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Johns Hopkins University professor Thomas A. Louis will join the U.S. Census Bureau through an interagency personnel agreement as the new associate director for research and methodology and chief scientist, Census Bureau Director Robert Groves announced today. Louis will become associate director, effective January 7, 2013.

"I am overjoyed that we were able to attract a world-class scientist to lead the research directorate," Groves said. "Dr. Louis will add to the innovation Dr. Roderick Little brought to the position over his successful leadership. He will, no doubt, increase the rate of scientific discoveries, which permits the Census Bureau to do its work more efficiently."

Louis is professor of biostatistics at the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health. His doctorate is in mathematical statistics from Columbia University, and he headed the biostatistics department at the University of Minnesota. Louis is an elected member of the International Statistical Institute, and a fellow of the American Statistical Association and of the American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS).

Louis was also coordinating editor of the Journal of the American Statistical Association and co-editor of Biometrics. He was elected president of the International Biometric Society and chairman of the AAAS Statistics Section. Additionally, he has served on the National Institutes of Health/National Institute of Environmental Sciences Board of Scientific Counselors, and on the National Academies Committee on National Statistics, the panel on Estimates of Poverty for Small Geographic Areas, and the panel on Formula Allocation of Federal and State Program Funds.

"I am excited by the opportunity to build on the momentum and culture that Drs. Groves and Little established to enhance the efficiency and effectiveness of statistical design and analysis," Louis said.

The associate director for research and methodology leads a directorate of research centers, each devoted to domains of investigation important to the future of social and economic statistical information. In that regard, the position leads key capacities for innovation in all the key statistical programs of the Census Bureau. The centers change over time as research needs evolve. The centers currently include the Center for Adaptive Design, Center for Administrative Records Research and Acquisition, Center for Disclosure Avoidance Research, Center for Economic Studies, Center for Statistical Research and Methodology and Center for Survey Measurement.