American Statistical Association (ASA) Section on Statistics and the Environment (ENVR) Last Modified: 1999-Nov-07 Send comments, corrections, additions to: ENVR Web Editor or ENVR Webmaster

The ENVR Awards Ceremony and Reception was held at 6 p.m. on Monday, August 9, 1999 during the Joint Statistical Meetings that were heldin Baltimore, Maryland. Six awards were presented. Li Zhu, a studentat the University of Minnesota, won the Student Paper Award for workon "Hierarchical Modeling of Spatio-temporally Misaligned Data."The Section offers a prize of $100, with an additional $100 as travelsubsidy for attending the JSM and presenting the paper. We encourageall interested students to apply by the deadline of February 1, 2000.Distinguished Achievement Medals were given to five awardees for theirwork in developing methods, issues, concepts, applications, and initiatives in environmental statistics.

• George Casella, CornellUniversity, was recognized for contributions to quantitative andstatistical ecology and for service to the environmental statisticscommunity.
• Carol Gotway Crawford, National Center for EnvironmentalHealth, was recognized for extensive scientific collaboration, forresearch in spatial modeling, and service to the environmental statisticscommunity.
• Donald G. Edwards, University of South Carolina, wasrecognized for contributions to quantitative and statistical ecology and for promoting environmental statistics as a profession.
• Paul D.Sampson, University of Washington, was recognized for researchcontributions to environmental statistics; in particular for contributionsto spatial statistics and scaling.
• Donald L. Stevens, Jr., Dynamac Corporation, was recognized for contributions to environmental statisticsthrough distinguished consulting and for identifying problems needingfurther statistical research.

Prior to the Awards Ceremony and Reception, the Executive Committeeof ENVR convened with a lengthy agenda. Loveday Conquest (Chair)opened the meeting with welcoming remarks to all current and newly elected officers. Linda Young, University of Nebraska, is Chair-Elect for 2000; Timothy Gregoire, Yale University, is Program Chair-Elect; A. John Bailer, Miami University of Ohio, is Publications Officer-Elect; and David Umbach, National Institute of Environmental Health Sciences, isCouncil of Sections Representative-Elect. Following ENVR Sectionpolicy, Katherine Campbell will leave her role as Treasurer to become Secretary in 2000. Other officers are Barry Nussbaum (Chair-Elect 1999),Noel Cressie (Past Chair), Jacqueline Hughes-Oliver (Secretary),Philip Dixon (Publications Officer), Robert O'Brien (Program Chair 1999),Katherine Ensor (Program Chair 2000), Anthony Olsen (Representative tothe Council of Sections), David Marker (Liaison Officer), NagarajNeerchal (Continuing Education Officer), Lance Waller (NewsletterEditor), and Derrick (Rick) Bates (Webmaster).

Katherine Campbell reported that in 1998 the Section experienced a netgain of $55. Revenue greatly exceeded expenses for the first half of 1999, but we have not yet been billed for some major expenses. The Sectionhopes to increase revenues in two major areas: membership and sale ofProceedings. In an attempt to retain new members, letters will be sent to welcome them and to provide detailed information on the activities of ENVR; a copy of the most recent Newsletter will also be sent. Asimilar letter will be sent to past members to encourage them to renewtheir membership. Sale of ENVR Proceedings is not where we believe itshould be. Many colleges, for example, colleges of natural resources and environmental sciences, have little interest in receiving other ASA products but may benefit greatly from our Proceedings. As such, thesecolleges should be targeted with special invitations to subscribe to ourProceedings. We strongly encourage members to request that theirlibraries purchase the Proceedings; a request from a local library userwill likely receive greater consideration than a request from ENVR.We can also boost the appeal of the Proceedings by encouraging submissions. The Proceedings are not copyrighted, so one may simultaneously submit to the Proceedings and refereed journals. Submissions will beaccepted if the material was presented in a session or symposium that wassponsored or co-sponsored by ENVR; please contact Philip Dixon (pdixon@iastate.edu) for details.

The 1999 JSM Program, organized by Robert O'Brien, was a great success. ENVR sponsored three Invited, three Special Contributed, and five Contributed Sessions. ENVR also sponsored five roundtable luncheons and co-sponsored several other technical sessions. The 2000 JSM Program, being organized by Katherine Ensor, also promises excitement. Proposals have been received for seven very different Invited sessions. The Invited Program will be determined by the time this article appears.

ENVR is co-sponsoring the Workshop on Hierarchical Modeling in EnvironmentalStatistics, to be held at The Ohio State University, May 14-16, 2000.This workshop will offer a short course on the morning of May 14, 2000.The science Advisory Board consists of Noel Cressie, Mark Berliner,Timothy Gregoire, and George Casella. ENVR will also co-sponsor two sessions at the 2000 Spring Meeting of the Eastern North American Region of the Biometric Society.

Many other items were discussed at the meeting. Lance Waller has arrangeda great selection of short articles in the third volume of ENVR'sNewsletter. These were mailed to all members in July. ENVR will continueliaison activities with other professional organizations that are active in environmental applications and research; please contact David Marker. Moreover, recognizing that ours is a highly multidisciplinary field, we encourage you to submit names of non-statistics journals, their editors and statistics reviewers, so that they may receive acknowledgment and thanks for their efforts in recognizing the importance of statistics. This project is an initiative of the Council of Sections, but you may submit names to Anthony Olsen (tolsen@mail.cor.epa.gov), our representative to the Council. We also urge you to visit our web site (www.pnl.gov/statenvi), where we announce meetings and other items of interest, for more details on ENVR activities. Finally, we invite you to contact the officers listed above with ideas on how we may better serve the membership.