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Statistics alumna elected 2024 American Statistical Association president

Bonnie Ghosh-Dastidar will start her term on January 1, 2024
6 May 2022

Bonnie Ghosh-Dastidar, alumna of the Penn State Department of Statistics, has been elected the 2024 American Statistical Association (ASA) president.

She received her Ph.D. and M.A. in statistics in 1999 and 1996, respectively. Ghosh-Dastidar has been employed at RAND since 1998 and is currently the head of the RAND Statistics Group and is a senior statistician at the nonprofit RAND Corporation.

Jim Rosenberger, professor emeritus of statistics and former department head, recalled Ghosh-Dastidar's excellence and dedication as a student at Penn State.

"I'm so very pleased to congratulate Bonnie on being elected president of the American Statistical Association. She will be an excellent advocate for the statistics profession," he said. "When she was a graduate student at Penn State, I recall asking her to speak to a meeting of parents of prospective students, to encourage them to come to Penn State to pursue STEM careers, and already as a graduate student she was a great ambassador for the program.  Her enthusiasm for the important role statistics provides for science and public policy will serve ASA well."

Murali Haran, professor of statistics and current department head, said that Ghosh-Dastidar is not the first Penn State Statistics alumni to serve as ASA president.



"We are delighted to have an alum in one of the most visible positions in our profession," he said. "The ASA, founded in 1839, is the oldest and largest professional organization for statisticians and related professionals in the United States. Bonnie will be the second Penn State alumna to serve as president in recent years, with Jessica Utts (a 1978 Ph.D. graduate) serving in 2016. We congratulate Bonnie on her appointment as the 2024 ASA President."

Ghosh-Dastidar will be the 119th President of the ASA and will serve a one-year term as president-elect beginning January 1, 2023. Her term as president becomes effective January 1, 2024.

The full news release from the ASA can be viewed on their website.