Overview:
Are you a graduate student or early-career statistician considering an academic career? Join the NISS Virtual Academic Career Fair to hear directly from faculty and department leaders about what it takes to secure a statistical appointment in academia and how to thrive once you get there. Whether you’re entering the job market soon or planning ahead, this event offers valuable guidance on navigating the academic job landscape in statistics and data science.
This interactive session will feature a panel of distinguished faculty members who will share insights about:
- The hiring process for tenure-track and teaching-focused positions
- How to build a strong academic portfolio (research, teaching, and service)
- What search committees are looking for in candidates
- Advice on preparing for interviews and job talks
- Balancing research, collaboration, and career advancement
Participants will also have the opportunity to ask questions directly to the panelists and gain practical advice tailored to their goals and interests.
Speakers
1. Daniel B. Hall, University of Georgia
2. Dan Nettleton, Iowa State University
3. Solomon W. Harrar, University of Kentucky
4. Nilay Tanık Argon, UNC-CH
5. Eric Chicken, Florida State University
Moderator
Luca Sartore, NISS & National Agricultural Statistics Service (NASS)
About the Speakers
Dr. Daniel B. Hall is the Interim Department Head and a Professor in the Department of Statistics at the University of Georgia. He also serves as the Director of the UGA Statistical Consulting Center, where he leads initiatives that foster collaboration and support for statistical research and application across a wide range of disciplines. Dr. Hall earned both his Bachelor of Arts in Mathematics (1988) and his Ph.D. in Statistics (1994) from Northwestern University. His research focuses on generalized linear and nonlinear regression models, analysis of clustered data, and mixture models. Since joining UGA, Dr. Hall has taken on several leadership roles within the department, including serving as Associate Department Head beginning in 2006. He has also been recognized for his excellence in teaching, receiving the 2021 General Sandy Beaver Excellence in Teaching Award from the Franklin College of Arts and Sciences. Through his teaching, research, and leadership, Dr. Hall continues to advance the mission of the UGA Department of Statistics by bridging rigorous statistical methodology with practical, data-driven applications. See Profile
Dr. Dan Nettleton is distinguished professor and chair of the Department of Statistics at Iowa State University. His research has involved data-driven modeling, analysis, and prediction in areas such as molecular biology and sports. He has received college or university awards for excellence in teaching, research, graduate advising, and departmental leadership. He is a fellow of the American Statistical Association and a fellow of the American Association for the Advancement of Science. See Profile
Dr. Solomon W. Harrar is Professor of Statistics in the Dr. Bing Zhang Department of Statistics at the University of Kentucky, where he holds the Dr. Bing and Mrs. Rachel Zhang Endowed Professorship. He earned his Ph.D. in Statistics, specializing in multivariate analysis, from Bowling Green State University in 2004. Prior to that, he received an M.Sc. in Statistics and a B.Sc. in Statistics with a minor in Computer Science from Addis Ababa University in Ethiopia. Dr. Harrar’s research focuses on robust and nonparametric inferential procedures for complex multivariate data. His areas of expertise include high-dimensional inference, matrix-variate (tensor) data analysis, multivariate finite-mixture and contaminated-trial models, and rank-based methods for clustered data. He is also actively engaged in collaborative applied work, including public-health–oriented projects on smoking cessation, childhood asthma, multi-omics risk scores, and analyses of SARS-CoV-2 genome-sequence data. At the University of Kentucky, Dr. Harrar teaches advanced statistical inference and theoretical statistics courses, mentoring both graduate and undergraduate students in areas such as inference theory, regression methods, and statistical proofs. His recent scholarship includes work on nonparametric tests for clustered pre-post intervention designs, generalized composite tests for high-dimensional data, and finite-mixture methods to address misclassification bias in studies. See Profile
Nilay Tanık Argon is a Professor and Associate Chair in the Department of Statistics and Operations Research at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. She holds a PhD degree in Industrial and Systems Engineering from Georgia Institute of Technology. Her research interests are in stochastic modeling and analysis of service systems, healthcare operations with an emphasis on emergency care and management, and statistical output analysis for computer simulations. She currently serves on the editorial boards of Health Care Management Science, IISE Transactions, and Operations Research. See Profile
Dr. Eric Chicken joined the faculty of Florida State University in 2002 as a professor of statistics. His research is primarily in the fields of function estimation and statistical process control. His research is broadly interdisciplinary, with applications and collaborations in engineering, medicine, hydrology, education, and operations research. He has been funded by several federal and state agencies including the National Science Foundation and the Department of Defense. He is a Fellow of the Institute for Defense Analyses and an Elected Fellow of the American Statistical Association, the main professional association for statisticians, and has been awarded two Oak Ridge Institute for Science and Education Fellowships. Dr. Chicken is active in faculty governance, leadership, and service at FSU and elsewhere. In addition to being a faculty senator, he has served on the university’s Graduate Policy Committee, the Undergraduate Policy Committee (including five years as its chair), the Faculty Senate Steering Committee, and performs regular and ongoing service for his department. Beyond FSU, he has served as the President of the Florida Chapter of the American Statistical Association, organized conferences related to his research, and remains active in editorial and review duties with journals and grant organizations in his research area. Dr. Chicken is a graduate of the University of Wisconsin, Madison (B.S., Mathematics, 1986), the University of Colorado, Colorado Springs (M.S., Applied Mathematics, 1993), and Purdue University, West Lafayette, Indiana (Ph.D., Statistics, 2001). Before his academic career, Dr. Chicken was a commissioned officer in the United States Air Force. His principal assignment was in Space Command with satellite engineer as his primary duty. He left the service in 1996 at the rank of captain. See Profile
About the Moderator
Luca Sartore is a Senior Research Associate for the National Institute of Statistical Science (NISS), working with the National Agricultural Statistical Service (NASS). He has been involved with the estimation and calibration of the US Census of Agriculture. He worked on modelling livestock, yield, and acreage for major agricultural commodities using various data sources, and he has also developed methodologies for assessing uncertainties. His contribution on the automation of analytical systems has focused on machine learning, artificial intelligence, and high-performance computing. He received his master in Statistics from the Ca’ Foscari University of Venice (Italy) and Ph.D. from the University of Padua (Italy). After his Ph.D., he joined the European Center of Living Technologies as a postdoc researching evolutionary algorithms in AI for one year in Venice (Italy). Since 2013, he has maintained several packages on the Comprehensive R-Archive Network (CRAN), two of which are currently used for production at NASS. About the NISS Virtual Career Fair Series
NISS Sponsored webinars where experienced statisticians from industry, government and academia talk about and provide advice for individuals interested in pursuing a career as a statistician.
Playlists available on the NISS Communications YouTube Channel for all past Virtual Career Fairs:
Academic Career Fairs - YouTube
Event Type
- NISS Hosted