What is Statistical Science ?
The process of posing
questions and then seeking to answer them by collecting and
analyzing suitable data is an essential component of
research in a remarkably diverse array of fields. This includes
agriculture, medical research, industrial research, forensic science,
market research, environmental science, political science and quality
assurance. This mode of inquiry also features prominently in the
decision making processes of both commerce and government.
The role of the Statistician is to determine, for a given question,
the type of data that is needed, the way it should be collected
and how it should be analyzed in order to best answer that question.
The data may result from a planned experiment designed to investigate
certain specific things. This sort of data, experimental data, is
common in such areas as agricultural research. The concern of the
Statistician is not just the analysis of the data from someone
else's experiment, but is also about designing the experiment in the
first place, to ensure that resources are used efficiently and that the
questions being asked can be answered by the experiment.
Other types of data arise from observational studies: investigators go out
and see what is actually there. Censuses of the population, hospital data
bases, Gallup polls, traffic data and consumer data bases
are examples of these. Survey and questionnaire design
are important issues in many of these examples.
- to understand the nature of statistical inference; that is, its scope and
limitations and its proper role in the process of scientific
investigation,
- to be able to express a generally posed scientific question as a
statistical question,
- to be familiar with a variety of commonly used techniques and the models
underlying them,
- to be able to recognize the nature of, and to model, the random
variation underlying given data,
- to be conversant with the mathematical underpinning of often-used
statistical techniques to the extent of being able to make simple
modifications in appropriate situations,
- in preparing to make inferences about a population based on a sample from
it, to be able to decide how to obtain a suitable sample,
- to be able to provide advice on the design of experiments,
- to be able to use standard statistical packages to perform
statistical calculations,
- to be able to interpret the the results obtained from standard
statistical packages,
- to be equipped with a variety of graphical techniques for displaying
statistical data,
- to be able to know where to find recently developed statistical
methods.
- to think clearly and coherently,
- to work productively as an individual or in cooperation with others,
- to be able to complete assigned tasks on schedule,
- to be able to produce clear and accurate written work.
Statisticians are employed as biometricians (statistical scientists
specializing in biology related applications) in government agricultural
departments, as biostatisticians (statistical scientists specilizing
in medical related applications) in government health related departments
(e.g., NIH, CDC,...) and as consultants in a number of government,
quasi-government
and private research firms. Many manufacturing companies also employ
statisticians to perform quality control and process control of their
products. The research and development units of some larger corporations,
larger hospitals and health departments employ statistical
consultants. The National Bureau of Standards employs
many statisticians in the
area of civil statistics, and various government departments in finance and
industrial relations areas have statisticians working with economic data.
There are opportunities for statisticians to work in quality
improvement initiatives within industrial and commercial organisations.
Wei-Min Huang
wh02@lehigh.edu
Last update 01-Jan-96