A List
9/20/04

SLU PROF ROBIN LOCK RECEIVES TWO NATIONAL STATISTICS AWARDS

CANTON – Professor of Mathematics, Statistics and Computer Science Robin H. Lock, 
the Jack and Sylvia Burry Chair in Statistics at St. Lawrence University, received 
two major awards at the Joint Statistical Meetings held in Toronto in August – the 
Mu Sigma Rho 5th Statistical Education Award and the American Statistical Association 
(ASA) award for Outstanding Contributions to Statistics in Sport.
	The award from Mu Sigma Rho, the national honorary society for statistics, 
recognizes excellence in undergraduate or graduate statistical education at the 
institutional, regional or national level. Recipients, chosen through a competitive 
process, "must have evidence of excellence in classroom teaching in the statistics 
discipline and must have a lifetime devotion to statistics education."
      Presenting Lock with the award, the society's membership stated that he "has 
been widely recognized as an outstanding teacher and leader for over two decades. 
His classes are thoroughly demanding – his course goals are ambitious and his 
standards for students are rigorous. At the same time, he brings marvelous creativity 
and freshness to the teaching of statistics. One colleague has described [Lock's] 
approach to teaching as 'playful'; students analyze the trajectory of spinning coins, 
discover rigged dice and compete in correlation-guessing contests. Lock has 
mentored an entire generation of teachers of statistics at St. Lawrence – as a 
result, Introductory Applied Statistics at St. Lawrence has been a dramatic success 
for years; it is the third-most heavily enrolled course on campus, and over 60 
percent of St. Lawrence students elect to take at least one course in statistics. 
	"[Lock] has also expanded his role of mentor on innovative statistics 
curriculum and pedagogy to include colleagues at institutions throughout the 
world. As a founding member of the Statistics Liberal Arts Workshop (SLAW), he 
has been a valued contributor to a network of like-minded educators. He originated 
the idea of the Isolated Statisticians network and helped organize its first 
national meeting. He has presented successful workshops on teaching introductory 
statistics at Mathematics Association of America and ASA national meetings. He 
has been a leader in the ASA Sections on Statistical Education and Statistics in 
Sports. [Lock's] contributions to the field received national recognition by his 
election in 2000 as a Fellow of the American Statistical Association."
	Lock created and maintains a Web site of statistics on college ice hockey, 
among the achievements which led to his being chosen as the recipient of the ASA 
Outstanding Contributions to Statistics in Sport award. His acceptance of the 
award at the Joint Statistical Meetings – held just blocks from the site of the 
Hockey Hall of Fame in Toronto – included his giving a talk titled "Simeon Poisson 
Meets the  Fastest Game on Ice," describing the statistical models Lock uses for 
rating and predicting results in college hockey.
	A graduate of SUNY Oneonta with a master's degree and Ph.D. from the 
University of Massachusetts at Amherst, Lock has been a faculty member at 
St. Lawrence since 1983. He received the J. Calvin Keene Award from St. Lawrence 
University in 2001, and was the first faculty member appointed to the Jack and 
Sylvia Burry Chair in Statistics upon its establishment, in 2000.

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