Congratulations to Ashley Askew, Ozgu Issever and Qin Wang for receiving this year's Outstanding Teaching Assistant Award from the University. This award means that their teaching ranks in the top 10% of all TAs at the University!

Congratulations to our 2008 Student Award winners! They are: Jung Ae Lee for Best Beginning Applied Student, YiJie (Jerry) Xue for Best Beginning Theoretical Student, and Ming-Hung (Jason) Kao for Best Senior Student.

Ming-Hung (Jason) Kao has been awarded a James L. Carmon Scholarship. This scholarship is awarded to a graduate student whose research reflects state-of-the-art utilization of computer and/or networking technology in the sciences or creative arts. The scholarship was established in memory of Dr. James L. Carmon, a UGA faculty member for 36 years, who helped advance computer research and development at the university.

Congratulations to Andy Bartlett, Nathan Lekahal, and Chris O'Neal for receiving this year's Outstanding Teaching Assistant Award from the University. This award means that their teaching ranks in the top 10% of all TAs at the University!

Effective in May of 2008, Julie Davis, Administrative Associate I, has started a new position within UGA as Data Management Specialist II. We are sorry to see Julie move on, but wish her the best of luck in the new position.

Germaine Cahoon is our new Administrative Associate I, who joined our department in June. Germaine comes to us from EITS, and brings excellent ability and skills to this position. Welcome Germaine!

John Stufken has been named Editor-Elect for The American Statistician. He will start handling new submissions to TAS in July of 2008 and will become the Editor in January of 2009.

We also welcome Dr. Kim Gilbert who joins us as a Temporary Instructor for the 2008-09 academic year. Kim, who received her Bachelor's and Master's degrees from our department, brings rich experience teaching statistics at several colleges and universities around the state of Georgia - most recently Georgia Gwinnett College in Lawrenceville. Welcome back to UGA, Kim!

The department welcomes Jien Chen to the faculty as Associate Director for the Statistical Consulting Center. Jien will work closely with the Director of the SCC, Jaxk Reeves, and has started her position in the reopened SCC at the rank of Academic Professional in July.

After 10 years of dedicated service to the department, Jill Smith has accepted a position as Lecturer at the University of California Riverside. The position starts in the fall of 2008. Thank you for your tireless contributions Jill! We are sad to see you leave, but wish you the best of luck and are confident that you will be equally successful at the other coast.