STATISTICS AS A PROFESSION

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STATISTICS AS A PROFESSION

• N. Scott Urquhart
• Director, STARMAP
• Department of Statistics
• Colorado State University
• Fort Collins, CO 80523-1877

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OUTLINE FOR TODAY

• Questions are WELCOME
• Start with Truth in Advertising
• What a statistician does
• Fields of endeavor which use statistics
• High school courses relevant to continuing in
  statistics
• Personal experience with agricultural,
  ecological and environmental scientists

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TRUTH IN ADVERTISING!

• My objective today Interest you in considering
  statistics as a career
• Come to Colorado State University good idea
• Other good undergraduate programs exist
• Why?
• Real shortage of trained statisticians
• Environmental statisticians in particular
• EPA funding to CSU Statistics
• Cooperative agreement CR-829095
• Although people at EPA have encouraged me to
  visits high schools, I do NOT speak for EPA.

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WHAT DOES A STATISTICIAN DO?

• Most practicing statisticians help
  investigators solve problems
• The problems ordinarily have some quantitative
  aspect
• Do statisticians mainly sit at a computer
  doing statistical analyses (tests)?
• NO !!!!!
• My substantial areas of activity
• Designing responses how to measure things
• Designing studies experiments and surveys
• Helping people relate analyses to objectives
• Interpreting analyses
• Planning and/or conducting analyses

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WHAT FIELDS USE STATISTICS?

• Simple answer MOST!
• Manufacturing (Development, QA, HR)
• From automobiles (Ford)
• To computer chips (Intel)
• To the petrochemical industry (Phillips)
• To aerospace (Boeing)
• To drug manufacture (Bristol-Myers Squibb)
• Medical
• Drug research
• Cancer research
• Health maintenance organizations (HMO)
• Evaluation of medical/surgical procedures

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WHAT FIELDS USE STATISTICS?(continued)

• Government
• Environmental agencies EPA to cities
  (Portland, OR)
• Health CDC (Centers for Disease control
  and Prevention)
• Security FBI CIA Homeland Security
• Departments of transportation
• Agriculture
• Social sciences
• Census Bureau
• National Park Service
• Public utility commissions

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WHAT FIELDS USE STATISTICS?(continued - 2)

• Business
• Internet usage
• Banking
• Marketing market analyses
• Publishing (current announcement from
  Freeman)
• Accounting/auditing
• Statistical consulting firms
• Academic
• Most disciplines use statistics in some way
• Engineering to literature!
• Psychology to crop science!

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HIGH SCHOOL COURSES RELEVANT TO CONTINUING IN
STATISTICS

• English
• Reading Writing
• Math
• Arithmetic
• As wide an exposure to word problems as
  possible
• Computer usage
• General science
• Learning is hard work!
• Most marketable skills require hard work to
  learn
• Easy courses of study lead to lots of
  competitors in the workplace

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MY EXPERIENCES WITH ECOLOGISTS/ENVIRONMENTAL/AGRIC
ULTURAL SCIENTISTS
TO ILLUSTRATIONS