Statistics Program
The Five College Statistics Program was created in 2011 to enable statistics faculty members at the five campuses to coordinate and integrate resources to better serve our statistics and data science students.
“Distinguishing the signal from the noise requires both scientific knowledge and self-knowledge: the serenity to accept the things we cannot predict, the courage to predict the things we can, and the wisdom to know the difference.” - Nate Silver (Five Thirty Eight), The Signal and the Noise: Why So Many Predictions Fail - But Some Don't
"Statisticians now collaborate with the scientists generating the data to develop innovative new theory and methods to tackle problems never envisioned." - Marie Davidian (North Carolina State University)
"Data is the sword of the 21st century, those who wield it well, the Samurai."
- Jonathan Rosenberg (former Google Inc. Senior Vice President)
The time to become statistically literate is now. The Five College Statistics Program was created in 2011 to enable statistics faculty members at the five campuses to coordinate and integrate resources to better serve our statistics and data science students.
Whether you want to take an introductory statistics or data science class or pursue elective course offerings, the Five Colleges has courses and programs of study just waiting for you. There are undergraduate majors in statistics and data science at Smith, Mount Holyoke, and Amherst Colleges, undergraduate and graduate programs at the University of Massachusetts, and growth in faculty staffing and enrollments at all of the institutions that make up the Five Colleges.
On this page, you can find resources, including links to statistics courses at each school, statistics faculty on each campus, news and events, announcements and more.
The Five College Statistics Program is committed to fostering closer ties between the faculty members teaching statistics and facilitating additional curricular cooperation to continue the strong statistical presence in the Valley. The Five College Statisticians meet on a regular basis to coordinate activities and curricular offerings.
On This Page
Faculty
News
Professor Brittney Bailey (Amherst College) was named the recipient of the 2023 Mu Sigma Rho Early Career Undergraduate Impact Award for her dedicated and innovative approaches to support and empower students through her teaching, her leadership of StatFest and The STEM Incubator, and her efforts on behalf of the profession. More information about the award can be found at: https://www.stat.purdue.
Winners of the Five College Statistics award for 2022 are:
- Amherst College: Shu Amano ’22E and Kenny Chen ’22
- Hampshire College: Campbell van Horn
- Mount Holyoke College: Grace Rhodes '22
- Smith College: Sarah Gillespie ’22J, Joyce Huang ’22, Arris Moise ’22,
Chichi Wu ’22 - University of Massachusetts, Amherst (Biostatistics): Li Shandross
- University of Massachusetts, Amherst (Statistics): Alexis Edozie
Congratulations to all of these students for their excellent work!
Professor Nick Horton, Beitzel Professor of Technology and Society (Statistics and Data Science), Department of Mathematics and Statistics, Amherst College, has been elected as vice president of the American Statistical Association (ASA). Professor Horton's term begins in January 2021; he will serve with ASA president-elect Dionne Price, who will become the first African-American president of the ASA.
Professor Miles Ott, Assistant Professor of Statistical and Data Sciences is the 2021 LGBTQ+ Educator of the Year. This award is given an educator for significant impact on STEM students "through teaching, advocacy, and role modeling."
Congratulations to Professor Ott on this honor!
The Five Colleges had a strong showing in the Fall 2020 Undergraduate Statistics Project Competition, with winners in the Electronic Undergraduate Statistics Research Conference (eUSR), the Undergraduate Statistics Class Project (USCLAP), and the Undergraduate Statistics Research Project (USRESP).
Congratulations to our Fall 2020 competition winners:
- Amelia Tran (Mount Holyoke) - eUSR Best Video Presentation
- Xian Ye, Hannah Snell, Dianne Caravela, and Natalia Iannucci (Smith) - USCLAP First Standing in Intermediate Statistics
- Juliet Ramey-Lariviere, Ivy Chen, and Kathleen Hablutzel (Smith) - USCLAP Honorable Mention in Intermediate Statistics
- Tyler Marshall (Amherst) - USRESP Third Standing
Nicholas Reich, Associate Professor of Biostatistics, recently delivered a series of keynote talks on the topic of COVID-19 forecasting.
Thank you, Professor Reich, for your continuing contributions to the field of Biostatistics!
Resources
The Lorna M. Peterson Award supports scholarly and creative work by undergraduate students taking part in Five College programs. The prize is awarded annually based on nominations from Five College programs.
Campus Curricula
Contact Us
Five College Statistics Program Representatives:
Nicholas (Nick) Horton, Beitzel Professor in Technology and Society, Department of Mathematics & Statistics, Amherst College (+ Program Chair)
Laurie Tupper, Associate Professor of Statistics, Mount Holyoke College (+ Webmaster)
Scott LaCombe, Assistant Professor, Department of Government and of Statistical & Data Sciences, Smith College
Evan Ray, Assistant Professor, Department of Biostatistics, UMass (+ Secretary/Treasurer)
Haben Michael, Assistant Professor, Department of Statistics, UMass
Liz Conlisk, Dean of Natural Science, Cognitive Science and Critical Social Inquiry and Professor of Public Health, Hampshire College
Five College Staff Liaison:
Ray Rennard, Director of Academic Programs