Gail Receives ASA’s Karl Peace Award

Dr. Mitchell H. Gail

Dr. Mitchell H. Gail, senior investigator in the Biostatistics Branch of NCI’s Division of Cancer Epidemiology & Genetics, received the 2017 Karl E. Peace Award for Outstanding Statistical Contributions for the Betterment of Society from the American Statistical Association at the recent Joint Statistical Meetings in Baltimore.

The award recognizes Gail’s seminal contributions to the development of statistical methodology and their application to epidemiology and clinical medicine, particularly risk prediction, HIV incidence estimation, genetic epidemiology and the design, execution and analysis of cancer treatment and prevention trials. Notable is his work to develop the landmark Breast Cancer Risk Assessment Tool, also known as the Gail Model, which is widely used in counseling women on their risk of breast cancer.

In addition, Gail’s contributions have been recognized with his election to the National Academy of Medicine and the Marvin Zelen Leadership Award in Statistical Science. He is also an ASA fellow.

In August—with coauthor Dr. Ruth Pfeiffer, also a senior investigator in the Biostatistics Branch—Gail published a new book as part of the Monographs on Statistics and Applied Probability Series by CRC Press. Absolute Risk: Methods and Applications in Clinical Management and Public Health draws on the investigators’ expertise and seminal achievements in modeling absolute risk.

Established in 2012, the Peace award is given yearly to a statistical scientist who has made seminal contributions with important societal impact.