Bernoulli Society for Mathematical Statistics and
Probability
Editorial
Updates and additions to the information below, including in particular the
latest news on upcoming Bernoulli Society conferences and co-sponsored
conferences, can be found via our worldwide web home page:
http://www.math.ruu.nl/bernoulli
run by Erik van Zwet (Utrecht, e-mail
vanzwet@math.ruu.nl ) and also via the home page:
http://www.mathematik.tu-muenchen.de/bernoulli/index.html
of our own newsletter Bernoulli News (edited by Angelika May, Munchen, e-mail:
may@mathematik.tu-muenchen.de ).
In this edition of the Newsletter I draw your attention to the nominees for
president and council, announce new publishing arrangements for the society
journal Bernoulli, and summarize committee news and upcoming meetings related to
the Bernoulli Society. All this is just an edited selection of the wide variety
of activities which now involve the Bernoulli Society: please see Bernoulli News
for more details!
Society News
Nominees for president and council:
The Nominating Committee has nominated the following for the official positions
of the Bernoulli Society:
President-Elect from 1999:
Peter Hall:
halpstat@pretty.anu.edu.au
Bernoulli Council 1999-2003:
M. Fukushima:
fuku@ipcku.kansai-u.ac.jp
L.G. Gorostiza:
gortega@servidor.unam.mx
I.M. Johnstone: imj@stat.stanford.edu
J. Jureckova:
jurecko@karlin.mff.cuni.cz
J.-F. Le Gall: legall@dmi.ens.fr
B.W. Silverman:
B.W.Silverman@bristol.ac.uk
and finally, to replace Adrian Smith until 2001:
H. Tong: htong@hkustas2.hku.hk
or h.tong@ukc.ac.uk
All the above have accepted their nomination.
The members of the Nominating Committee were:
David Siegmund (President-Elect and chair of committee)
Louis Chen (President)
for CCSP: Makoto Maejima, Japan
for C(PS)2: Colleen Cutler, Canada
for ERC: Zuzana Praskova, Czech Republic
for LARC: Mauro Marques, Brazil
for EAPRC: Tim Brown, Australia
Bernoulli Journal
We noted in the previous Newsletter a provisional agreement between Kluwer and
ISI concerning the takeover of the society journal Bernoulli by the latter. This
has now been consummated, and we are delighted to pass on the following
information from the chief editor of Bernoulli, Ole Barndorff-Nielsen, which
will also appear in the first issues of the 1999 Bernoulli volume:
"It is a pleasure to be able to announce that as of 1 January 1999 Bernoulli is
published jointly by the Bernoulli Society and the International Statistical
Institute. Moreover, from that same date the annual number of issues will
increase from four to six, and the number of printed pages in 1999 will be
double that of 1998. The Editorial Policy of the journal remains the same”.
The background for these changes (which, in particular, means that no commercial
publisher is involved as intermediary) will be described in messages from the
Executive Committee of the Bernoulli Society. In particular, details will be
given in the next issue of Bernoulli News which is expected to be distributed
together with Issue 3 of the 1999 Volume 5 of Bernoulli.
"Missing Data"
Recently some members have complained to the membership secretary about problems
they have experienced in receiving issues of Bernoulli journal. There is a
reason for these problems. During the last year the publisher of Bernoulli
changed several times. At the beginning of 1998, Kluwer took over from Chapman
and Hall, and from 1999 onwards the ISI Permanent Office has taken over from
Kluwer. The outcome of these interesting but turbulent times is that the
publication business is in our hands jointly with ISI, and therefore we are now
at last in a position to settle these problems effectively.
Regional and other Committees
Much of the most vital work of the Bernoulli Society is carried out by its
regional and other committees. We summarize news from some of these committees
below: note that much more detail can be found in Bernoulli News!
East-Asian and Pacific Regional Committee
The East-Asian and Pacific Regional Committee, chaired by Chii-Ruey Hwang
(Taiwan, mahwang@ccvax.sinica.edu.tw ),
is supporting the forthcoming International Conference on Probability and
Statistics and their Applications, Hanoi, Vietnam (see below).
European Regional Committee
The European Regional Committee, chaired by Jacek Koronacki (Poland,
korona@ipipan.waw.pl ),
is coordinating the series of European Meetings of Statisticians (EMS), the
European Young Statisticians' Meetings (EYSM), and the “Seminaires Européens de
Statistiques'‘. For example, the next SemStat will be held at EURANDOM,
Eindhoven (The Netherlands), over the period March 15-20, 1999.
Committee for Conferences on Stochastic Processes
The Committee for Conferences on Stochastic Processes, chairman Makoto Maejima
(Japan, maejima@math.keio.ac.jp )
plans to hold the 26th SPA in Beijing, China (see below), where this
committee will hold its main meeting.
Committee on Probability and Statistics in the Physical Sciences
The Committee on Probability and Statistics in the Physical Sciences, chairman
Ed Waymire (USA; waymire@math.orst.edu ),
is involved in the "Earth and Space Sciences" meeting in Athens: this will be a
satellite meeting to the ISI session Helsinki 1999 (see below).
Committee on Probability and Statistics in Biological Sciences
Terry Speed (Australia, e-mail:
terry@wehi.edu.au )
is the first Chairman of the Committee on Probability and Statistics in
Biological Sciences, which is in the process of being formed.
