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Computational, Mathematical, and Physical Sciences
Department of Statistics

Additional Information

What Do Statisticians Do?

Statisticians look for patterns in data to help make decisions in business, industry, and the biological, physical, psychological, and social sciences. Statisticians help make important advances in scientific research and work in opinion polling, market research, survey management, data analysis, statistical experiments, and education. Statisticians use quantitative abilities, statistical knowledge, and computing and communication skills to collaborate with other scientists to work on challenging problems, including the following:

· Studying the safety and economic viability of nuclear power plants and alternative energy sources

· Evaluating the environmental impact of air, water, and soil pollution

· Designing and analyzing studies to determine the safety and effectiveness of new drugs

· Estimating the unemployment rate in the United States

· Analyzing consumer demand for products and services

· Planning studies for and analyzing data from agricultural experiments

Statisticians apply mathematical and statistical knowledge to social, economic, medical, political, and ecological problems. They work individually, but also as part of interdisciplinary teams on complex problems. Statisticians travel to consult with other professionals or to attend conferences, seminars, and continuing education activities. They communicate and confer with other professionals to understand practical problems and inform others of their solutions. Statisticians use data from well-designed trials and from massive databases to discover results about a particular problem in a variety of fields. They combine their technical training skills with the knowledge of the field within which they are working to produce valuable results.

Statisticians are at times educators, consultants, and theoretical researchers.

 

Business and Industry

Manufacturing -- Industrial statisticians help build products and deliver services that satisfy customers and increase the company’s market share and profit margin. Statisticians help design the best product, guide the transition from design to manufacturing, ensure a consistently excellent product, help manage customer satisfaction, and ensure a financially beneficial bottom line. Industry professionals use statistical methods for quality control and quality assurance in nearly all manufactured goods.

Marketing -- Statistics is used to quantify the extent of variation in customers’ needs and wants. Statisticians design experiments for new products, conduct focus groups and sample surveys to gather consumer feedback, and perform field experiments in test markets to determine product viability and marketability. Statistics and data mining are also used to analyze sales data and predict future trends. Engineering -- Engineers work in electronics, chemicals, aerospace, pollution control, construction, and other industries. They may be responsible for leading large projects with significant costs, technical complexity, and responsibility. Statistical methods allow engineers to make a consistent product, detect problems, minimize chemical waste, and predict product life.

Statistical Computing -- Reliable and accurate statistical software is arguably the most important tool available to statisticians in every field. Developing code that is both user friendly and sufficiently complex is a challenging task, as is exploiting the rapidly occurring improvements in hardware platforms, graphics, and algorithms. Opportunities in this field include software design and development, software testing, quality assurance, technical support, education, documentation, marketing, and sales.

Health and Medicine

Epidemiology -- Epidemiological statisticians work on projects such as calculating cancer incidence rates or the rates of chronic and infectious diseases, monitoring and reporting on disease outbreaks, and monitoring changes in health-related behaviors such as smoking and physical activity. Fields of practice include nutritional, environmental, genetic, and social epidemiology, as well as pharmacoepidemiology.
Public Health -- Public health statisticians work on preventing disease, prolonging life, and promoting health through organized community efforts. These include sanitation, control of contagious infections, hygiene education, early diagnosis and preventive treatment, and adequate living standards. This requires an understanding of epidemiology, nutrition, antiseptic practices, and social science. In the United States, public health is studied and coordinated on a national level by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention; internationally, the World Health Organization plays an equivalent role.

Pharmaceutical Science -- Statisticians in pharmacology work in pharmaceuticals, animal health, and government research. They are key to all aspects of drug discovery, development, approval, and marketing. They work in pre-clinical research, clinical trials, epidemiology, health economics, and market research. Statisticians are essential in the drug development process because they ensure the validity and accuracy of findings at all stages of the process.

Statistical Genetics -- Statistics has been used in human genetics to create automated methods of labeling possible indicators of genetic abnormalities, such as birth defects and early aging. Statistics have also been used in animal and plant genetics to breed desirable characteristics in offspring. Using complex statistical models, statisticians aid in formulating sound decisions by distinguishing between environmental and genetic effects.

