ISI - International Statistical Institute
Newsletter Volume 26, No. 1 (76) 2002

Message from the Director

Thank you for all the good wishes we received at the ISI Permanent Office for the year 2002. We truly hope that the coming year will be less eventful in some obvious respects than the last year has been. On behalf of the ISI Executive Committee and the ISI Permanent Office we extend the same wishes to you in the hope that you will have a fruitful and successful year. 

We look forward to the proposals that are being prepared by the Ad Hoc Committee on Membership Expansion and Renewal chaired by David Moore to increase and rejuvenate ISI membership. The first preliminary recommendations by this Committee to achieve these goals are to be presented to the ISI Executive Committee in the beginning of March, when the EC meets in New York City. 

I would like to announce an ISI Cutting Edge meeting that will be held in Berlin from July 1-3 in Berlin, Germany. The meeting will be chaired by Prof. Eckart Elsner of the Statistisches Landesamt Berlin. The aim of this meeting will be to review the ISI's "Declaration on Professional Ethics" and to identify gaps and deficiencies in the declaration from the perspective of statisticians active in different areas, with a view to exploring ways to enhance the guidance given to and by statisticians regarding professional conduct. More information is available from Professor Elsner at e.elsner@statistik-berlin.de. This topic has also received the attention of the United Nations Statistical Division, which has prepared a searchable database with many examples of country practices related to the "Fundamental Principles of Official Statistics". For more information see http://esa.un.org/unsd/goodprac.

 I would also focus attention on the Interstate Statistical Committee of Independent States (CIS Statcommittee) located in Moscow, Russia, and in particular its Chairman Mikhail Korolev, for the work that the Committee has conducted after the creation of newly independent states, with the demise of the Soviet Union. Twelve of the 15 independent states cooperate with CIS, which is evidence of the importance these states attach to maintain and secure comparability of statistical data within the new context. 

The ISI World Numeracy Project received a new impetus with the arrival of Carol Blumberg (Winona State University, Minnesota, USA), who is now spending part of her sabbatical at the ISI Permanent Office to see which activities within this context need to be addressed. We hope to be able to report about the results of her efforts and those of other ISI members, mostly with a strong commitment to the IASE Section, which address the issue of Numeracy, or more specifically, of Statistical Literacy. 

For those ISI and Section members who do not subscribe to the abstracting journal Statistical Theory and Method Abstracts please note that since December last year, the printed version of this publication (which appeared 4 times per year) has been discontinued. Instead of the printed version, 2 CD-ROMs will be produced per year from now on, each containing some 3,000 new abstracts from over 250 statistical journals, plus more than ten years of back issues. For ISI and Section members, the price has been reduced to Euro 86 or US $ 77 per year. Institutional subscribers pay Euro 120 per year. Finally, I would like to mention the progress that has been achieved in reaching an agreement with the Ministry of Statistics and Programme Implementation of the Government of India concerning the Mahalanobis Prize, so named to recognise the fundamental role which Mahalanobis played in the development of statistics in general, and of statistics in India in particular. This Prize, financed by the Indian Government, will for the first time be awarded during the 54th Session in Berlin to a statistician who was born and who was active in a developing country, in recognition of his or her lifetime achievement in statistics. The ISI Mahalanobis Committee, chaired by former ISI President Jean-Louis Bodin, will decide on the most suitable candidate for this Prize, consisting of about US $ 5,000 and an all-expenses-paid participation in the 54th ISI Session in Berlin. Candidates may be proposed themselves, accompanied by supportive statements from two referees, by National Statistical Offices, National Statistical Associations, and Academic and Research Institutes, or by the Committee, once it is complete. In addition to the Chair, the Committee will consist of the Director-General of the Central Statistical Organisation of India, representatives from Australia, the ECLAC countries, the Republic of Korea, Canada and the U.K. This Prize is not only a reminder to the statistical world of the fundamental role in statistics played by Mahalanobis, but is also a recognition of the importance of stimulating statistics in developing countries. 

MARCEL VAN DEN BROECKE
Director

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