Jessica M. Utts
Jessica Utts is professor emerita of statistics at the University of California at Irvine. She received her B.A. in math and psychology at SUNY Binghamton and her M.A. and Ph.D. in statistics at Penn State University. Aside from MIND ON STATISTICS, Dr. Utts has authored SEEING THROUGH STATISTICS and co-authored STATISTICAL IDEAS AND METHODS, both published by Cengage Learning. Dr. Utts has been active in the statistics education community at the high school and college levels. She served as chair of the Advanced Placement Statistics Development Committee and as Chief Reader for the A.P. Statistics Exam. In 2016 she was the president of the American Statistical Association, the largest professional organization in the world for statisticians. She is a recipient of the Academic Senate Distinguished Teaching Award and the Magnar Ronning Award for Teaching Excellence, both at the University of California at Davis. She is also a fellow of the American Statistical Association, the Institute of Mathematical Statistics, the American Association for the Advancement of Science and the Association for Psychological Science. Beyond statistics education, Dr. Utts’s major contributions have been in applying statistics to a variety of disciplines, most notably to parapsychology, the laboratory study of psychic phenomena. She has appeared on numerous television shows, including Larry King Live, ABC's Nightline, CNN Morning News and 20/20.
Robert F. Heckard
Robert F. Heckard is a retired senior lecturer in statistics at the Pennsylvania State University. In his 36-year career at Penn State, he taught introductory statistics courses for undergraduate students as well as applied statistics courses for students at the senior and graduate level. His advanced teaching included courses in regression analysis, analysis of variance, experimental design, nonparametric statistics, time series analysis, multivariate analysis, analysis of clinical trials and statistical computing. At Penn State, Dr. Heckard received the Eberly College of Science Innovative Teaching award and the Schreyer Institute for Teaching Excellence Collaborative Course Design award. He was also awarded several university grants to develop multimedia and web-based instructional materials for teaching statistical concepts. Aside from MIND ON STATISTICS, he is the co-author of STATISTICAL IDEAS AND METHODS, published by Cengage Learning. Dr. Heckard has been an active consultant in the statistical analysis and design of cancer treatment clinical trials and highway safety research.
