The 2023 ENBIS Greenfield Challenge Award recipient is Lourdes Pozueta Fernández (of AVANCEX, Spain). The award, sponsored by Wiley, was presented at the ENBIS-23 Conference in Valencia in September 2023.

The Greenfield Challenge Award aims to recognize the work done to fulfil Tony Greenfield’s challenge, expressed in 2009: 

My challenge to you is that you will tell some audience about work you have done, and completed successfully because you used a statistical method. But that audience must be of people who are not statisticians.

In Lourdes’ own words:

I graduated in boring Mathematics at U. Zaragoza (1986) where I was a member, as a student, of the governing bodies of the University, sharing political orientation with professors of industrial engineering who discovered for me “the exciting world of the application of Statistics in Industry”.

I was very fortunate to spend 3 years visiting CQPI with G. Box, S. Bisgaard and N. Draper at U. Madison-Wisconsin. There, I completed a M.S. (1991).

From 1991 to 2004, I combined a lot of consulting and a lot of teaching at the UPC (Barcelona). I loved to bring students closer to my personal experiences applying statistical engineering in Industry. Years passed and I had “pending tasks”: it was crazy to have two children and defend my thesis (2001) in two years.

I got 2 sabbatical years to work as Project Manager at TECNALIA (2004-06), one of the most prestigious Technology Centers in Europe. This experience helped me understand the value that Statistics can bring to technologist scientists and the barriers that exist for its application.

In 2006 I decided to start as entrepreneur at Avancex+i trying to provide economic and cultural value with Statistical Engineering. In 2020 I won the ENBIS Best Manager Award.

My teaching vocation is manifested in the way I carry out my work: “I try to help people achieve professional success as a result of the application of statistical tools. For this I try to hide a lot of Mathematics and delve into Statistical Thinking: useful ways of visualizing data, the importance of collecting valuable data and the skills to integrate statistics in their professional work”.

I try to help society with my experiences and I collaborate with schools, universities, engineering colleges, etc. I also participate in the media.

For more information on the Greenfield Challenge, please visit the ENBIS site here.