American Statistical Association
The American Statistical Association (ASA) is a scientific and educational society founded in 1839 with the following mission: To promote excellence in the application of statistical science across the wealth of human endeavor.History of the ASA
What do Florence Nightingale, Alexander Graham Bell, Herman Hollerith, Andrew Carnegie, and Martin Van Buren have in common?
They were all members of the American Statistical Association (ASA), the second oldest professional association in the country which in 1999 celebrated its 160th anniversary. Founded in Boston one wintry morning in 1839, the association continues a tradition of promoting excellence in statistics in its application to the frontiers of science, from biological to socio-economic to the physical sciences.
The ASA founding fathers demonstrated early a commitment to statistical science in service to public welfare. Present at the organizing meeting held in the rooms of the American Education Society, Number 15 Cornhill, Boston, Massachusetts, on November 27, 1839, were William Cogswell, teacher, fund-raiser for the ministry, and genealogist; Richard Fletcher, lawyer and U.S. Congressman; John Dix Fisher, physician and pioneer in medical reform; Oliver Peabody, lawyer, clergyman, poet, and editor; and Lemuel Shattuck, statistician, genealogist, publisher, and author of perhaps the most significant single document in the history of public health to that date.
Thus was born the American Statistical Association, chartered by the Commonwealth of Massachusetts, and by 1841 an energetic society with a roster of 109 members including the U.S. President, Martin Van Buren. Other early members included Florence Nightingale, Andrew Carnegie, Herman Hollerith, and Alexander Graham Bell.
It is that proud heritage that directs the organization, now 16,000 members in the U.S., Canada, and overseas. In government, academia, and the private sector, ASA members apply their expertise to diverse and vital areas that include:
research in medical areas such as AIDS environmental risk assessment the development of new therapeutic drugs the exploration of space quality assurance in industry the examination of social issues such as the homeless and the poor analytic research on current business problems and economic forecasting the setting of standards for statistics used at all levels of government the promotion and development of statistical education for the public and the profession and the expansion of methods and the use of computers and graphics to advance the science of statistics
