Alpha Stat Consulting

Dr. Patricia L. Smith began her career in academics, serving on the statistics faculties of Texas A&M University, the University of Alberta in Canada, and Old Dominion University in Virginia. Her broad experience includes research grants from NASA, serving as computer site manager at a classified U.S. Naval facility, ten years in R&D with Shell Development Company, and four years on site at two different Shell chemical plants. She has been an independent consultant since 1999.

For the classroom, Dr. Smith has developed and taught courses in bulk sampling and statistics methodology. In the field, she has led teams in process improvement and off-spec reduction.

She is the recipient of the Shell President's Award for Team Excellence and the Texas A&M University Department of Statistics Hartley Award for her distinguished service to the discipline of statistics. Her book A Primer for Sampling Solids, Liquids, and Gases is a practical guide for those in the field as well as an introduction for the theoretician. More information is available at http://www.ec-securehost.com/SIAM/SA08.html.

Dr. Smith served on the 2002 and 2003 Board of Examiners for the Malcolm Baldrige National Quality Award and the 2003 Board of Examiners for the Texas Award for Performance Excellence.

"Your decisions are only as good as your samples."

E-mail: alpha@alphastat.com