John M. Chambers Statistical Software Award
		    Statistical Computing Section
		   American Statistical Association

The Statistical Computing Section of the American Statistical
Association announces the competition for the John M. Chambers
Statistical Software Award. In 1998 the Association for Computing
Machinery presented its Software System Award to John Chambers for the
design and development of S.  Dr. Chambers generously donated his
award to the Statistical Computing Section to endow an annual prize
for statistical software written by an undergraduate or graduate
student.  The prize carries with it a cash award of $1000, plus a
substantial allowance for travel to the annual Joint Statistical
Meetings where the award will be presented.

To be eligible, an entrant must have designed and implemented a piece
of statistical software.  The applicant must have begun the
development while a student, and must either currently be a student,
or have completed all requirements for their last degree after January
1, 2002.  To apply for the award, entrants must provide the following
materials:

A current CV.

A letter from a faculty mentor at their academic institution.  The
letter should confirm that the software is the work of the student,
certify the student status of the entrant when the software began to
be developed (and either the current student status and the date of
degree completion), and briefly discuss the importance of the software
to statistical practice.

A brief, one to two page description of the software, summarizing what
it does, how it does it, and why it is an important contribution.  If
the entrant has continued developing the software after finishing
their studies, the description should indicate what was developed when
the entrant was a student and what has been added since.

Access to the software by the award committee for their use on inputs
of their choosing.  Access to the software can consist of an
executable file, Web-based access, macro code, or other appropriate
form.  Access should be accompanied by enough information to allow the
judges to effectively use and evaluate the software.  This information
can be provided in a variety of ways, including but not limited to a
user manual (paper or electronic), a paper, a URL, online help to the
system, and source code.  In particular, the entrant must be prepared
to provide complete source code for inspection by the committee if
requested.

All materials must be in English.  We prefer that electronic text be
submitted in Postscript or PDF.  The entries will be judged on a
variety of dimensions, including the importance and relevance for
statistical practice of the tasks performed by the software, ease of
use, clarity of description, elegance and availability for use by the
statistical community. Preference will be given to those entries that
are grounded in software design rather than calculation.  The decision
of the award committee is final.

All application materials must be received by 5:00pm EST, Monday,
February 28, 2005 at the address below.  The winner will be announced
in May and the award will be given at the 2005 Joint Statistical
Meetings.

Information on the competition can also be accessed on the website of
the Statistical Computing Section (www.statcomputing.org or see the
ASA website, www.amstat.org for a pointer), including the names and
contributions of previous winners.  Inquiries and application
materials should be emailed or mailed to:

	Chambers Software Award
	c/o Dr. José Pinheiro 
        Biostatistics, Novartis Pharmaceuticals     
        One Health Plaza, Room 419/2115 
        East Hanover, NJ 07936
	jose.pinheiro@pharma.novartis.com