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A Conversation with Dr. David S. Salsburg
Volume 23, Issue 1 (2025), pp. 70–89
Haim Bar   Naitee Ting  

Authors

 
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https://doi.org/10.6339/25-JDS1171
Pub. online: 29 January 2025      Type: Data Science Conversation      Open accessOpen Access

Received
23 September 2024
Accepted
25 January 2025
Published
29 January 2025

Abstract

Dr. David S. Salsburg’s career has been an exceptional one. He was the first statistician to work in Pfizer, Inc., and later became the first statistician from the pharmaceutical industry to be elected as an ASA fellow. He played a vital role as a statistician in Pfizer, Inc. at a time when the drug approval process was developed. For his contributions, Dr. Salsburg was awarded the Career Achievement Award of the Biostatistics Section of the Pharmaceutical Research and Manufacturers of America in 1994, for “significant contributions to the advancement of biostatistics in the pharmaceutical industry”. Dr. Salsburg also managed to achieve something rare among scientists, which is to popularize his field of research and make it accessible and enjoyable to laypeople. Dr. Salsburg is possibly best known for his book “The Lady Tasting Tea – How Statistics Revolutionized the 20th Century Science”, in which he combines simple and engaging explanations of statistical methods, and why they are needed, along with personal stories told with a great deal of generosity, fondness, and humor about the people who developed them. Dr. Salsburg’s admiration for the those statisticians shines through. In this interview, Dr. Salsburg shares his own stories and perspectives, from his childhood, through his service in the Navy and his long and productive career in Pfizer, Inc. to his equally productive retirement, in which he authored “The Lady Tasting Tea” and other books.

Supplementary material

 Supplementary Material
Curriculum Vitae of Dr. David S. Salsburg.

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2025 The Author(s). Published by the School of Statistics and the Center for Applied Statistics, Renmin University of China.
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