2026 Deming Lecture

Established to honor the accomplishments of W. Edwards Deming, this award recognizes the accomplishments of the awardee and enhances the awareness among the statistical community of the scope and importance of Deming's contributions. The 2026 Deming Lecturer is Dr. Sallie Ann Keller. Dr. Sallie Ann Keller is a Distinguished Professor of Biocomplexity in the Biocomplexity Institute and a Quantitative Foundation Distinguished Professor of Data Science at University of Virginia. A nationally recognized research scientist, her expertise spans social and decision informatics, the statistical foundations of data science, as well as data access and confidentiality. She is a leading voice in advancing the science of all data for societal benefit. Her prior positions include chief scientist and associate director of the U.S. Census Bureau's Research and Methodology Directorate, where she led enterprise-wide collaborations to develop innovative scientific solutions that advance economic and social measurement; academic vice president and provost at University of Waterloo; director of the Institute for Defense Analyses Science and Technology Policy Institute; the William and Stephanie Sick Dean of Engineering at Rice University; head of the Statistical Sciences group at Los Alamos National Laboratory; professor of statistics at Kansas State University; and Statistics Program director at the National Science Foundation. Dr. Keller is an elected member of the U.S. National Academy of Engineering and the International Statistics Institute, a fellow of the American Association for the Advancement of Science, and a fellow and past president of the American Statistical Association.