HAMPTON, Va. - The Congressionally-mandated investigation and statistical analysis of the World Trade Center disaster is complete. The collapse of the twin towers can be characterized in four stages: the impact of the aircraft, how the fire spread, the propagation of heat through the building's insulation and the towers' structural deformation.

Dr. James Filliben will discuss the results of the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) federal building and fire safety investigation on Thursday, Jan. 4, at 2 p.m. in the NASA Langley Research Center Reid Conference Center. Dr. Filliben will give a similar briefing for the general public at 7:30 p.m. at the Virginia Air & Space Center, downtown Hampton.

Media who wish to interview Dr. Filliben at a press briefing at 1:15 p.m. Thursday should contact Marny Skora at 864-3315 or 344-6111 (mobile) by noon for credentials and entry to the Center.

Culminating a career that has spanned 37 years at NIST, Dr. Filliben is currently leader of the Statistical Modeling and Analysis Group of the Statistical Engineering Division. His primary research interests are in exploratory data analysis and statistical graphics, design of experiments, distributional and computational modeling and uncertainty/sensitivity analysis.

Filliben earned a doctoral degree from Princeton University in 1969. A fellow of the American Statistical Association, he is the recipient of its prestigious Youden Award. He has also received two Gold Medals, one Silver Medal and one Bronze Medal from the U.S. Department of Commerce.

He is the author of Dataplot, an interactive, multiplatform, integrated graphics and analysis software system for scientists and engineers. He is also the author of over 75 technical papers and has presented over 200 talks on statistics to a variety of audiences.

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