Best News of the Year

By Professor Lina Ignatova

Looking back at the past academic year, I can say it has truly been a special one. A lot of my time went into professional development. In particular, I have been working with my co-authors on a paper on exact closed sequential sampling procedures and their applications in industrial sampling, Medicare fraud investigations and election audits.

We submitted our work to The American Statistician and I also presented part of this research at Joint Statistical Meetings in Vancouver and at Cal Poly.

I also got the opportunity to teach our majors in two classes: STAT 426 and 427. These courses were my favorites as a student and I truly enjoyed introducing our majors to the more mathematical side of statistical theory.  I am looking forward to teaching those classes again.

The best news for the past year, however, is on a personal note: In June, I got married to my long time true fried Roland, who became more than a friend last summer. We had our families visiting us for two weeks helping us with the wedding preparations and this really made it a special experience. Roland and I are really looking forward to our future together.

Originally we planned to stay in San Luis Obispo, even though Roland did not get a job at Cal Poly this year. However, a vital change in our life lead me to take a leave of absence for the upcoming academic year.

Yes, there was an unexpected but very welcome and pleasant surprise – we are expecting an addition to our family. So for the upcoming academic year I intend to continue my work on my research, as time permits, and I am looking forward to rejoining my colleagues and our students of the Statistics Department and I am eagerly awaiting to return to the classroom in fall 2012.