Lawrence H. Cox

Larry Cox (1947-2016) was the former assistant director of official statistics at the National Institute of Statistical Sciences (NISS). Cox worked with the survey cluster for the NISS affiliates program, and helped expand the NISS presence in data confidentiality research.

Prior to joining NISS, Cox was associate director for research and methodology at the National Center for Health Statistics, Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. 

His other former positions include Senior Mathematical Statistician for the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, during which time he was located in Research Triangle Park, NC, and interacted with several NISS projects. He also served as Senior Mathematical Statistician for the U.S. Census Bureau, and Director, Board on Mathematical Sciences, National Academy of Sciences. He has taught for several universities, the Joint Program in Survey Methodology, and other organizations.  Cox holds a Ph.D. in Mathematics from Brown University.

Cox has over 150 publications in the scientific literature including more than 70 peer reviewed publications.  He was a Fellow of the American Statistical Association (ASA) and an Elected Member of the International Statistical Institute (ISI).  He has served on the ASA Board of Directors, the ISI Council and the Board of Directors of the National Computer Graphics Association.  He has been associate editor of several journals including the Journal of the American Statistical Association, has taught, consulted and presented over 300 scientific lectures in the U.S. and abroad, and has organized many scientific meetings.  He is the recipient of several awards, including a Department of Commerce Medal for Superior Federal Service.  His primary research contributions were on mathematical and computational theory, methods and optimization algorithms applied to problems in statistical science and surveys. He was the developer of many statistical data protection methods in current use.  His most recent research was on quantitative methods for balancing the data protection effects of statistical disclosure limitation methods with their effects on data quality and usability.

NISS Research Projects

Technical Reports

  • The World's Simplest Survey Microsimulator (WSSM) (2012) -
  • Spatial Sampling and the Environment (1995) -
  • Simultaneous Edit-Imputation for Continuous Microdata (2014) -
  • Risk-Utility Paradigms for Statistical Disclosure Limitation:How to Think, But Not How to Act (2011) -
  • Multiple Imputation of Missing or Faulty Values Under Linear Constraints (2013) -
  • Combining Environmental Information: Environmetric Research in Ecological Monitoring, Epidemiology, Toxicology, and Environmental Data Reporting (1994) -

News Articles

Publications