Bernoulli Society 2000 Committee
In 1995 the Bernoulli Society set up a Committee, termed the BS 2000 Committee,
chaired by Ole Barndorff-Nielsen (Denmark, oebn@mi.aau.dk ). The purpose of the
Committee is, on the occasion of the turn of the century, to mark the progress
in the science of stochastics (i.e. mathematical statistics and probability)
through a number of events, working in unison with the activities of the World
Mathematical Year 2000 (under the auspices of the International Mathematical
Union). The BS 2000 committee is organizing a number of Bernoulli Society Year
2000 Conferences (a current list is given at the end of this report), with the
objective of achieving good media publicity. The overall goal is to give general
citizens a fair impression of the role and impact of stochastics on matters of
direct interest in day-to-day life.
Meetings in 1999
In 1999 the main focus of the Bernoulli Society is the ISI 52nd Session at
Helsinki, August 1999, of which you will read elsewhere in this newsletter!
Richard Gill has chaired the BS committee that has produced proposals for the BS
component of the Helsinki session, and has done a magnificent job.
Other meetings in 1999 include:
International Conference on Probability and Statistics and their Applications,
9-11 June 1999, Hanoi, Vietnam:
To take place at the National Centre for Natural Sciences and Technology, Hanoi.
Invited speakers to include: J. D. Chen (Beijing), C. S. Choi (Taejon), D.
Dacunha-Castelle (Orsay), H. T. Dang (Hanoi), P. Hall (Canberra), F. S. Hsieh
(Taipei), Z .M. Ma (Beijing), N. Obata (Nagoya), Y. Ogata (Tokyo), D. W. Stroock
(Cambridge, Massachusetts), Y. K. N. Truong (Singapore/Chapel Hill). For further
information, please contact Tran Manh Tuan ( tuan@nghiado.ac.vn ), or see the
EAPRC web-page:
http://sunsite.nus.sg/bernoulli.EAPRC
26th SPA: Beijing, China, June 14-18, 1999:
The organizer is Jia-an Yan ( jayan@amath7.amt.ac.cn ), and the Programme
Committee chair is Zhi-Ming Ma ( mazm@sun.ihep.ac.cn ). Invited speakers to
include: L.H.Y. Chen (Singapore), D.M. Chung (Seoul), J. Dai (Atlanta), P.A.
Ferrari (St. Paul), M. Fukushima (Osaka), T. Kurtz (Madison), Y.G. Lu (Bari),
T.S. Mountfort (Los Angeles), B. Oksendal (Oslo), S.G. Peng (Jinan), M.P. Qiang
(Beijing), M. Roeckner (Bielefeld), S.J. Sheu (Taipei), A.N. Shiryaev (Moscow).
For further information please contact Xiaoyu Hu ( xyhu@amath4.amt.ac.cn ).
International workshop on Markov processes and controlled Markov chains,
Changsha, Hunan, China, August 22-28, 1999:
Following the IFORS meeting in Beijing, in August 1999 this workshop will be the
first of its kind to be held in China. It recognizes the growing interest among
the Chinese scholars in Markov Processes and their applications as well as the
need to expose their contributions to the overseas community of experts.
Participants will have an opportunity to hear state-of-the-art lectures on a
wide range of topics in Markov Processes and Controlled Markov Chains and to
exchange ideas with some of the world's leading experts in these subjects.
Conference information is available from
www.unisa.edu.au/maths/events/china.html , or e-mail ( zthou@csru.edu.cn ).
and two BS-sponsored satellite meetings to the ISI session:
SESS-TIES'99 (Satellite Meeting to ISI'99) International Conference on
Environmetrics and Statistics in the Earth and Space Sciences, August 23–27,
1999, Athens (Greece), supported by C(PS)2:
The chairman of the scientific committee is Abdul El-Shaarawi (Canada,
( Abdul.El-Shaarawi@cs.cciw.ca ), and the chairman of the local organizing
committee is Harry Pavlopoulos ( hgp@aueb.gr ). Information on the web is to be
found at www.stat-athens.aueb.gr/esess/ , and the 6th
Tartu Conference on Multivariate Statistics, Tartu, Estonia, August 19–23, 1999.
(Information from etiit@ut.ee ).
Future meetings
Bernoulli Society 5th World Congress, 15-21 May 2000; Guanajuato, Mexico.
Local Organizer: Victor Perez-Abreu (Guanajuato,
pabreu@mailer.main.conacyt.mx );
Programme Chair: Evarist Gine (USA, gine@uconnvm.uconn.edu ). Details of this
major event in the life of the society are now developing fast: for registration
and other information see the web-page ( www.Bernoulli-ims-2000.org.mx ). As a
further advertisement for the congress, to which we look forward very much
indeed, we add this short description of the locale: "Guanajuato City is located
about 350 km (220 miles) NW of Mexico City. The City of Guanajuato
(``gwah-na-gwah-toe'') dazzles the visitor with the charm of its relaxed
atmosphere, its cobblestone streets, its picturesque plazas and its underground
streets. While remaining a small provincial city, Guanajuato boasts a great
number of attractions, from beautiful colonial buildings to modern museums, from
silver mines to a university."
