Census Bureau Director and Associate Director Receive Washington Academy of Sciences Awards

The U.S. Census Bureau, part of the U.S. Department of Commerce, announced today that Director Robert Groves and Associate Director for Research and Methodology and Chief Scientist Roderick Little received Washington Academy of Sciences Awards.

The Washington Academy of Sciences honored Groves for his excellence in behavioral sciences and social science.

“The Washington Academy of Sciences award announced today for Director Groves is a well-deserved honor,” said U.S. Commerce Deputy Secretary Rebecca Blank. “Dr. Groves is the top survey methodologist in the nation, and his ongoing efforts to improve and inform survey data collection has impacted academic and professional arenas in the U.S. and abroad. His leadership of the Census has been particularly important in helping to modernize the agency.”

Groves began his appointment as Census Bureau director on July 15, 2009, and has overseen the operations of the 2010 Census. He also has planned major improvements in the Census Bureau’s operations, most notably through the Improving Operational Efficiency program he instituted, in which ideas on ways to reduce costs, increase efficiency and improve programs were solicited from the agency’s employees.

The Academy honored Little for his excellence in mathematical and computer sciences.

“It is with great pleasure that I offer my congratulations to Rod Little,” Groves said. “The breadth and depth of his scientific contributions that he has made as one of the world’s best statistical survey methodologists and his advancing discoveries and innovation in statistical research for the benefit of the entire country is remarkable.”

Little joined the Census Bureau in September 2010 and now leads a directorate that focuses on enhancing research and methodology capabilities. Little is on leave from the University of Michigan, where he is a Richard D. Remington Collegiate Professor in the Department of Biostatistics, a department he chaired from 1993 to 2001 and 2006 to 2009. He is also a professor of statistics and research in the Institute for Social Research at Michigan.

Groves and Little were formally honored with the awards on Thursday, May 10, during the Washington Academy of Sciences’ 72nd annual meeting and awards banquet in Washington, D.C. Groves and Little are among 10 individuals elected to the academy.

Established in 1898, the Washington Academy of Sciences has been honoring distinguished Washington-area scientists since 1940. The Academy’s purpose is to encourage the advancement of science and “to conduct, endow, or assist investigation in any department of science.”