I first met Aya when I came to work as an assistant at the Statistics Laboratory shortly after coming to Israel. She was very kind to me, inviting me to her home and treating me like an adoptive mother. Aya gave me some very useful advice, for example I always remember that she told me to be a good daughter-in-law!
Aya is a remarkable statistical consultant. One of my first memories of working with her is of watching her casually jot down a complicated model during a meeting and thinking to myself “wow, how did she do that so fast?” Looking back, I now say “wow, how can she identify the statistical issues and what is worrying the clients and how to make them feel they are in good hands and even the dynamics between them?”
Aya is also a wonderful teacher. The people that are writing here are her colleagues, graduate students and teaching assistants, but many of her biggest admirers are the students who took just one compulsory course with her. Some of them don’t even love statistics (sad but true) but years later they remember her fondly as a lecturer who brought the subject to life with interesting examples from her own work and presented it with clarity and insight.
Aya, I wish you frosty weather, good health and free-flowing chi in your retirement.
Jacqueline Asscher
