The 2004 James "Duke" Sehnert  Memorial Lecture

This year's Sehnert lecturer will be

The lecture will be held

The popular and successful "six sigma" program and Robert Hogg's hero W. Edwards Deming share something important in common: they both depend a great deal on a solid appreciation of variation.

Dr. Hogg will discuss Deming's life, tell a few stories about him, and then devote attention to important and varied examples illustrating the importance of variation: choosing movies; the "sophomore jinx"; workers' (or students') pattern of variation; ranking students; assigning grades; comparing teams; determination of salaries; number of suppliers in industry; personal choices like barber, clothier, banker, lawyer; game of "telephone"; final inspection; quotas; prizes; making "the doors fit better"; and building trust.

Dr. Hogg will end with a nod to Motorola's Bob Galvin: "quality improvement is a daily, personal, priority obligation."

Among the many awards he has received for distinction in teaching, Bob has been honored at the national level (the Mathematical Association of America Award for Distinguished Teaching), the state level (Iowa's Governor's Science Medal for Teaching), and the university level (Collegiate Teaching Award). His important contributions to statistical research have been acknowledged by his election to fellowship standing in the ASA and the Institute of Mathematical Statistics. In 2001, Bob received the American Statistical Association's 2001 Gottried F. Noether Senior Scholar Award for a lifetime of outstanding achievements and contributions in the field of Nonparametric Statistics both in research and teaching.