathering"

The Statistics Club and Mu Sigma Rho Chapter have been quite active this year. In addition to regular meetings and picnics, they have traveled to meetings of the S.C. Chapter of ASA in Charleston and gone on hikes and canoe trips, as well as a camping trip to the beach this fall! Also, a USC Career Center representative meets with the groups to give tips on creating resumŽs and searching for positions in anticipation of graduation.

A special speaker on February 10 was Rosemary Oakes, MS 91. Rosemary works as a statistician at SmithKline Beecham in Penn-sylvania and gave a very interest-ing presentation about the roles that statisticians play in the pharmaceutical industry. Her ex-periences and insights were quite helpful to the students and faculty alike. Karin (Thomas) McCullough (MS 91) came to the talk to see her former classmate, and it was good to see them both again!

Rosemary and Karin

Another activity of the two groups is to develop a display "booth" for the USC Showcase, held on the Horseshoe in April each year. The students entertain visitors with games, such as a simulated "Let's Make a Deal," and with probability illustrations such as the distribution of results when tossing dice.

Undergraduate statistics majors now complete their education with STAT 590, Statistics Capstone. Students combine knowledge learned in applied statistics, mathmetical statistics, mathematics, computing, and oral and written communications to solve and report on problems similar to those they will see on the job. John Spurrier's book for the course, The Practice of Statistics: Putting the Pieces Together, will be published by Duxbury Press in 1999.

The Department hosted a second NSF-sponsored workshop to train college faculty members on the use of "hands-on" laboratory exercises in elementary statistics. The 1998 workshop was held on June 16-20, with another outstanding group of college faculty members from all across the United States. The first workshop was held in June 1997, and both were organized and taught by John Spurrier and Lori Thombs.

Participants took part in ten laboratory experiences which illustrate important concepts of applied statistics. In addition, participants discussed strategies for leading a laboratory session, using student teams, having students produce written reports, obtaining equipment, scheduling, constructing new laboratory exercises, generating enrollments, and training lab assistants.

The StatLab has been doing a number of interesting projects over the past year. These include a quality improvement project for FN Manufacturing in Columbia, an extensive "seat belt use" survey for the S.C. Department of Public Safety, an analysis for the River Alliance in Columbia, and work for several other companies and agencies including Pirelli Cable and Nabisco. The Lab also continues to work with the S.C. Alliance for Minority Participation, providing support on retention and tracking minority students in science and engineering in the participating colleges and universities in South Carolina. Funded projects continued at a high level this year in the StatLab, due to the hard work of John Grego, Holmes Finch, and the student research assistants!

All of our faculty are very busy with professional activities, instructional activities, and statistical research. The following are exciting examples:

Don Edwards, John Spurrier and Lori Thombs are working on revisions of their laboratory textbook for elementary statistics. Walt Piegorsch co-edited a volume with D. Nychka and L. Cox on "Case Studies in Environmental Statistics" published by Springer-Verlag. Web West spent part of last summer at the National Center for Toxicological Research in Arkansas, and Todd Ogden taught a graduate time series course at Stanford University and interacted with students and faculty there doing research on wavelets. With a grant from the S.C. Department of Education, Lori Thombs gave an AP Teacher Training Institute on the AP Statistics course for high school teachers in July, with help from Arzu Onar.

Six faculty members are currently serving on the editorial boards of fourteen different statistical journals. Brian Habing has become the Statistical Methodology Editor of the Journal of the Freshman Year Experience and Students in Transition.

Don Edwards, John Grego and Jim Lynch have taught short courses on "Design of Experiments" to business and industry personnel twice this year. One course was given specifically to personnel at Pirelli Cable in Lexington, S.C.

Jim Lynch is on sabbatical leave this fall, visiting the National Institute of Statistical Science in Research Triangle Park, N.C., where he is collaborating on statistical research with other visitors and post-doctoral fellows at the NISS.

Walt Piegorsch and Web West continued work on a research grant from the National Cancer Institute (NIH). They and doctoral student Obaid Al-Saidy are working on low dose risk assessment for environmental carcinogenesis. Steve Durham, Jim Lynch, and Joe Padgett, are completing the work on a research grant from the National Science Foundation on modeling failure of systems with dependent components with application to modern fibrous composite materials. Don Edwards continues as statistician for the NSF CREEK project with the Baruch Institute, investigating the role of oyster reefs in saltmarsh creeks.

