For those of us who do not speak statistics and the probability of those numbers (statistically speaking) would be very, very high, suffice it to say that it is good that there are those who do, as mastery of statistical concepts helps run the world.

Catherine Calder, associate professor of statistics, is fluent in the language of statistics. Being named a Fellow of the American Statistical Association—the nation’s preeminent professional statistical society—attests to the quality and impact of her expertise and her commitment and service to her field.

In fact, ASA cited her for “outstanding contributions to the development of Bayesian statistical methodology; for spatial and spatiotemporal data; significant multidisciplinary collaborations; excellence in teaching and mentoring graduate students both in statistics and in other disciplines; and service to the profession.”

Her nominator, Statistics Professor Elizabeth Stasny said, "It was a privilege to nominate Kate Calder for election as Fellow of the ASA. Kate has made, and continues to make, broad contributions to statistical and interdisciplinary research, to the teaching of statistics and training of future statisticians, and she has contributed generously in service to our profession. It is an honor to be her colleague."

Time magazine recently declared Mathematics “The #1 Job of 2014,” as in, the country’s highest-paying. The article was based on statistics (everything comes back to statistics) to show that those with mad math and statistical skills are in high demand in the job market. Alas, it went on to say that—as a nation—we are still not very good at math—citing, yet again—more statistics.

So—how does one end up in a field like statistics—one that until very recently was not exactly glamorous and flew under the radar?

“As for how I got interested in statistics, the story isn’t very exciting," Calder said. “I studied math in college and moved into statistics because I was interested in learning how to connect elegant mathematical models to observations of the world.”

Today, she is doing that very thing, elegantly and collaboratively.

“From a methodological perspective, my research interests are primarily in spatial statistics,” Calder said. “Most of my applied research focuses on exposure assessment; I develop statistical methodology to quantify the extent to which humans are exposed to phenomena that vary in space and time—such as pollution or poverty, and the impact differential exposures have on outcomes—for example, health status or crime.”

Spatial statistics is a rapidly developing field that is having an impact on all of our lives; its applications are important to studies in a broad range of disciplines. It is especially critical to work being carried out on environmental, medical and socio-economic issues. Increasingly, researchers in these diverse fields rely on spatial statistics to advance their work and Calder is working with many of them across the arts and sciences.

“Currently, I am collaborating with Chris Browning from the Department of Sociology on the Adolescent Health and Development in Context Study (ADHC),” Calder said.

“This is a large scale, longitudinal investigation of the link between socio-spatial exposures and developmental outcomes among youth in Franklin County, Ohio. The data collection parts of this project are funded primarily by the National Institutes of Health (NIH), while the National Science Foundation (NSF) is funding the development of novel statistical methods for the types of data we are collecting.

“This interdisciplinary project grew out of a longstanding collaboration I've had with Chris and other faculty from the Department of Sociology and the Department of Geography.

“While this project is currently a major focus of my research program, I’ve had the opportunity to work with many other great scientists from across campus and greatly enjoy providing our graduate students training in interdisciplinary research.

“To date, I have had three PhD students and two MS students who graduated and I am currently supervising three PhD students.”

Calder will be one of 63 distinguished ASA members from around the country who will receive certificates at an August 5 ceremony at the annual Joint Statistical Meetings in Boston, Massachusetts.

—Sandi Rutkowski