ASA President Named to Head NSF Division of Mathematical Sciences

Alexandria, VA (PRWEB) May 16, 2010 -- Dr. Sastry G. Pantula, president of the American Statistical Association (ASA), today was named director of the National Science Foundation (NSF) Division of Mathematical Sciences in the Mathematical and Physical Science Directorate. Dr. Pantula’s appointment will become effective in September.

Dr. Pantula has been the head of the Department of Statistics at North Carolina State University (NCSU) since 2002. He joined NCSU as an assistant professor immediately after receiving his doctoral degree in 1982 from Iowa State University. In 1994, he became a professor and the Director of Graduate Programs (DGP) in the Department of Statistics. As a DGP, he worked on enhancing the quality, quantity and diversity of the statistics graduate programs at NCSU. He worked with a number of companies, such as Becton Dickinson, GlaxoSmithKline and SAS Institute, to increase the number of Graduate Industrial Traineeships, and with companies like Eli Lilly, Merck and SAS to develop Graduate Fellowships. Dr. Pantula is passionate about mentoring, broadening of training, and diversifying the workforce in mathematical and computational sciences.

During a scholarly leave in 1990-91, Dr. Pantula worked at SEMATECH, a semiconductor consortium in Austin, Texas, where he developed and taught various courses in quality control and experimental design, and collaborated with engineers from semiconductor industries in the US and supplier companies in Mexico.

Dr. Pantula is a member of many scientific and professional societies, including the American Statistical Association (ASA), Institute of Mathematical Statistics (IMS), International Biometrics Society (IBS-ENAR), International Statistical Institute (ISI), International Indian Statistical Association (IISA), International Chinese Statistical Association (ICSA), Sigma Xi and the American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS). He is also a member of the Honor Societies, Mu Sigma Rho and Phi Kappa Phi.

In 2002, Dr. Pantula was elected as a Fellow of ASA “for contributions to research in time series analysis, for exemplary service in graduate education as a teacher, researcher, mentor and recruiter of graduate students and industrial partners, and for contributions to the profession”. During the same year, he also received the “Young Statistician Award” from ASA. He will continue to serve as ASA president through the end of 2010.

Dr. Pantula’s areas of research include time series analysis and linear and nonlinear models. His research ranges from applications of statistical methods to derivation of asymptotic theory. In addition to a number of publications in various journals, he co-authored a textbook, “Applied Regression Analysis: A Research Tool.” Dr. Pantula received both his B.Stat. and M.Stat. degrees in Statistics from Indian Statistical Institute, Kolkata (Calcutta), India.

About the American Statistical Association

The American Statistical Association (ASA), a scientific and educational society founded in Boston in 1839, is the second oldest continuously operating professional society in the United States. For more than 170 years, ASA has been providing its 18,000 members serving in academia, government, and industry and the public with up-to-date, useful information about statistics. The ASA has a proud tradition of service to statisticians, quantitative scientists, and users of statistics across a wealth of academic areas and applications. For additional information about the American Statistical Association, please visit the association’s web site at http://www.amstat.org or call 703.684.1221.

For more information:

Rosanne Desmone                    

American Statistical Association                

703.302.1861 office                    

703.946.3820 mobile                    

rosanne(at)amstat(dot)org                    

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