HELLO, my name is Sandy Weisberg
Hometown: I was born in Cleveland, Ohio, and moved to Los Angeles before I was one year old. I came to Minnesota in 1972 and, apart from a few months spent elsewhere here and there, I never figured out how, or why, to leave.
When did you join UMRA? I retired from the U and joined UMRA at the end of 2016.
What was your very first job? I worked in the now-defunct Queen of Angels Hospital in Los Angeles, renting televisions to patients in their rooms.
What was your role at the U of M? I was a professor in the School of Statistics in the College of Liberal Arts, first on the campus in St. Paul for about 30 years and then on the campus in Minneapolis. I was also director of the Statistical Consulting Service for quite a while, so I worked with hundreds of grad students, faculty, and staff on research projects in almost any area you can name.
Do you have a favorite place on campus? I am fond of the bull sculptures on the campus in St. Paul, across from the Meat Science Lab. Spring-flowering trees make the area particularly inviting.
You have authored several books on applied linear regression. What is that? All the rage these days are generative and predictive AI. Predictive AI uses masses of data and fewer assumptions to make predictions. Regression analysis is the direct ancestor of predictive AI, using limited data but more assumptions to make predictions. Much to my surprise, my 50-year-old textbook on the subject is still in print, with a Japanese translation published last year.
What inspired your interest in statistics? I was good but not great at math, and was interested in politics, so in my 20-year-old mind statistics seemed to be halfway between these two interests. It didn’t hurt that my first statistics course was taught by a new Stanford PhD who was a gifted teacher and became one of the major figures in the field.
What is a fun fact about you that we might not know? My father never graduated from high school, and my mother immigrated to the U.S. when she was about 20 and never went to school at all. All three of their children have earned doctorates.
What is something you currently enjoy doing with your time? For 44 years, I spent most of my noon hours at the U at either the St. Paul Gym or the Rec Center in Minneapolis, but I never had any sort of training in athletics. I now have a personal trainer and hope to soon to able to deadlift (look it up) my body weight.
News
The election of UMRA officers and new board members for 2025–26 will be conducted via an online poll from May 12 to 18, with the results to be announced at our annual meeting on May 20. Sally Gregory Kohlstedt leads the slate of nominees as president-elect. She came to the University of Minnesota in 1989 as a professor and associate dean, and retired in 2018.
On April 30, the UMRA Board of Directors sent a letter to University of Minnesota President Rebecca Cunningham and Provost Rachel Croson expressing the Board's support for the University admnistration as it confronts the legal, ethical, and moral challenges created by the current federal leadership.
Meet UMRA member and statistics Professor Emeritus Sandy Weisberg. His work in “regression analysis” is the direct ancestor of predictive artificial intelligence. His first job was renting televisions to patients in the now-defunct Queen of Angels Hospital in Los Angeles.
The UMRA-sponsored Journal of Opinions, Ideas & Essays is seeking a new editor-in-chief who can promote the e-publication, solicit authors, and ensure JOIE’s continued success.
Volunteer work is usually evaluated according to “replacement rate” figures based on hourly wages. But the data on hours contributed and people served are just the notes on the page; the music is in the human spirit behind and beyond them.
The University Retirees Volunteer Center Leadership Council has elected two new members, including UMRA member Scott Elton (pictured), and re-elected four members for second, three-year terms.
UMRA is excited to announce the launch of a new member portal in late April. This web-based, member management software system is hosted by a company called WildApricot and will replace the current member portal at retirees.umn.edu, where you currently renew your membership and sign up for events.
The new portal simplifies and more efficiently manages many essential tasks for UMRA, including enrolling new members, updating member records, registering event attendees, and processing payments.