Message from the Director

By the time this Newsletter reaches you, the organisers of the 54th ISI Session in Berlin have already mailed to you their first Bulletin outlining this Session which takes place 13-20 August 2003. If you did not receive a copy, you may request one via isi@destatis.de . This information can also be found at www.isi-2003.de.

Let me remind those statisticians from developing countries who are considering to present a paper at this Session that they can apply for support from the ISI Development Fund or from the Tokyo Memorial Fund (see page 5) for support. The ISI Development Fund can provide up to 90% of these expenses. Applications will be collected until February 28, 2003, which is the closing day for receiving application submissions. Since we expect more applications than can be granted, given the limit of Euro or US $ 50,000 per year, a selection will then be made on the basis of quality, and recipients will be notified no later than March 15, 2003.

For what may very well be the first time in its history, the ISI was represented at the Joint Statistical Meetings (JSM) of the American Statistical Association (ASA), the Institute of Mathematical Statistics (IMS), the International Biometric Society (ENAR and WNAR) and the Statistical Society of Canada. This is undoubtedly the largest statistical gathering in the world, which this year took place in New York City, on August 11-15. It was encouraging to note that many JSM participants expressed their interest in obtaining information about the ISI Berlin Session and ISI publications. The ASA will in turn have a booth at the Berlin Session. Please feel free to visit and learn more about their activities. These exchanges are an expression of the closer ongoing co-operation between the ISI and the ASA.

Our biennial “Briefing Seminar for Chief Statisticians” was held in London on August 30-31, 2002. There were 18 participants, mostly from developing countries, who expressed satisfaction about the usefulness of the programme for their work. The next Seminar will be held in 2004, most probably at the ISI Permanent Office in Voorburg, the Netherlands.

Unfortunately, the Swiss Government has withdrawn its invitation to host the 2007 ISI Session in Switzerland, the reasons for this withdrawal being of a financial nature. Fortunately, it has meanwhile been confirmed that the 2007 Session will instead be held in Lisbon, Portugal. Preliminary preparations start in October of this year. Consideration is being given to various destinations for future ISI Sessions, and we expect to make an announcement regarding the host for the 2009 Session early next year.

Finally, I would like to request your help. At the ISI Session in Berlin there will be two new kinds of Awards for which we need your motivated proposals. For the first time, the Mahalanobis Prize will be awarded to a statistician from a developing country for his/her lifetime achievement in statistics. Please send your proposals as to whom you believe is worthy of this prize, together with your written justifications, to the Chair of the Mahalanobis Committee, former ISI President Jean-Louis Bodin at
jean-louis.bodin@wanadoo.fr or to @cbs.nl

This Committee will act as the selection jury. Secondly, with the abolishment of the various ISI medals at the General Assembly in Seoul, Korea, a new award has been instituted in the form of a certificate that will recognise exceptional service to the ISI and its Sections. A maximum of five certificates are to be awarded during the Berlin Session. Recipients must be members of the ISI in order to qualify to receive the certificate, but services rendered to any ISI Section before membership of the ISI is achieved may be taken into consideration when deciding suitable recipients for the awards. Recipients of the former Adolphe Quetelet Medal are not eligible for these certificates. Please send the name of your proposed candidate and reasons for your choice to the chair of the Service Certificate Awards Committee, Ivan Fellegi at felliva@statcan.ca.