Learning

Education -- Education is one of the country’s biggest industries and the tasks that the educational statistician can choose to undertake are diverse. Statisticians teach students from kindergarten through doctoral programs. They may help assess teacher effectiveness, analyze a large database to understand a particular issue or develop better statistical models to represent the amount of learning attained by one student or by all students in a school district, state, or nation.

Science Writing and Journalism -- Science writers are employed by the mass media, universities, and corporations to produce news briefs, articles, news releases, and other reports. Writers with scientific backgrounds are especially in demand because of their ability to explain complicated statistical or scientific data in easy-to-understand articles for non-statisticians and the general public.

 

Research

Government -- Statistical methods are used in government regulation on topics such as stock trading rules, air purity standards, and new drug approvals. Statistics are cited in court proceedings, congressional hearings, and lobbying arguments. Politics involves statistics in the form of approval rating surveys, voter registration, campaigning, and election predictions. Statisticians participate in government agencies such as the Food and Drug Administration, the Census Bureau, the Bureau of Labor Statistics, the Office of Management and Budget, the Bureau of Transportation Statistics, the National Institutes of Health, and the Department of Agriculture. Federal agencies provide data that are used in making federal, state, and local government policies.

Survey Methods -- Statisticians work on surveys in government, the social sciences, education, law, forestry, agriculture, biology, medicine, business, and e-commerce. Survey statisticians might study efficient survey design, experimental methods for increasing response rates, accounting for nonresponse and under-coverage, or how to release data to the public while maintaining the confidentiality of respondents. Other important issues include question-wording and design and deciding where and how to take samples that will include traditionally underrepresented groups.

Research and Development – Whether in developing new computing technology or designing a better consumer product, statisticians work in all sectors of industry to identify sources of variability and increase the reliability of products and technology using experimental design, statistical analysis, and continuous improvement tools.

Social Sciences

Consulting -- Independent statistical consultants work on many of the same projects as other statisticians, but they usually are hired on a temporary basis to solve a specific problem that requires statistical expertise not available within the hiring company. Since the field of statistics is so broad, many statistical consultants specialize in some areas, such as quality improvement or pharmaceuticals. Consultants may be hired with grant money to work on short-term projects in medicine, agriculture, engineering, or business.

Law -- Statistics are becoming more and more important as court cases address increasingly complex problems. Sometimes the statistician analyzes data that can help the jury or judge decide whether someone is guilty of a crime or must pay damages for causing injuries. Other times, statisticians are hired as expert witnesses during trials. Court cases involving statistical analyses include DNA testing, salary discrepancies, consumer surveys, and disease clusters.

Natural Resources

Agriculture -- Statisticians have teamed up with experts in agriculture in order to study a number of challenging questions, including chemical pesticides, hydrogeology, veterinary sciences, genetics, and crop management. Precision agriculture is the practice of using statistical models to optimize agricultural inputs such as fertilizer or pesticides, to maximize yield and minimize negative ecological impact. Statisticians are involved in studies ranging from small laboratory experiments to large projects conducted over many hundreds or thousands of square miles. They work on data from the smallest scale of organisms, like viruses and bacteria, to plants, insects, animals, and humans. They work with scientists from fields such as bacteriology, genetics, biochemistry, dairy science, environmental studies, entomology, plant sciences, rural sociology, veterinary medicine, wildlife, and ecology.

Ecology -- Statisticians play a major role in addressing questions about the earth’s natural environment, including animal populations, agricultural protections, fertilizer, and pesticide safety. Most states employ wildlife statisticians. Statisticians are employed by state and federal environmental agencies as well as companies that collect environmental data. Increasingly, companies need statisticians to help assess how a new product or plant will affect the surrounding environment. Scientific researchers also work with statisticians, often at universities, to design experiments that will answer basic questions about the environment.

What to learn more?


  • The American Statistical Association has put together this website, https://thisisstatistics.org/students/, with information on being a statistician and how statistics is applied in many fields.