Introduction

The Ohio State University Department of Statistics was founded in 1974.  In its first 25 years, the Department underwent remarkable growth and, by 1999, the Department had earned a national…

Teaching innovations and new programs

Redesign of Undergraduate Courses and New Major A major change in the format of the Department’s large multi-lecture undergraduate service courses took place during the period 1999-2024. …

Growing Visibility of the OSU Statistics Department

Involvement with National InstitutesThe Fall of 2002 marked the opening of the Mathematical Biosciences Institute (MBI) at OSU, which was funded by a $10 million, five-year grant from the National…

Biostatistics and the MBI

The OSU biostatistical activity is organized around two OSU entities.  The first of these is the OSU Biostatistics Program, a Division of the College of Public Health.The Biostatistics Division…

The Departmental Consulting Service

In 2000, the Statistical Consulting Service (SCS) was directed by faculty members appointed to the position and staffed by graduate students as part of their training.  Tom Santner and Bill Notz…

Computing

In the late 1980s, the OSU Department of Statistics decided to use a single centralized compute system manufactured by the Pyramid corporation which all department users could access. Gradually this…

Faculty, Student and Staff Office Space

No Department history would be complete without mentioning office space!  Some graduate students in the first 25 years of the Department lived through office allocations above a bagel shop,…

Professional recognitions and activities

During 1999-2024, many faculty have been honored with prestigious awards.  These are listed in Table 5, and faculty honored with fellowships from professional societies are listed in Table 6.…

Visiting Rustagi Lecturers and OSU-based Conferences Organized by Faculty Members

The Rustagi Lecture was established in 1988 by Jagdish Rustagi, a longtime faculty member and former chair of the Department, in honor of his parents.  Each year, a prominent statistician is…

Fun Facts

Some interesting fun facts from the Department’s second 25 years (1999-2024) include:  Mark Berliner was an active contributor to the Nobel Prize winning efforts of the IPCC, which shared…

Appendix

Table 1. Current Professors of Statistics and Professors of Teaching Practice,  YearFirstLastResearch areas1988Steve MacEachernBayesian Statistics, Model Uncertainty and Selection,…