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I. Olkin 19
1.4.4 Elizabeth L. Scott Award
In recognition of Elizabeth L. Scott’s lifelong efforts to further the careers of
women, this award is presented to an individual who has helped foster opportunities
in statistics for women by developing programs to encourage women
to seek careers in statistics; by consistently and successfully mentoring women
students or new researchers; by working to identify gender-based inequities in
employment; or by serving in a variety of capacities as a role model. First
awarded in 1992, it is given every other year in even-numbered years.
Elizabeth Scott was born in Fort Sill, Oklahoma, on November 23, 1917.
Her family moved to Berkeley, where she remained for the rest of her life. She
was in the UC Berkeley astronomy program and published more than ten papers
on comet positions. She received her PhD in 1949. Her dissertation was
part astronomy and part statistics: “(a) Contribution to the problem of selective
identifiability of spectroscopic binaries; (b) Note on consistent estimates
of the linear structural relation between two variables.” She collaborated with
Jerzy Neyman on astronomical problems as well as weather modification.
In 1970 Elizabeth Scott co-chaired a university sub-committee which published
a comprehensive study on the status of women in academia. Subsequently
she led follow-up studies concerning gender-related issues such as
salary discrepancies and tenure and promotion. She developed a toolkit for
evaluating salaries that was distributed by the American Association of University
Professors and used by many academic women to argue successfully
for salary adjustments. She often told of her history in the Astronomy Department
which provided a telescope to every male faculty, but not to her.
She received many honors and awards, and served as president of the IMS,
1977–78, and of the Bernoulli Society, 1983–85. She was Chair of the Statistics
Department from 1968 to 1973. She was a role model for many of the women
who are our current leaders. She died on December 20, 1988.
TABLE 1.6
Recipients of the Elizabeth L. Scott Award.
Year Winner Affiliation (at the Time of the Award)
1992 Florence N. David University of California, Riverside
1994 Donna Brogan University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill
1996 Grace Wahba University of Wisconsin, Madison
1998 Ingram Olkin Stanford University
2000 Nancy Flournoy University of Missouri, Columbia
2002 Janet Norwood Bureau of Labor Statistics
2004 Gladys Reynolds Centers for Disease Control and Prevention
2006 Louise Ryan Harvard University
2008 Lynne Billard University of Georgia
2010 Mary E. Thompson University of Waterloo, Canada
2012 Mary W. Gray American University