There will be various BS Year 2000 meetings across the world. It is planned to
hold seven Year 2000 Conferences. Participation in the Conferences will be by
invitation. However, anyone interested in attending one of the Conferences is
welcome to contact the organizer. Here are brief details: further details are to
be found in the latest Bernoulli News:
BS 2000 Workshop on ‘Stochastic Geometry’
Organizer: C.C. Heyde (Canberra). The BS 2000 Workshop on ‘Stochastic Geometry’
is planned to take place together with a Symposium on ‘Inference for Stochastic
Processes’ at the University of Georgia, Athens, over the period 10–12 May 2000.
The programs will be partly in common and the BS Workshop will be advertised
both separately and jointly with the Symposium. The activities are timed to fit
conveniently with the 5th World Congress of the Bernoulli Society to be held in
Guanajuato, Mexico, from 15-21 May, 2000.
BS 2000 Conference on ‘Statistical Science and Environmental Policy: Possible
Interactions'
Organizer: Jayanta Ghosh (Calcutta). Place: Indian Statistical Institute,
Calcutta. Time: January 2000.
Bernoulli 2000 Symposium on ‘Neural Networks, Learning and Statistical
Inference'
Organizer: S.-I. Amari (Tokyo). The Symposium is planned to take place in Tokyo.
Dates have not yet been fixed.
BS 2000 Symposium on ‘Defining the Science of Stochastics' In Memoriam Jakob
Bernoulli
Organizer: Elart von Collani. Location: Wuerzburg, Germany. The Symposium will
focus on different aspects of the Science of Stochastics aiming at defining the
science, describing its role towards other sciences and towards society, and
outlining necessary requirements for a professional education. It is planned to
have sessions on the history of stochastics, on the terminology, on competing
approaches, and on the future of stochastics. Time: October 2000
BS Meeting 2000 on ‘Finance and Statistics'
Organizer: Eckhardt Platen (Sydney). The BS Meeting 2000 on ‘Finance and
Statistics' will be held from 8 to 11 December 2000 in Sydney and will be
organized by the University of Technology in Sydney. It will be also the QMF2000
Conference, that is the ‘Quantitative Methods in Finance' 2000 Conference.
BS 2000 Conference on ‘Causality'
Organizer: James Robins (Harvard). Still at an early planning stage.
BS 2000 Workshop on ‘Quantum Stochastics'
Organizer: Richard D. Gill (Utrecht), Hans Maassen (Nijmegen). It is planned to
hold the Workshop at EURANDOM (Eindhoven, Netherlands) in the Autumn of 2000.
The aim is to bring together probabilists, statisticians and quantum physicists
to explore the interplay between stochastics and quantum physics.
Wilfrid Kendall (Scientific Secretary)
 Bernoulli
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International
Association for Official Statistics
The IAOS activities last year have largely centred
on the following events:
• joint IASS/IAOS Conference in Aguascalientes, Mexico in September 1998;
• work of the IAOS Review Committee and its draft report in the autumn of 1998;
• planning of the joint DGINS/IAOS Conference to be held in The Hague in May
1999;
• planning of the IAOS activities in the 52nd session of the ISI to be held in
Helsinki, August 1999;
• planning of the IAOS Conference to be held in Neuchâtel, Switzerland in
September 2000. These are in addition to the
activities of SCORUS, which are reported separately. Last autumn, the IAOS
Review Committee made a questionnaire on the review of the profile, mission and
tasks of the IAOS to all members and NSI's Directors. Having received the
answers, the Committee will continue its work. A final report, including
proposals for reviewed terms of reference and functioning rules of the IAOS will
be submitted, for adoption, to the General Assembly to be held in Helsinki in
August 1999. You can find more information on this issue on Swiss Federal
Statistical Office's web site:
http://www.admin.ch/bfs/about/international/iaos.htm .
Joint-DGINS/IAOS Conference in The Hague in 1999
On
the occasion of Statistics Netherlands' centennial, the Netherlands government
will host the Statistical Programme Committee of the European Union on 25 May,
the subsequent meeting of Directors Generals of National Statistical Institutes
(DGINS) together with the IAOS Conference on 26 and 27 May, and Statistics
Netherlands' own commemoration conference on 28 May 1999. The main theme of the
Conference is "Official statistics, Challenges for the Future". On the
preliminary agenda of the conference there are the following topics:
• Quantifying the past: Reconstructing National Accounts; comparing economic
growth; digitised databases;
• Accounting for National Accounts: Globalisation; information needs for EU
decision making; satellite accounts as a tool for policy;
• Integrity, the quintessence of quality: European experiences and prospects; UN
Fundamental Principles in practice; maintaining public trust and agency
integrity face to face with government policy;
• A perspective in time: Landmarks of the past; strategic issues in 21st
century.
You will find more complete information on this conference on the following web
site: http://www.cbs.nl/isi/iaos.htm , or at the following e-mail address:
@cbs.nl.
IAOS
ISI Conference in Helsinki 1999
The 52nd Session of the ISI will be held in Helsinki on 10-18 August 1999. The
IAOS programme committee under the leadership of Svein Longva has prepared the
programme for the IAOS sessions of this conference. According to the preliminary
plan, the invited paper sessions will comprise the following highly topical
issues:
• Statistical training of people working in and with official statistics (joint
with IASE);
• Culture statistics;
• Dynamics of standard statistical classifications;
• Registers and surveys in health and social service monitoring;
• How to measure deregulation;
• Small domain estimates including use of administrative data;
• Surveying and estimating for the informal sector (joint with IASS);
• Critical problems in economic statistics;
• Official statistics in the 20th century—historical perspective.
