Letter/Welcome from the Section Chair: Dear Section Member, Welcome to ASA's latest section on Statistics in Defense and National Security! You are a charter member and I know each of you is asking what can the section do for you, and what can you do for the section. The rest of this e-mail tells you a little about what the section can do for you. Also, you can visit our ASA website, www.amstat.org/sections/sdns/, to learn more. And we plan to send you an e-mail once a quarter to keep you up-to-date on our activities. You can also contact any of the officers of our new section, through our ASA website, with your questions and suggestions. The officers are: Chair: Nancy Spruill, Department of Defense Chair- Elect: Ron Fricker, RAND Secretary/Treasurer: Alyson Wilson, Los Alamos National Laboratory Program Chair: Ron Fricker, RAND Program Chair-Elect: Wendy Martinez, Office of Naval Research Publications Officer: David Olwell, Naval Postgraduate School Council of Sections Representative: David Banks, Duke University What you can do for the section is to get involved. Bring your ideas, initiatives and become a part of some of the activities discussed below. I look forward to meeting each one of you. We are hoping to hear from you and to see you at the JSM annual meetings. Nancy Spruill JSM UPDATE At the JSM, our section has 3 invited sessions, one topic contributed session, and two roundtable luncheons. They are: INVITED Adaptive Sampling in Homeland Security, Sunday 8/8 from 4-5:50 pm Attack Detection, Interdiction and Response, Monday 8/9 from 8:30-10:20 Early Warnings of Bioterrorism: Syndromic Surveillance, Wednesday 8/11 from 10:30-12:20 TOPIC CONTRIBUTED Profiling, date and time TBD ROUNDTABLES Game Theory and Risk Analysis in Counterterrorism, hosted by David Banks, date and time TBD Monitoring and Responding to Health Effects of Terrorism, hosted by Doug Samuelson, date and time TBD Please contact Ron Fricker for more information. ENAR 2005 SPRING MEETING Proposals are solicited for invited sessions at the ENAR 2005 Spring meeting, where the theme will be 'Spanning the Breadth of Biometrics'. The meeting will be held March 20-23, 2005, in Austin, TX. Our section is participating on the ENAR 2005 Program Committee for the first time, and we would like to sponsor several exciting invited sessions. We can only do that with your help. Please consider proposing an invited session using the attached form and/or pass it along to others who might be interested. Proposals are due June 15, 2004. For more information, see the website at www.enar.org or contact Wendy Martinez, martinwe@onr.navy.mil. STUDENT PAPER PRIZE A prize for the best paper applying statistics to defense issues will again be offered in 2004. The competition is open to any undergraduate or graduate student enrolled in any institution of higher education. The paper must have been written in the preceding academic year (for this year's prize, July 1, 2003 to June 30, 2004). The paper must be nominated and submitted by a faculty member at the institution. Papers are limited to 5,000 words or 20 pages, including graphics. Student theses meeting these length requirements are acceptable. Papers are judged on the quality of the statistical work, the quality of the written presentation, and the significance of the contribution to understanding of defense issues. For 2004, the prize consists of a plaque and $500. Nominations and three copies of the paper should be submitted to Professor Dave Olwell, Department of Operations Research, Code OR/OL, Naval Postgraduate School, Monterey, California, 93943, by 1 July 2004. Questions should also be addressed to Professor Olwell (dholwell@nps.navy.mil). The prize announcement will be made at the annual JSM meetings. PEER REVIEW Dale Anderson has compiled a list of people who are willing to serve as peer-reviewers for defense-related publications, proposals, etc. These names are posted on the Section website. If you would like to be added to the list, please contact Dale at dale.anderson@pnl.gov. MEMBERSHIP UPDATE The Section currently has 147 members. ASA members who wish to join this section can do so for no additional charge for the remainder of their current membership year by contacting Monica Clark, ASA Chapter & Sections Coordinator, monica@amstat.org. Please pass this information on to colleagues who might be interested.