Biography (created 2002-01-16)

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Steve Simon earned a PhD in Statistics from the University of Iowa in 1982. His training emphasized applied statistics and he served for two years as the student head of the University Statistical Consulting Service.

His first job after graduation was a tenure track position at Bowling Green State University in the College of Business. In addition to teaching undergraduate and MBA students, he developed a research program that emphasized the use of benchmark data sets for the evaluation of statistical software for numerical accuracy problems. Several of his benchmark data sets were adopted as Statistical Reference Data Sets by the National Institute for Standards and Technology and are published on their web site.

Steve then took a managerial position at the National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health (NIOSH), a branch of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC). In addition to statistical consulting and research, he supervised a group of programmers and statisticians. His group was one of the first to deploy a local area network in CDC. Steve also supervised a two year project on data acquisition and analysis. As part of this project, he set up laboratory robotics, instrumental interfaces, and a client-server system for data storage.

Steve was co-author on a research paper that NIOSH selected for the Alice Hamilton Award for best overall publication in Occupational Safety and Health in 1990. A second research paper also won the overall award in 1991 and a third paper was a finalist for this award in 1992. A fourth publication, which appeared in print after Steve left NIOSH, won the 1999 Alice Hamilton Award in the category of animal research.

Also while at NIOSH, Steve Simon actively promoted the use of Total Quality Management. He served on several quality teams and served as both team leader and team facilitator. He also gave several lectures on the use of control charts and other quality tools.

In 1996, Steve joined Children's Mercy Hospital, where he is currently working. He is responsible for the statistical consultation for all research at the hospital. He is currently funded as a co-investigator on two NIH grants and has helped several other people acquire research funding.

At his current job, Steve produces web pages that explain how to design and analyze medical research studies. In 1997, Steve's presentation "Medical Statistics Case Studies on the Web" was voted as the best presentation in the area of Teaching Statistics in the Health Sciences at the Joint Statistical Meetings. One of these web pages "How to Read a Medical Journal Article" has been translated into Spanish and posted on two different international medical sites.

Throughout his career, Steve has been an active researcher. He has co-authored over 40 publications in a variety of Medical and Statistical Journals. He has produced a series of invited editorials for the Lab Corner of the Journal of Andrology and has been paid for a commercial publication in Computer Language magazine.

Steve is widely sought out for his teaching skills. He has co-organized a special two day short course at the national meeting of the American Society for Reproductive Medicine (Statistical Methods and Experimental Design in the Reproductive Laboratory). He gave an invited presentation for the regional meeting of the Biometric Society (Statistical Methods for Human Reproductive Toxicology Research), and led several discussions about statistical analysis at a national workshop (Methods for Semen Studies in Humans). He has also been to give presentation for numerous local professional groups and societies (covering areas in computer software, statistics, and medicine).

Steve has a unique combination of skills. He has broad computer expertise and in-depth knowledge of statistical applications. He has applied these skills in medical, business, and managerial settings.