For more information on the ISI Helsinki Conference, look at the Statistics
Finland’s web site:
http://www.stat.fi/isi99
IAOS Conference in Neuchâtel in 2000
The independent IAOS Conference will take place in Neuchâtel, Switzerland on 4–8
September 2000. The Swiss Federal Statistical Office will host the conference.
The main theme of the conference is “Official Statistics and Human Rights”.
Information on the conference will be circulated on the SFSO’s web site:
http://www.admin.ch/bfs/about/international/iaos.htm . The ISI Newsletter is published three times a year. Deadlines for submissions
this year are 1st June and 1st October. All news and information on the IAOS
activities to be circulated via IAOS column of the next ISI Newsletter are
welcome by 28 May this year.
IAOS
Standing Committee on Regional and Urban Statistics
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The main activity of SCORUS in recent months has been the organization of the
21st SCORUS Conference, which took place at Belfast from 8 to 11 June. Many
highly-qualified scholars originating from all over the world took part, a fact
which facilitated a most important exchange of ideas and opinions.
Particularly lively was the debate which resulted from the two Round Table
sessions, the contents of which will be published in an issue of Cities and
Regions. This is the SCORUS journal which offers a forum for presenting papers
and discussing the current state of urban statististics and research. |
A short while after, SCORUS participated in the IASS/IAOS Conference in
Aguascalientes, which took place from 1 to 4 September. Its title was
“Statistics for Economic and Social Development” and it dealt with preparing for
the two sessions concerning migration and social welfare.
SCORUS' activities will now be as follows: SCORUS will be contributing to the
52nd ISI Session to be held in Helsinki from 10-18 August 1999 with the
preparation of three ‘Invited Paper’ Sessions. These are:
• ‘Cultural Statistics’ (organised by Rosa Giaimo, Italy);
• ‘Registers and Surveys in Health and Social Service Monitoring (organised by
Markandey Rai, Kenya);
• ‘Geographical Information Systems’ (organised by Asta Manninen, Finland).
The next SCORUS Conference, the 22nd, will be held in Shenzhen, China from 8-11
November 2000 and the SCORUS Committee is currently working with the host
organisation (ie, the city of Shenzhen, the Shenzhen Statistics and Information
Bureau, the State Statistical Bureau, People’s Republic of China and the Census
and Statistics Department of Hong Kong) to plan and define the exact content of
the conference.
This joint work has already produced a provisional programme, the topics which
are as follows:
• How to Measure the Level of Urban Development;
• Cities and Globalisation;
• Statistical Support for Economic Policy on Local and Regional Levels;
• The Regional Distribution of Economic Growth in Urban Systems;
• Population Strategies and their Impact on Urban Development ;
• Indicators of Social Welfare;
• Urbanisation in Countries with a High Rural Population;
• The Phenomena of a 'Floating Population';
• Urbanisation and Segregation;
• Foreign Populations in Big Cities and their Impact on Urban Development;
• The Use of Business Data in Local Authorities;
• The Property Market in Cities, Urban Regions and Foreign Investments;
• The Comparability of International City Statistics;
• The Role of Municipal Statistics in the Official Statistical Systems of China
and Other Countries;
• An Important Technical Issue about Cities which Utilise Sample or Survey Data
to Produce and Present Urban Statistics; New Approaches, Methods and Tools;
• Young People and Big Cities;
• Urban Violence.
Further information can be obtained from:
Professor Rosa Giaimo, SCORUS Chairperson
Faculty of Economics, University of Palermo
Viale delle Scienze, 90128
Palermo, Italy
Tel: +39 091 6626236
Fax: +39 091 485726
E-mail: giaimo@unipa.it
or from the ISI Permanent Office.
Rosa Giaimo
IAOS
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International Association of Survey
Statisticians
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Mr. Benoît Riandey, Institut
National d' Etudes Démographiques, 133 Boulevard Davout, F75980 Paris Cédex
20, France.
Tel: +33 1 56 06 2030 — Fax : +33 1 56 06 2192
E-mail: riandey@ined.fr |
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Mrs. Nanjamma Chinnappa, 326,
16th cross, RMV Extension, 2nd stage, HIG colony, Bangalore 560094, India.
Tel: +91 80 341 4664
E-mail: nach@blr.vsnl.net.in |
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c/o Mme Claude Olivier, CEFIL
(INSEE), 3 rue de la Cité, 33500 Libourne, France.
Tel: +33 5 57 55 5600 — Fax: +33 5 57 55 5620
E-mail: claude.olivier@insee.fr
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http://isi.cbs.nl/iass |
IASS Silver Jubilee
(Nanjamma Chinnappa)
The IASS was established in 1973. The following events are planned to celebrate
its silver jubilee.
The Cochran-Hansen Prize — The first award of this prize for the best paper on
Survey Research Methods by a young statistician from a Developing or Transition
country will be made at the Helsinki session in 1999. Information on how to
participate in this competition has been widely publicized and the announcement
on the prize has been sent to the heads of National Statistical organizations
(statistical associations, institutes, and national statistical agencies) in
developing and transition countries. The deadline for submitting the papers for
the competition to Graham Kalton is 28 February 1999. The prize will be in the
form of books and journal subscriptions to the value of about 500 Euros and an
invitation to present the paper at the ISI meeting in Helsinki, with all
expenses paid.
