Army Wilks Memorial Award

The Samuel S. Wilks Memorial Medal and Award was established in 1964 with a $5,000 gift from Mr. Philip B. Rust of Thomasville, Georgia. The original Wilks Memorial Medal Award, initiated jointly by the U.S. Army and the American Statistician Association (ASA), is administered by the ASA, a non-profit educational and scientific society founded in 1839. The Wilks Award is given each year to a statistician and is based primarily on his contribution to the advancement of scientific or technical knowledge in Army statistics, ingenious application of such knowledge, or successful activity in the fostering of cooperation scientific matters which coincidentally benefit the Army, the Department of Defense, the U.S. Government, and our country generally. For a discussion of Wilks’ contribution to Army statistics, the establishment of the conference, and the Wilks Award, please see this paper by Leslie Simon.

Army/ASA Wilks Memorial Award Winners

Philip Rust made another gift for the establishment of a second Wilks award, called “The Wilks Award for Contributions to Statistical Methodologies in Army Research, Development, and Testing.” The new Army Wilks Memorial Award is given periodically at the Defense and Aerospace Test and Analysis Workshop to a deserving individual who has made a substantial contribution to statistical methodology and application impacting the practice of statistics in the Army through personal research in statistics or application of statistics in the solution of Army problems. The award was established to commemorate the career of Prof. Samuel S. Wilks and especially his service to the Army.

Army Wilks Memorial Awards