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Announcement
February 2015

Nominations Sought for 2015 Julius Shiskin Award

Nominations are invited for the annual Julius Shiskin Memorial Award for Economic Statistics. The award is given in recognition of unusually original and important contributions in the development of economic statistics or in the use of statistics in interpreting the economy. Contributions can be in statistical research, development of new statistical measures or statistical tools, use of economic statistics to analyze and interpret economic activity, management of statistical programs, or application of data production techniques. The 2014 award recipient was Julia Ingrid Lane, Senior Managing Economist and Institute Fellow at the American Institutes for Research, for her contributions to the development of a new Census Bureau program that has significantly advanced research on employment dynamics.

The Shiskin Award was established in 1980 by the Washington Statistical Society (WSS) and is now cosponsored by the WSS, the National Association for Business Economics, and the Business and Economics Statistics Section of the American Statistical Association (ASA). The award is in memory of Julius Shiskin, who had a varied and remarkable public service career. At the time of his death in 1978, “Julie” was the Commissioner for the Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS) and earlier served as the Chief Statistician at the Office of Management and Budget (OMB), and the Chief Economic Statistician and Assistant Director of the Census Bureau. Throughout his career, he was known as an innovator. At Census he was instrumental in developing an electronic computer method for seasonal adjustment. In 1961, he published Signals of Recession and Recovery, which laid the groundwork for the calculation of monthly economic indicators, and he developed the monthly Census report Business Conditions Digest to disseminate them to the public. In 1969, he was appointed Chief Statistician at OMB where he developed the policies and procedures that govern the release of key economic indicators (Statistical Policy Directive Number 3), and originated a Social Indicators report. In 1973, he was selected to head BLS where he was instrumental in preserving the integrity and independence of the BLS labor force data and directed the most comprehensive revision in the history of the Consumer Price Index (CPI), which included a new CPI for all urban consumers.

Nominations for the 2015 award are now being accepted. Individuals and groups in the public or private sector from any country can be nominated. The award will be presented with an honorarium of $1,000 plus additional recognition from the sponsors. A nomination form and a list of all previous recipients are available on the ASA Website at www.amstat.org/sections/bus_econ/shiskin.html.

For questions or more information, please contact Thomas Evans, Julius Shiskin Award Committee Secretary, via email at evans.thomas@bls.gov or call 202-691-6354.

Completed nominations must be received by March 16, 2015.