People, papers and presentations

Marie Lynn Miranda, a professor of statistics, director of Rice’s Children’s Environmental Health Initiative and former provost, has published an editorial in this week’s issue of Science warning of the danger of a proposed change to a key Environmental Protection Agency regulation. The change would require that policy decisions going forward rely only on research for which underlying raw data and models are made public. Miranda argues this “would jeopardize regulations that keep the environment safe to live in” by eliminating from consideration many public health studies that promise anonymity to participants. Read the editorial here: https://science.sciencemag.org/content/366/6470/1173.

Fred Oswald, a professor in the Department of Psychological Sciences and the Herbert S. Autrey Chair in Social Sciences, has been appointed chair of the Board on Human-Systems Integration (BOHSI) within the National Academy of Sciences. Recent high-profile commissioned reports and plenary sessions hosted by BOHSI have addressed explainable AI, strengthening the cybersecurity workforce, effective person-job matching in Air Force selection and classification, and improving patient care via clinician well-being.

Rice Emergency Medical Services received the First Responder Award at the 2019 Texas EMS Conference Nov. 26 in Fort Worth. The award honors a first responder organization that demonstrated leadership in EMS in patient care, public access, medical control, disaster preparedness, public education or training.