Commemorative lecture by special invitation of the ISI President — Professor
T.M.F.Smith has kindly accepted the ISI President's invitation to deliver a
special invited lecture at the 1999 ISI meeting in Helsinki. The lecture will
also commemorate the 25th anniversary of the IASS.
History of the IASS
The first draft of the History of the IASS should be ready
by the time this newsletter reaches our members. We are extremely grateful to
both Gerard Theodore, past president of the IASS (1980 -1983), who is writing
the history of the IASS during its first ten years, and to Xavier Charoy (INSEE,
France) who is documenting the history for the next fifteen years and has
offered to edit the whole text. We are also grateful to other contributors to
this effort, especially to Ivan Fellegi, Salem Khamis and Leslie Kish. Members
who can help with reviewing the draft of the text or who remember interesting
events in the history of the IASS may please contact Xavier Charoy at
( xavier.charoy@insee.fr ). Copies of the history of the IASS will be given to all
IASS members as a souvenir of the IASS Silver Jubilee.
Commemorative session in Seoul — The IASS Program Committee for the 2001 Seoul
ISI meeting, chaired by David Binder, is considering topics for such a session.
Commemorative volume — A volume bringing together the paper presented at the
special invited commemorative lecture in Helsinki as well as the papers and
discussions at the commemorative session in Seoul will be planned.
Celebration at Helsinki — A cocktail party is being planned after the IASS
General Assembly in Helsinki to celebrate the Silver Jubilee of the IASS.
Executive Director of the IASS
(Benoît Riandey)
INSEE has nominated Christophe Lefranc to replace Benoît Riandey as the next
Executive Director of the IASS when the latter's term ends in August 2000. In
order to benefit from Benoît Riandey's vast experience in this role, Christophe
Lefranc has been appointed as Adjoint Executive Director of the IASS from the
1st January 1999. Christophe is a statistician and demographer, with a Ph.D. in
Demography from Berkeley. He is currently responsible for the Division of
Development Studies and Statistical Methods in the Department of International
Relations and Cooperation at INSEE, France. He is also the Chief Editor of
STATECO, the French journal on statistical cooperation. We welcome him to the
Executive Committee of IASS.
New Institutional Members
(Benoît Riandey)
In response to the letter from the President and efforts by our Country
Representatives and Council Members we have 8 new institutional members who have
joined the IASS this past year: L'Universitad 3 de Febrero (Argentina),
Instituto Nacional de Estadistica y Censos (INDEC, Argentina), Instituto
Brasileiro de Geografia e Estatistica (IBGE, Brazil), EUROSTAT, l'Institut
National d'Etudes Demographiques (INED, France), Statistical Centre of Iran,
Statistics Sweden, and Statistics New Zealand. In addition, 3 more institutions
have recently informed us that they wish to become institutional members of the
IASS: Committee for International Cooperation in Research in Demography (CIRED,
France), the Survey Design and Research Division of the National Sample Survey
Organization (SDRD-NSSO, India), and the Data Processing Division of the NSSO
(DPD-NSSO, India). We welcome them all to the IASS. The drive for new
institutional members will continue with the help of country representatives and
council members. We hope that with their and your support we will be able to
announce many more institutional members during the Silver Jubilee celebrations
of the IASS in Helsinki.
Encouraging New Members to Join
(Benoît Riandey)
The IASS brochure and the application forms for new members and for renewal of
membership are being revised to update and clarify them. We thank all the
country representatives and other members of the IASS who have distributed
copies of the IASS brochure to their colleagues and have helped to increase the
membership of the IASS. A brochure to attract new student members to the IASS is
being prepared and will be distributed to Universities. This will entitle a new
student member to an introductory offer of two years membership for the price of
one year's fees.
New Country Representatives
(Benoît Riandey)
The following are new IASS Country Representatives: Walter Castillo in Bolivia,
Juan Munoz in Chile, Alexis Lukaru Nzinga in the Democratic Republic of Congo,
Bechara Hanna in Lebanon, Daniel La Buonora in Uruguay, Faisal Awartani in
Palestine, and Antonio Baigorri Matamala in Eurostat. We welcome them all
warmly. The nomination of an IASS representative in Eurostat is very important
since our colleagues in International Organizations travel frequently and often
move to different countries on change of assignments. Having a representative in
the institution will help them to keep in touch with the IASS and vice versa.
Letter to Statistical Organizations
(Benoît Riandey)
All country representatives were also sent a copy of the letter on the IASS that
was sent last summer to the heads of all National Statistical Organizations. A
follow-up letter has been sent to the heads of National Statistical
Organizations in developing and transition countries, along with the brochure on
the IASS short courses in 1999 and information on the Cochran-Hansen prize.
Translation of IASS Material to Other Languages
(Benoît Riandey)
We would like our brochures and publications to be available in several
important international languages other than English and French (the 2 official
languages of the IASS) so as to improve our services to all our members and to
inform our colleagues better. The IASS brochure: is now available in English,
French, Spanish, and very recently in Chinese. We are grateful to Professor Dong
Yongmao who translated it into Chinese. We have just heard that Dr. Faisal
Awartani, Assistant Professor of Statistics at Birzeit University in Palestine,
has volunteered to translate the IASS brochure into Arabic. We thank him warmly
for this and look forward to the participation of more members from that region
in the IASS. We seek volunteers from among our members to translate the brochure
into other major languages such as Russian to promote the association in regions
where we have poor representation. Please contact Benoît Riandey at
( riandey@ined.fr ) if you wish to volunteer.