Web West and Todd Ogden are developing applets for statistical analysis via the Internet as part of a large group developing materials on the innovative delivery of a statistics course.

Dena Beatty, MS 97, is now with Equifax Credit Information Services, Inc., in Atlanta.

Melinda Smith de Borrero, BS 84, and husband, Francisco, had their first child, Maya Luisa, on 9/26/98. They live in the Boston area.

Trevor Craney, MS 97, taught as an instructor in Statistics at USC in the spring 1998. He now works at Pratt Whitney in Palm Beach, Florida.

Devaris Davis, BS 92, has passed the Certified Quality Engineer examination administered by the American Society for Quality. Devaris works at Anchor Continental in Columbia and is enrolled in the Master of Industrial Statistics program in the USC Department of Statistics.

Tammiee Dickenson, MS 96, is a Statistician working in the Office of Institutional Planning and Analysis at USC, Columbia, and began studying for a doctorate in the College of Education at USC this fall.

Shelly (Skelton) Fears, MS 89, is now Software Deployment Manager/National Business Relations at Health Magic, Columbia, SC. She was married in the summer 1998 in Hawaii.

Patrick Flanagan, MS 80, is working as a Mathematical Statistician at the Census Bureau in Suitland, Maryland. He has retired from the Coast Guard and expects to complete the Ph.D. program next year at the University of Maryland, Baltimore County.

Wenkai Hu, MS 97, is now in the College of Pharmacy, University of Minnesota, Minneapolis, working as a statistician.

Tamara Marsh, BS 98, took a position as Statistician in the S.C. Department of Public Safety in Columbia.

Jerome Musial, MS 91, was married to Lara Siegfried on July 17, 1998. The wedding was at the Chapel of the Choir, St. Peter's Basilica, Rome, Italy.

Arzu Onar, MS 95, received the Ph.D. in Statistics from USC in August 1998 and is Assistant Professor in the Department of Management Science, University of Miami, Coral Gables, FL.

Dayton Pruet, BS 98, now works for Colonial Life and Accident Insurance Company in Columbia as a Management Information Systems Analyst.

Angela Rekowski, MS 98, is working at the U.S. Census Bureau and lives in Silver Springs, MD.

Tony Rossini, former faculty, is now a Research Assistant Professor in the Center for AIDS Research, Department of Biostatistics, University of Washington, Seattle. He is also Senior Biostatistician at Epimetrics Corporation in Seattle.

Danny Weathers, MS 96, began the Ph.D. program in Marketing, Darla Moore School of Business Administration at USC in the fall 1998. He worked for two years as a statistician at S.C. Electric & Gas Company in Columbia.

Madeline Boyle-Whitesel, MS 95, now works in the Card Services Division of Bank of America (formerly NationsBank) in Charlotte, NC.

Kai F. Yu, former faculty, has moved to a new home in Rockville, Maryland, where he still works at the National Institutes of Health.

We are also interested in learning how your USC education has helped you. In addition, any suggestions you have to improve our programs are welcome. You might be quoted in our brochures!

Contributions can be made to either of two funds for the Department within the USC Educational Foundation. Your gifts can be restricted in any way you specify. Some employers provide a matching gifts program, also.

The Department of Statistics Fund (Account 1A3410) supports annual awards for top undergraduate and graduate students, helps support student receptions, helps provide computer software for student use, and other activities. Major contributions could be used to support undergraduate scholarships or help to establish chaired professorships.

The W. J. Padgett Fellowship Fund (account 1B1593) was established in 1993 and helps us attract outstanding graduate students to the Department by offering supplemental fellowships annually. The fellowships are funded with interest from the account. Thus, contributions to this account will continue to help young statisticians into the future.

Contribution forms for both accounts are enclosed for your convenience.

Name: ____________________________________ Degree and Year: ______________________

Address: ___________________________________________________________________________

___________________________________________________________________________

___________________________________________________________________________

E-mail:

News of any kind:

Thoughts on how your USC statistics education has helped you. May we quote you in our Departmental brochures?

Suggestions to improve the Department of Statistics:

RETURN TO: Development Office, University of South Carolina, Byrnes 6th, Columbia, SC 29208

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