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I fundamentally believe that statistics is a field that is meant to be in service of solving real problems in the world. 1/8
I have great respect for those who undertake theoretical problems in statistics (without that, we wouldn't be able to advance our science), but I work downstream in that process. My focus is to be an applied statistician and collaborate with researchers and practitioners. 2/8
I'll talk more about training applied statisticians later, but for now, let's delve into what it's like to be a faculty member on the more applied side. 3/8
Applied statisticians are often found in three places: in more theoretical math/stat departments (often as lone applied researchers), in applied statistics groups (as I am), or in departments with their collaborators. 4/8
Each of these situations has its own realities, but I think the main aspect for an applied professor to be successful is a match between their portfolio and the values of their department and institution in terms of promotion and annual reviews. 5/8
If you are in a department that wants to support applied statisticians, it's important to remember that our portfolios will look different from our methodological and theoretical colleagues. @AmstatNews put out a great statement on this: https://www.amstat.org/asa/files/pdfs/POL-Statistics-as-a-Scientific-Discipline.pdf 6/8
The crux of the matter is: non-first author papers, co-investigator grants, and maintaining and developing software are three examples of how applied statisticians impact the world around us that may not be in line with expectations for more theoretical statisticians. 7/8
For me, working within an applied statistics group at @NYU_PRIISM has allowed me to excel because I'm surrounded by likeminded people. My portfolio includes first-authored papers in statistics journals, but also many papers where I solve problems in other people's fields. 8/8