The Survey Statistician is currently published in English and French. We thank
our colleagues at the National Institute of Statistics (INE) in Spain who have
agreed to translate it into Spanish, as used to be done in the 80s. Dong Yongmao
and Ren Ruiling have volunteered to translate into Chinese selected portions
that are of most interest to their Chinese colleagues from the Survey
Statistician and from Prof. Kish's volume of Questions and Answers. We are
looking for volunteers to translate these publications into Russian also. Short
Courses, 1999: The introductory material on the courses will be translated into
French for those who request it and register before May 1999. Christophe Lefranc
of INSEE who is fluent in both English and French has agreed to participate in
the IASS Short Courses in Jyvaskyla to help Francophone participants understand
courses A1 and A 2 better. We are looking for a colleague who is fluent in
English and French who can similarly help with the IASS short courses C, D and E
in Riga. The instructors for Course B in Jyvaskyla are fluent in English and
French.
If there are a number of registrants at these courses from other major language
groups who need such help, we will try to arrange that also. Olivier Sautory has
kindly agreed to translate the transparencies and notes for course “C” at Riga
into French.
IASS Home Page
(Fred Vogel)
A list of books on Sampling Theory and Sample Surveys prepared by John Kovar
will be published in the IASS Home Page as well as in the Survey Statistician.
It is hoped that survey practitioners and researchers will find this list
useful. Information on free access to Statistics Canada's recently updated
edition of Quality Guidelines will also be posted on the IASS Home Page.
Comments and material for the home page may be sent to its editor, Fred Vogel,
at ( fvogel@nass.usda.gov ) or faxed to him at 001-202 690 1311. The home page is
available at (http://www.cbs.nl/isi/iass.htm ).
Helping Developing and Transition Countries
(Nanjamma Chinnappa)
In order to promote good survey methods in developing and transition countries,
the IASS has supported and will continue to support conferences and courses held
in these countries in local or major international languages, as well as
conferences and courses held elsewhere to benefit participants from these
countries. The following is a list of the conferences being supported in 1999
and 2000. More information on these conferences is given later in this report.
1999:
1. Conference on Enquêtes et Systèmes d'Information, in Abidjan, Côte d' Ivoire,
27–30 April (French);
2. Satellite Conference on Small Area Estimation, in Riga, Latvia, 20–21 August
(English).
2000:
1. Workshop on Enquêtes sur la Force de Travail, in Libourne, France, June
(French);
2. Escola de Amostragem e Pesquisas Sociais, Rio de Janiero, Brazil, 29 May–1
June (Portuguese).
The Cochran-Hansen prize, and the IASS sponsored Short Courses in 1999 (for
which we hope to fund the attendance of a number of participants from developing
and transition countries) will also help in the promotion and practice of good
survey methods in these countries.
Another initiative is to provide statistical organizations in these countries
with books, journals, proceedings of conferences etc. that they need, free of
cost. In response to my mentioning this in a letter to the Survey Statistician
we have received a request for journals from M. Alexis Lukaku Nzinga, President
ASTACO (Association of statisticians from the Congo Democratic Republic), and
from Mr Gborie of Sierra Leone. Flavia Jolliffe of the University of Greenwich
has offered to send any developing country that wishes to have them, Proceedings
of IASS meetings from 1983 onwards.
John Kovar, on behalf of the IASS, has collected donations of old journals from
his colleagues at Statistics Canada and will arrange to send them to the persons
who have asked for them. What we need to do now is to arrange for matching the
demand with the donations and organize the logistics of delivering them. This is
being discussed in the IASS council.
IASS Directory
(Benoît Riandey)
The next IASS directory will be sent to all members before the Helsinki session
of the ISI. It will include first names of members and will contain a list of
members by country as well as the list of Country Representatives. Country
Representatives will be sent the updated list of members in their countries in
January. Any errors noted in the list may please be conveyed to Claude Olivier.
Members can ask Claude Olivier for the updated list of members in any country.
Directory on the IASS Home Page
(Benoît Riandey)
Since November 1998 the IASS directory with the names and email addresses (when
permitted by the member) of IASS members has been available on the IASS Home
Page. It can be consulted in English or in French at ( http://www.cbs.nl/isi/iass.htm ).
Some functions of the directory, such as the messages it gives to those who
consult it, are being improved. We hope that as members use it and inform the
IASS secretariat of problems with its use it will be further improved and made
more useful.
Members can now use this directory to add their own email address (if the
address is not already there), to personally update their own email address or
to ask the IASS secretariat to remove their email address from the electronic
directory. They can use the directory to send a message to the IASS secretariat
or to any member whose email address is in the directory, and to see a list of
all members in a country. They can also use it to send the IASS secretariat
updates to their postal address and telephone and fax numbers, or to ask for the
postal address of a member whose email address is not in the directory. We thank
Laurent Bourhis for his efforts in putting this facility in place, and the ISI
Permanent Office for managing the web site.
