In a scene reminiscent of the television show Numb3rs, Stephen Fienberg pores over a paper filled with numbers, symbols, and scratchings, searching for just the right statistical calculation that will help prove his hypothesis. Like the character on Numb3rs who uses mathematical statistics to help solve crimes, Fienberg, a Carnegie Mellon professor of statistics and social sciences, developed the Bayesian approach to analyzing contingency tables that determine the probability that evidence or observation in a hypothesis is true. His work has led to his receipt of the American Statistical Association's 2009 Founders Award.
Camille Downing