971452_en-US

liliconcom

George Box legacy lives on at ENBIS 2026

Statistician George Box made major contributions to industrial quality control, time series analysis, design of experiments, and Bayesian inference.Statistician George Box made major contributions to industrial quality control, time series analysis, design of experiments, and Bayesian inference.One of the great statistical minds of the 20th century, George Box is a name all JMP employees should know. Although he died in 2013, he lives on in JMP lore. He was a keynote speaker for one of the first Discovery Summits, and he has been a role model to many of us.

Last week, Box was remembered and honored at ENBIS 2026 (the European Network for Business and Industrial Statistics conference) in Florence, Italy. And so was Bradley Jones, a JMP retiree and DOE pioneer. At the conference, Jones was presented the George Box Medal and gave the traditional Box lecture, an annual historic honor dating back to 2003, when tENBIS President Elect, Winfried Theis, presented Jones the George Box Medal and AwardENBIS President Elect, Winfried Theis, presented Jones the George Box Medal and Awardhe Box Medal was first presented to George Box himself. The medal recognizes “an extraordinary statistician who has remarkably contributed … to the development and the application of statistical methods in European business and industry.”

Jones’ lecture was recorded and should soon be on the ENBIS website. Highlights included opening with recognition and appreciation for his significant other, JoAnn Everhart, as well as JMP colleagues John Sall and Ryan Lekivetz, and his long-time collaborator, Peter Goos.

He closed his talk with an apt line for these over-hyped AI times: “Be skeptical.”

Sall, Lekivetz, and Chris Gotwalt represented JMP at the conference, as did our European colleagues, Phil Kay, Volker Kraft, and Paolo Chiappa. Jones’ long-time friends and collaborators, some of whom were also presenting at ENBIS, were there to mark the occasion as well:

• Blan Godfrey, Professor Emeritus and former dean of Wilson College at NC State
• David Banks, Professor Emeritus of the Practice of Statistics at Duke University
• Dibyen Majumdar, Professor Emeritus of Mathematics, Statistics, and Computer Science at University of Illinois Chicago
• Marcus Perry, Professor of Statistics at University of Alabama
• Jonathon Stallrich, Director of PhD Programs and Associate Professor of Statistics at NC State
• Heath Rushing, long-time JMP partner, co-founder of and principal consultant at Adsurgo, LLC

John Sall shares remarks during the ceremony.John Sall shares remarks during the ceremony.

“Bradley Jones, with his many collaborators, transformed DOE from a sleepy discipline into a field full of breakthrough discoveries," John Sall observed, marking the occasion. "Why ever use the old fractional factorials now that we have designs with minimal aliasing with respect to higher-order effects? Not only are the modeled effects insulated from possible bias from higher-order unmodeled effects, but, with the effect sparsity principle, it is possible to find big higher-order effects that would not ordinarily be estimable. From our perspective as a software provider, we have heard many dramatic success stories from engineers troubleshooting problems and improving products and processes using these DOE innovations. Brad has been an inspiring leader, both to our own team and to the statistics profession.” 

And Lekivetz, whom Jones hired 14 years ago and who now leads the DOE and reliability development team, shares, “One of the most rewarding parts of the ceremony was seeing the audience's reaction. The room was full of researchers and practitioners whose work Brad has influenced, whether through direct interactions, his research, or the innovations he helped bring to JMP. It was a reminder of just how many people, projects, and organizations he has influenced over the years.”

Lekivetz also noted, “Brad’s prominence in both academic research and industrial practice was one reason I joined JMP. Much of his research began with practical problems faced by JMP users or with gaps he recognized in existing methods. Those insights often became capabilities in the software, helping professionals design effective, resource-efficient experiments.”

Ryan LekivetzRyan Lekivetz

Jones also recognized a tangible link to George Box and the history of design of experiments: a cube used to illustrate a three-factor design space. The cube was passed from George Box to Stu Hunter, then to Brad Jones, and eventually to Ryan Lekivetz. It now resides in Lekivetz’s office, a small but meaningful symbol of how statistical ideas and mentorship are passed from one generation to the next.

And Jacquelyn Asscher, president of ENBIS and past JMP Discovery Summit Europe Steering Committee member, was a gracious host to all attendees and gave a special warm welcome to those of us from JMP. She was happy to celebrate the occasion as well: “As President of ENBIS and a champion of DOE, I was delighted that Bradley Jones was awarded the prestigious Box Medal at the ENBIS-26 international conference in Florence last week. Bradley Jones' work is ground-breaking and broad-ranging. His contributions are anchored in the real needs of practitioners and are widely used and valued.”

The ceremony celebrated an extraordinary body of work, but Brad’s closing words also pointed forward. In a field continually presented with new methods and new claims, “Be skeptical” remains very good advice. For more, see some of the LinkedIn posts from ENBIS, Marcus, and me.

Box was remembered and honored at ENBIS 2026. JMP retiree Bradley Jones received the historic George Box Medal and gave the traditional Box lecture.