Membership Fees
(Benoît Riandey)
As of 1 January, 1999, IASS membership fees can be paid in Euros. At the time
this is going to press (late January 1999) 130 French Francs are equivalent to
20 Euros (19.86 to be exact) and about 24 US Dollars. The facility of paying
membership fees by credit cards — Visa, Mastercard, Eurocard or American Express
— has been very popular in 1998.
Nominations Committee
(Jan Kordos)
The Nominations Committee has prepared a list of potential candidates for the
next election of IASS office bearers. Each of these candidates has been invited
to accept the nomination. Many acceptances have been received, but communication
with candidates in developing countries is proving to be difficult. Preparations
for the next phase, the actual election, will soon be under way. Please vote for
the candidates who you think will best serve our association in the roles for
which they have been nominated — your participation in this process is important
for the IASS.
Conference on Generacio d'Informacio Estadistica (Production of Statistical
Information) at Barcelona, Spain, 30 November and 1 December 1998
(Mónica Bécue)
The network Qualitat de la informació en las enquestes, which organized this
conference includes teams of statisticians from Catalonia who work or do
research on statistical surveys. The theme of this conference focused on the
practice of surveys and sought to establish a synergy between researchers in
Universities and professionals in Business Surveys. The discussions addressed a
variety of problems in data collection from surveys, censuses and administrative
registers. Sessions were organized on the following four topics: Sample Design;
Censuses and the use of Administrative Registers; Questionnaires and Data
Collection; and Collection of Longitudinal Data and Data from Panels.
The conference had a good attendance with 120 participants from Universities,
Statistical Offices and Statistical Societies. The participants came from Spain
(mainly from Catalonia), and from France. As anticipated, most of the
discussions, including those with many of the foreign invitees, were in the
Castillan or the Catalan languages. The diversity in the experiences of the
participants allowed an extensive view of the status of the problems in this
area.
Conference on Enquêtes et Systèmes d'Information (Survey Methods and
Informatics)
at Abidjan, Côte d'Ivoire, 27-30 April 1999
(Marie Piron)
The goals of this conference are to review survey methodologies in developing
countries in view of the rapid expansion of informatics, to support efforts to
improve the statistical systems in Africa and to increase communication between
members of the Francophone community of statisticians. Lamine Diop chairs the
Programme Committee for the conference. The programme will consist of 12 invited
papers and 30 contributed papers. A special feature of the conference is a day
on Business Statistics, organized by Marie Piron and Charlie Dingui. Topics
covered in this special session include Statistics related to Finances, Banking,
Audiences, Traffic, Telecommunications and Marketing, and Data Mining. This is
perhaps the first time that a conference sponsored by the IASS is actively
focusing on statistics in the private sector and it is hoped that this will
attract more colleagues from that sector to the IASS.
Workshop on Recent Trends in the Methodology for Social and Business Surveys at
Jyvaskyla, Finland, 5- 9 August 1999
(Erkki Pahkinen)
The main goal of the workshop is to provide insight into the recent trends in
the methodology for social and business surveys. Core issues deal with
model-assisted and model-dependent estimation from data collected in complex
surveys. Members of the Local Organizing Committee are: Prof. Erkki Pahkinen
(Chair), Dr. Risto Lehtonen, and Mr. Kari Djerf. The following renowned
professors will give invited lectures: Harvey Goldstein (UK), Jon N.K.Rao
(Canada) and Chris Skinner (UK). Presentations will also include lectures and
joint lectures with the IASS short courses (see details on these courses later
in this report), as well as contributed papers on their own research work from
graduate, postgraduate and postdoctoral students. Some financial support will be
available for students from developing and transition countries as well as for
those from EU countries who plan to present contributed papers at the workshop.
Applications for such support will be invited during the spring of 1999. The
deadline for application is 30 April 1999. In May 1999 the International
Advisory Board for the workshop will choose those to be given financial support.
Please see our home page www.stat.jyu.fi/wshop99jy
for more detailed information
as well as for the registration form.
Important dates:
Abstract deadline: 31 January 1999
Paper acceptance: 31 March 1999
Deadline for application for financial support: 30 April 1999
Submission of final papers: 30 June 1999
Abstracts (200-300 words, MS Word, WP or ASCII format) of contributed papers
should be sent, preferably by e mail, to Mr. Kari Djerf: ( kari.djerf@stat.fi ).
Fax +358-9-1734 3562.
52nd Session of the ISI at Helsinki, Finland, 11-18 August 1999
(Sue Linacre)
The IASS program for Helsinki is looking strong, with all the Invited Paper
meetings attracting very good papers and discussants. An array of interesting
and innovative contributed papers is anticipated. The list of topics and further
details are given in Bulletin 1, and on the homepage at ( http://www.stat.fi/isi99 ).
Submissions regarding these papers should have been made using Form B in
Bulletin 1, by Jan 10th 1999. Papers are due by April 10,1999.
Authors of invited or contributed papers from the 'Least among Less-Developed
Countries' (LLDC) who will be active participants in Helsinki, are reminded that
applications for grants to attend the ISI session close on 15 April 1999. The
grant applications should be made to:
ISI Tokyo Session Memorial Program, The Institute of Statistical Research,
1-18-16 Shinbashi Minato-ku, Tokyo, 105-0004, Japan.
Conference on Analysis of Survey Data at Southampton, UK, 24-26 August 1999
(Chris Skinner)
This three-day conference is scheduled as a 'satellite meeting' after the ISI
Session in Helsinki. It will provide a forum for the discussion of recent
research on statistical methodology for the analysis of sample survey data. The
conference will mark the retirement of T.M.F. (Fred) Smith and provide a tribute
to the work on analysis of survey data by him and by Jon Rao and Alastair Scott.
