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PANEL ON STATISTICS AND OCEANOGRAPHY
DUDLEY B. CHELTON,
Oregon State University,
Cochair
WILLIAM F. EDDY,
Carnegie Mellon University,
Cochair
RICHARD DEVEAUX,
Princeton University
RAISA FELDMAN,
University of California at Santa Barbara
ROMAN E. GLAZMAN,
Jet Propulsion Laboratory, California Institute of Technology
ANNALISA GRIFFA,
University of Miami
KATHRYN A. KELLY,
Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution
GORDON J. MACDONALD,
University of California at San Diego
MURRAY ROSENBLATT,
University of California at San Diego
BORIS ROZOVSKII,
University of Southern California
Staff
JOHN R. TUCKER, Senior Program Officer
COMMITTEE ON APPLIED AND THEORETICAL STATISTICS
WILLIAM F. EDDY,
Carnegie Mellon University,
Chair
YVONNE BISHOP,
U.S. Department of Energy
MARY ELLEN BOCK,
Purdue University
MARJORIE G. HAHN,
Tufts University
DOUGLAS M. HAWKINS,
University of Minnesota
DAVID G. HOEL,
Medical University of South Carolina
JON R. KETTENRING,
Bellcore
KARL E. PEACE,
Biopharmaceutical Research Consultants
STEPHEN M. POLLOCK,
University of Michigan
DARYL PREGIBON,
AT&T Bell Laboratories
Staff
JOHN R. TUCKER, Senior Program Officer
BOARD ON MATHEMATICAL SCIENCES
SHMUEL WINOGRAD,
IBM T.J. Watson Research Center,
Chair
RONALD DOUGLAS,
State University of New York at Stony Brook,
Vice-Chair
LAWRENCE D.BROWN,
Cornell University
SUN-YUNG A. CHANG,
University of California at Los Angeles
AVNER FRIEDMAN,
University of Minnesota
JOHN F. GEWEKE,
University of Minnesota
JAMES GLIMM,
State University of New York at Stony Brook
DIANE LAMBERT,
AT&T Bell Laboratories
GERALD J. LIEBERMAN,
Stanford University
PAUL S. MUHLY,
University of Iowa
RONALD F. PEIERLS,
Brookhaven National Laboratory
JEROME SACKS,
National Institute of Statistical Sciences
ROBERT J. ZIMMER,
University of Chicago
Ex Officio Member
WILLIAM F. EDDY,
Carnegie Mellon University
Chair,
Committee on Applied and Theoretical Statistics
Staff
JOHN E. LAVERY, Director
RUTH E. O’BRIEN, Staff Associate
HANS OSER, Senior Program Officer
JOHN R. TUCKER, Senior Program Officer
BARBARA WRIGHT, Administrative Assistant
COMMISSION ON PHYSICAL SCIENCES, MATHEMATICS, AND APPLICATIONS
RICHARD N. ZARE,
Stanford University,
Chair
JOHN A. ARMSTRONG,
IBM Corporation (retired)
PETER J. BICKEL,
University of California at Berkeley
GEORGE F. CARRIER,
Harvard University (retired)
GEORGE W. CLARK,
Massachusetts Institute of Technology
MARYE ANNE FOX,
University of Texas-Austin
AVNER FRIEDMAN,
University of Minnesota
SUSAN L. GRAHAM,
University of California at Berkeley
NEAL F. LANE,
Rice University
ROBERT W. LUCKY,
Bellcore
CLAIRE E. MAX,
Lawrence Livermore Laboratory
CHRISTOPHER F. MCKEE,
University of California at Berkeley
JAMES W. MITCHELL,
AT&T Bell Laboratories
RICHARD S. NICHOLSON,
American Association for the Advancement of Science
ALAN SCHRIESHEIM,
Argonne National Laboratory
A.RICHARD SEEBASS III,
University of Colorado
KENNETH G. WILSON,
Ohio State University
NORMAN METZGER, Executive Director
PREFACE
This report was prepared in response to a request from the Office of Naval Research to the National Research Council’s Committee on Applied and Theoretical Statistics. It describes research opportunities in statistics and applied probability arising in physical oceanographic applications. The report is expository, with the intended audience being statisticians and quantitatively literate people with a background in statistical applications to science, as well as federal agency representatives interested in encouraging such cross-disciplinary research.
In producing this report, the panel had to surmount communication and comprehension difficulties to truly understand, e.g., what someone from another discipline had expressed. One result was an appreciation of just how difficult it is to engage in truly collaborative, cross-disciplinary work. Another result was an insight into what strategies will (and will not) be likely to succeed in performing such work. The panel believes understanding and appreciating these matters are as important to the encouragement and accomplishment of statistical research in physical oceanography as are the descriptions of statistical research opportunities discussed in Chapters 2 through 8. Accordingly, Chapter 9 gives the panel’s conclusions, observations, and suggestions on encouraging successful collaborations between statisticians and oceanographers.
The panel gratefully acknowledges the support of the Office of Naval Research in this project and expresses appreciation to all of the people who provided information that aided the panel in the preparation of this report. They include Mark Abbott, Andrew Bennett, Hans Graber, Greg Holloway, Ricardo Matano, Robert N.Miller, Leonid Piterbarg, Michael Schlax, P.Ted Strub, V.Zlotnicki, and four anonymous reviewers who offered insightful comments and suggestions. In particular, L.Piterbarg helped write Chapter 3, P.Strub helped write Chapter 4, M.Abbott helped write Chapter 5, R.Miller and V.Zlotnicki helped write Chapter 6, and H.Graber helped write Chapter 7. The panel also gratefully acknowledges the editorial help of John Tucker and Susan Maurizi in preparing the report.
Comments on the report are welcome, as are suggestions for future topics on which similar reports might help to provide useful cross-disciplinary bridges. All such remarks should be directed to John Tucker at the Board on Mathematical Sciences, National Research Council, Washington, D.C.
