About CENS
The Council for Emerging and New Statisticians (CENS) was formed in 2012 by ENAR’s Regional Advisory Board (RAB) in 2012 to help ENAR better address the needs of all students and recent graduates. CENS is composed of 10 graduate students, post-doctoral fellows, or recent graduates, who are ENAR members from academia, government, or private industry. With the help of the RAB Liaison, CENS members collaborate to:
- Bring student/recent graduate concerns to the attention of RAB and ENAR,
- Work to help ENAR better serve all students/recent graduates,
- Advise and help implement ideas to enhance the benefits of ENAR membership and to increase awareness of the benefits of ENAR membership to students,
- Organize a CENS session at each ENAR Spring Meeting,
- Assist in planning events that help advance students' and recent graduates’ education and careers,
- Contribute to the development of ENAR’s social media presence.
CENS Mission
CENS seeks to advocate for the needs and concerns of students and recent graduates in collaboration with ENAR’s Regional Advisory Board. Through annual events at the ENAR Spring Meeting, CENS strives to promote the benefits of participating in the ENAR community, support the advancement of students and recent graduates, and facilitate stronger connections within the statistical community.
Join CENS
We will be recruiting new members March-April 2025! Each member is appointed to a 2-year term. Within CENS, three or four people are chosen to participate in the steering committee, which reports to the RAB chair. Members of the steering committee will serve an additional year on CENS. CENS members will meet in person yearly at the ENAR Spring Meeting and participate in conference calls throughout the year to plan events and address issues as they arise. If you are interested in joining CENS, please email enar.cens@gmail.com.
Upcoming Events
CENS Session at ENAR 2025: Collaboration 101: What a Scientist Seeks in a Statistician vs What a Statistician Seeks in a Scientist
Monday, March 24, 2025 | 1:45 pm - 3:30 pm CST
Scientific collaboration is a highly prized skill that one can develop through extensive learning and reflection. As graduate students and early-career professionals build up their portfolios, they will inevitably need to work with a colleague whose training differs from their own. This situation can often be challenging due to potential misalignments in project expectations, domain vocabulary, and end goals. As a group of emerging statisticians, CENS would like to invite statisticians and scientists at various career stages to discuss the “need-to-knows” of collaboration from diverse perspectives and successful interdisciplinary research. This topic will be of interest to all statisticians new to collaboration, and the different perspectives from the diverse backgrounds of our panelists reflect the 2025 ENAR meeting theme of “ENAR is Interdisciplinary”.
This session aims to increase transparency in the collaborative process between scientists and statisticians. By providing attendees with perspectives from both scientists and statisticians, from both early-career and established researchers, this session improves understanding of the inner workings of scientific collaboration. With a special focus on highlighting early-career needs and identifying common pitfalls, attendees will gain valuable insights into effective communication in scientific collaboration and navigating interdisciplinary projects.
CENS Networking Mixer at ENAR 2025
Monday, March 24, 2025 | 5:30 PM - 6:30 PM CST
All students and recent graduates are invited to attend the CENS Networking Mixer. Registration is not required—so please plan to attend!
CENS Committee
RAB Liaison: Melissa Smith, University of Alabama, Birmingham
Steering Committee 2024-2025:
Co-Chair: Siddhesh Kulkarni, Bristol Meyers Squibb
Co-Chair: Summer Zhang, University of Chicago
Carly Brantner, Johns Hopkins University
Gary Hettinger, University of Pennsylvania
Current Members:
John Bassler, University of Alabama at Birmingham
Megan McCabe, University of Iowa
Ashley Mullan, Vanderbilt University
Robert Tumasian, FDA
Kim (Hochstedler) Webb, University of Pittsburgh
Ruby Xiong, Vanderbilt University
Contact Info
If anyone has any questions or comments for CENS, please contact us at enar.cens@gmail.com. Find us on social media: Instagram, Linked In, Facebook