The Pfizer Colloquium began in 1978 at University of Connecticut-Storrs under the leadership of the Late Professor Harry O. Posten (University of Connecticut-Storrs) and Dr. David S. Salsburg (Pfizer Global Research and Development-Groton, Connecticut). In view of the historical importance of this project, this joint initiative has been continually supported by funding from Pfizer Global Research and Development-Groton, Connecticut, the Department of Statistics at the University of Connecticut-Storrs, and the American Statistical Association (ASA). After Professor Posten’s death in March 2002 and Dr. Salsburg’s retirement from Pfizer, Professor Nitis Mukhopadhyay of the University of Connecticut-Storrs and Dr. Naitee Ting (then with Pfizer) served as program leaders for the respective organizations. After Dr. Ting moved to Boehringer-Ingelheim, Dr. William T. Duggan of Pfizer took over the role of Dr. Ting in August 2009. The current Steering Committee members include Dr. Demissie Alemayehu (Pfizer), Professor Dipak Dey (UConn) and Dr. Ron Wasserstein (ASA).
Along with this featured guest of honor, two other distinguished statisticians are also normally invited. The featured guest of honor delivers a special lecture under the auspices of “Pfizer Colloquia by Distinguished Statisticians in Honor of Dr. David S. Salsburg”. Then, a “conversation” with the featured guest of honor and the other two distinguished statisticians is arranged under the auspices of “Conversations with Distinguished Statisticians in Memory of Professor Harry O. Posten”. These are campus-wide live events, normally held on a Thursday evening, and they are open to all, free of any charge.
| Pfizer Colloquium | Speaker | Affiliation | Year | Other Links |
| 24 | Grace Wahba | University of Wisconsin-Madison | 2018 | |
| 23 | Pranab K. Sen | University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill | 2012 | |
| 22 | Stephen E. Fienberg | Carnegie Mellon University | 2009 | Link |
| 21 | Barbara A. Bailar | Statistical Consultant | 2007 | Link |
| 20 | Emanuel Parzen | Texas A & M University | 2006 | Link |
| 19 | C.C. Heyde | Columbia University | 2005 | |
| 18 | David R. Brillinger | University of California, Berkeley | 2004 | Link |
| 17 | Bradley Efron | Stanford University | 2001 | Link |
| 16 | Janet Norwood | The Urban Institute | 2000 | |
| 15 | Robert V. Hogg | University of Iowa | 1998 | Link |
| 14 | Ingram Olkin | Stanford University | 1997 | Link |
| 13 | Theodore W. Anderson | Stanford University | 1995 | Link |
| 12 | David R. Cox | University of Oxford | 1994 | Link |
| 11 | Erich Lehmann | University of California, Berkeley | 1992 | Link |
| 10 | Herbert Robbins | Rutgers University | 1990 | Link |
| 9 | Herman Chernoff | Harvard University | 1989 | Link |
| 8 | Frederick Mosteller | Harvard University | 1987 | |
| 7 | Morris H. Hansen | Westat, Inc. | 1985 | Link |
| 6 | Churchill Eisenhart | National Bureau of Standards | 1984 | |
| 5 | Gottfried Noether | University of Connecticut | 1983 | |
| 4 | C.R. Rao | University of Pittsburgh and Indian Statistical Institute | 1981 | Link |
| 3 | Harold Cramér | Stockholm University | 1980 | |
| 2 | Jerzy Neyman | University of California, Berkeley | 1979 | |
| 1 | C.R. Rao | Indian Statistical Institute | 1978 |