Clarkson University’s David A. Walsh ’67 Arts & Science Seminar Series and The Institute for Sustainable Environment will host Dr. Barry D. Nussbaum on Friday, Oct. 25 for a seminar at 3 p.m. in Science Center 360.
Dr. Barry D. Nussbaum is the founder of the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency’s (EPA) Statistics Users Group and was the Chief Statistician for the EPA from 2007 until his retirement in March 2016. He started his EPA career in 1975 in mobile sources and was the branch chief for the team that phased lead out of gasoline.
His talk at Clarkson is titled “It’s Not What We Said, It’s Not What They Heard, It’s What They Said They Heard.”
“Statisticians have long known that success in our profession frequently depends on our ability to succinctly explain our results so decision-makers may correctly integrate our efforts into their actions. However, this is no longer enough. While we still must make sure that we carefully present results and conclusions, the real difficulty is what the recipient thinks we just said. The situation becomes more challenging in the age of “big data”. This presentation will discuss what to do, and what not to do. Examples, including those used in court cases, executive documents, and material presented for the President of the United States, will illustrate the principles,” reads Nussbaum’s abstract.
The Arts & Sciences Seminar Series is a weekly colloquium series that has been supported by the School of Arts & Sciences Advisory Council at Clarkson University especially through generous gifts from David A. Walsh ‘67. Please contact ansseminar@clarkson.edu. This seminar is co-sponsored by the Institute for Sustainable Environment (ISE).
