Young statisticians congratulated

Statistics Minister Nicky Wagner today congratulated two Statistics New Zealand statisticians for their achievements in an international competition.

Laura O'Sullivan and Michelle Feyen have taken first and second place respectively in the International Association for Official Statistics 2014 Prize for Young Statisticians Competition.

“This is an outstanding accomplishment on the international stage by two bright, young statisticians.

Both women are members of the Statistical Methods Units at Statistics NZ.  As part of the competition they had to prepare a short paper addressing a pressing methodological or strategic issue in official statistics.

Laura O’Sullivan’s first prize winning paper investigated trade-offs between cost and quality in using new sources of data, while Michelle Feyen explored new methods standardisation.

“It’s papers like these that keep thinking fresh, and it’s good to see Statistics New Zealand is fostering innovation and talent,” Ms Wagner says.