CAS CONNECT 2019

B y the time Linda J. Young completed her OSU statistics doctorate in 1981, she had built the foundation for a career in research at the intersection of statistics and the sciences, particularly the agricultural sciences. For over 25 years, Young served on the faculty of land-grant universities: OSU, the University of Nebraska and the University of Florida. At each institution, she collaborated with agricultural and other scientists on the issues challenging agriculture practice and productivity — the control of such major pests as tobacco bollworms and budworms in Oklahoma cotton; the use of newmanagement practices to limit lepidopteran resistance to Bt-corn in Nebraska; and early identification of citrus greening, a disease decimating the citrus industry in Florida. These three examples — and their potential economic impacts on agriculture in those states — highlight the importance of the problems to which Young has brought statistical thinking, experiment design, and data analysis and interpretation. Young has authored or co-authored three books on statistical methodology and has more than 100 publications in over 50 different journals about statistics and other subjects. She has served as editor of the Journal of Agricultural, Biological and Environmental Statistics. Young has held a broad range of offices within the professional statistical societies, including president of the Eastern North American Region of the International Biometric Society, vice president of the American Statistical Association, chair of the Committee of Presidents of Statistical Societies, member of the National Institute of Statistical Sciences’ Board of Directors, and member of the Statistical and Applied Mathematical Sciences Institute’s Governing Board. Young is a fellow of both the American Statistical Association and the American Association for the Advancement of LINDA YOUNG Chief Mathematical Statistician and Director of Research and Development National Agricultural Statistics Service of the U.S. Department of Agriculture Ph.D. Statistics, 1981 Science, and an elected member of the International Statistical Institute. In 2013, Young became mathematical statistician and director of research and development for the USDA’s National Agricultural Statistics Service. She works to improve the methodology underpinning NASS collection and dissemination of data on U.S. agriculture and to lead NASS researchers in formulating, solving and implementing statistical research that furthers this aim. With her husband, Jerry H. Young — an OSU alumnus and retired faculty member —Young raised three children: John, Shamar and RaQwin. All are avid OSU supporters. OSU COLLEGE OF ARTS AND SC I ENCES 35