MPSDS SRC Seminar
MPSDS M3 Series: Mastery, Methodology, Meetups
In person, room 1070, Institute for Social Research and via Zoom.

Seminal Ideas and Controversies in Statistics

My book “Seminal Ideas and Controversies in Statistics” was published in 2025. I’ll review some of the key ideas discussed in the book, including likelihood methods versus estimating equations, the Bayes versus frequentist controversy and a suggested resolution, random effects modeling, the dual role of randomization in surveys and clinical trials, causal inference and alternative paradigms of sample survey inference.

Rod Little is Richard D. Remington Distinguished University Professor of Biostatistics Emeritus at the University of Michigan, where he also holds emeritus appointments in the Department of Statistics and the Institute for Social Research. From 2010-2012 he was the inaugural Associate Director for Research and Methodology and Chief Scientist at the U.S. Census Bureau. He has over 250 publications, notably on methods for the analysis of data with missing values and model-based survey inference, and the application of statistics to diverse scientific areas, including medicine, demography, economics, psychiatry, aging and the environment. Little is an elected member of the International Statistical Institute, a Fellow of the American Statistical Association and the American Academy of Arts and Sciences, and a member of the U.S. National Academy of Medicine. In 2005, Little was awarded the American Statistical Association’s Wilks Medal for research contributions, and he gave the President’s Invited Address at the Joint Statistical Meetings. He was the COPSS Fisher Lecturer at the 2012 Joint Statistics Meetings.