Joseph Waksberg was born September 20, 1915, in Kielce, Poland; his family
emigrated to the United States in 1921. Soon after graduating from the City
University of New York (CUNY) in 1936, he moved to the Washington, D.C. ar
ea. He joined the Census Bureau in 1940, and stayed there for 33 years, ret
iring in 1973 as the Associate Director for Statistical Methods, Research,
and Standards. Joe then joined Westat, a statistical research firm in subur
ban Maryland. He has continued to work at Westat for the last 26 years, ser
ving as Chairman of the Board of Westat since 1990. From 1967 to 1997, he a
lso served as a consultant to CBS and other TV networks for election night
predictions. He has served the profession of statistics in many roles and r
eceived numerous awards, including the Department of Commerce Gold Medal an
d the Roger Herriot Memorial Award from the American Statistical Associatio
n. He has been active in the American Statistical Association serving on th
e Board of Directors as chairs of both the Survey Research Methods Section
and the Social Statistics Section and on a number of committees. He has bee
n president of the Washington Statistical Society and is currently an Assoc
iate Editor of Survey Methodology.