Ingram Olkin Forums

Ingram Olkin Forums

The National Institute of Statistical Sciences (NISS) presents Statistics Serving Society, a series of forums to honor the memory of Professor Ingram Olkin.  Each forum focuses on a current societal issue that might benefit from new or renewed attention from the statistical community. The S3 Forums aim to bring the latest innovations in statistical methodology and data science into new research and public policy collaborations, working to accelerate the development of innovative approaches that impact societal problems. As the Forum will be the first time a particular group of experts will be gathered together to consider an issue, new energy and synergy is expected to produce a flurry of new ideas and approaches.

Goals for the S3 Forums include:

  • Providing statisticians with an understanding of the societal problems and stimulating their interest in working on related statistical issues.
  • Developing an agenda of statistical action items that are needed to better inform public policy and to generate reliable evidence that can be used to mitigate the problem. For example, action items might focus on data availability, data collection methods, causal inference, data science, designed and natural experiments, quality control, trend assessments, and the evaluation of preventative and restorative initiatives.
  • Leading to new collaborations among statisticians and those working to understand and mitigate the problem.
  • Leading to funded grant proposals that works to bring the detailed action items to life.

S3 Forums are intended to be participatory. In every forum, all participants will have a role such as discussant, moderator, recorder or note taker. There will be discussion time at each session and roundtable discussions at the end of each day, and a final time before the forum closes for reporting, syntheses, and writing.

Call for Ingram Olkin Forum Proposals 

Upcoming S3 Forums     

Police Use of Force

November 9-10 - In-Person Workshop at Carelton College "IOF Workshop: Statistical Challenges in the Analysis of Police Use of Force" (Event Page)

June 4, 2021 - News:"Ingram Olkin Forum Examines Analyses of Data Related to Police Use of Force" (Program)

IOF Committee liaison, Claire Kelling

Previous S3 Forums    

Statistical Methods for Combatting Human Trafficking

March 15, 2023 - Online Forum:"Ingram Olkin Forum: Statistical Methods for Combatting Human Trafficking" (Event Page)

IOF Committee liaison, David Banks

Advancing Demographic Equity with Privacy Preserving Methodologies

November 1, 2022 - "IOF Committee Kicks Off Preliminary Webinar on Advancing Demographic Equity with Privacy" (Program)

January 12-13, 2023 - In-Person Workshop Forum: Advancing Demographic Equity with Privacy Preserving Methodologies (Event page)

IOF Committee liaisons, David Banks and Wendy Martinez

The Opioid Crisis  

Postponed - more event information coming soon!

COVID and the Schools: Modeling Openings, Closings, and Learning Loss

December 16, 2020 - News: "Ingram Olkin Forum Focuses on Data and Models for Opening and Closing Schools and Learning Loss" (Program)

IOF Committee liaison, Betsy Becker

Algorithmic Fairness and Social Justice

September 25, 2020 - News: "Insights Shared Regarding Algorithmic Fairness in Social Contexts" (Program)

IOF Committee liaison, Claire Kelling

Unplanned Clinical Trial Disruptions

IOF Committee liaision, Nancy Flournoy

Gun Violence - The Statistical Issues

June, 2019 - News : "Statisticians Focus on Data Related to Gun Violence at Inaugural Ingram Olkin Forum", (Program)

White Paper: "A Call for Statisticians to Engage in Gun Violence Research" (Ridgeway, Greg, Rosenberger, James and Xue, Lingzhou - October, 2020)

Publication: Greg Ridgeway, James L. Rosenberger & Lingzhou Xue (2021) "Statisticians Engage in Gun Violence Research", Statistics and Public Policy, 8:1, 73-79, DOI: 10.1080/2330443X.2021.1978354

IOF Committee liaison, Lingzhou Xue

Ingram Olkin Forum Committee:

Nancy Flournoy (Chair), University of Missouri
David L. Banks, Duke University
Betsy Becker, Florida State University
Michael Brundage, Meta - Facebook
Claire Kelling, Pennsylvania State University PhD Student
Wendy Martinez, U.S. Census Bureau 
James Rosenberger (ex officio), National Institute of Statistical Sciences
Lingzhou Xue (ex officio), National Institute of Statistical Sciences
Megan Glenn (ex officio), National Institute of Statistical Sciences

Founding Members of the Ingram Olkin Forum:

Jerry Sacks, NISS Director Emeritus
Nancy Flournoy, University of Missouri
Amanda Golbeck, University of Arkansas for Medical Sciences
Larry Hedges, North Western University
Jon Kettenring, Drew University
Sally Morton, Arizona State University
Julia Olkin, California State University, East Bay
Jim Rosenberger, (ex officio), National Institute of Statistical Sciences and Pennsylvania State University
Allan Sampson (1945-2021), University of Pittsburgh
Christopher Schmid, Brown University
Daniel Solomon, North Carolina State University