Each of them has accepted an invitation to present a paper, as have David
Binder, Ray Chambers, Andrew Chesher, Alan Dorfman, John Eltinge, Wayne Fuller,
Tim Holt, Jerry Lawless, Rod Little, Danny Pfeffermann, Steve Pudney, Richard
Royall, Chris Skinner and David Steel. About ten contributed papers will also be
presented. Further information is provided on the Internet at:
http://www.socstats.soton.ac.uk/dept/conf99.html
Inquiries should be addressed to Rebecca Bundock, Department of Social
Statistics, University of Southampton, Southampton, SO17 1BJ, U.K. Fax:
+44-1703-593846.
IASS Sponsored Short Courses in Finland and Latvia, August 1999
(John Kovar)
Preparations for the Short Courses are coming along well. Copies of the brochure
on the courses have been sent to all IASS members and to the heads of National
Statistical Organizations in all countries. The courses have also been widely
publicized in journals and conferences of interest to Survey Statisticians and
in Bulletin No. 1 of the ISI Session in Helsinki. The deadline for sending the
application form for course registration is May 1, 1999. Applications have
already started to come in. We are trying to obtain funds from several donor
agencies to help finance participants from developing and transition countries
to attend the courses. The United Nations Statistical Office will be funding 17
participants from developing countries, with 7 of the fellowships being
earmarked for women statisticians. For information please contact John Kovar,
IASS Scientific Secretar, Business Survey Methods Division, 3A Coats Bldg.,
Statistics Canada, 120 Parkdale Avenue,Ottawa, Ontario K1A 0T6, Canada. Fax:
(613) 951-5711; E-mail: ( kovar@statcan.ca ).
Three courses will be offered before the Helsinki ISI Session, in conjunction
with the Jyväskylä Workshop on Recent Trends in the Methodology of Business and
Social Surveys. These courses will be held at the Jyväskylä University, Finland:
A (1): Survey Sampling Workshop, 7 - 8 August, 1999. Presented by Graham Kalton
and Colm O'Muircheartaigh.
A (2): Variance Estimation in Complex Surveys, 9 - 10 August, 1999. Presented by
Wayne Fuller, Kirk Wolter and F. Jay Breidt.
B: Methods for Designing Business Surveys, 7 – 8 August, 1999. Presented by
Michael Hidiroglou and David Binder.
Three courses will be offered after the Helsinki ISI Session in conjunction with
the IASS Satellite Conference on Small Area Estimation in Riga.
These courses will be held in Riga, Latvia:
C: Introduction to Small Area Estimation, 19 August, 1999. Presented by Jon N.K.
Rao.
D: Continuous Quality Improvement in Statistical Agencies. 22 – 23 August, 1999.
Presented by David Marker and David Morganstein.
E: Analysis of Complex Survey Data, 22 - 23 August, 1999. Presented by Risto
Lehtonen and Kari Djerf.
Satellite Conference on Small Area Estimation at Riga, Latvia, 20 – 21 August
1999
(John Kordos)
The Programme Committee chaired by Jan Kordos has accepted 15 proposals for
invited papers. Proposals for contributed papers will be accepted until the end
of April 1999. The first announcement on the conference has appeared in Bulletin
No. 1 of the ISI session in Helsinki and in many other journals. Copies of
Bulletin No.1 on the conference have been sent to all IASS members and to the
heads of all National Statistical Organizations. Bulletin No. 2 on the
Conference which will contain the instructions to authors of the papers, and the
Programme for the Conference are under preparation.
Danny Pfeffermann will deliver the keynote address "New Developments in Small
Area Estimation". Jon N.K. Rao will give a one day short course, Introduction to
Small Area Estimation" on August 19.
International Conference on Survey Non-response Error at Portland, Oregon, USA,
28–31 October 1999
(Robert Groves)
This conference is devoted to non-response in sample surveys and to important
new developments both in statistical estimation in the presence of missing data
and data collection procedures to reduce non-response. It is cosponsored by the
IASS along with the Survey Research Methods section of the ASA, and the American
Association for Public Opinion Research. Robert Groves chairs the Organizing
Committee for the conference. Information requests should be sent by email to
( icsn@survey.umd.edu )
and can also be found at ( www.jpsm.umd.edu/icsn99 ).
Escola de Amostragem e Pesquisas Sociais (School on Sampling and Social Surveys)
at Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, 29 May–1 June 2000
(Pedro Luis do Nascimento Silva)
This event is being co-sponsored by the IBGE (Brazilian Institute of Geography
and Statistics), the ABE (Brazilian Statistical Association ), and the IASS. It
plans to attract participants not only from academia and official statistics,
but also from the larger group of social science institutions carrying out
sample surveys, such as election polls and the like. The language used will be
Portuguese, but some activities such as the keynote speeches and some short
courses may be in English. The executive commission for the meeting is now being
finalized. These dates were chosen for this event because May 29th is the date
of IBGE´s anniversary, as well as the Statistician's Day in Brazil.
International Conference on Establishment Surveys (ICES-II) at Buffalo, NY, USA,
June 17–21, 2000
(John Kovar)
The conference focuses on new developments in methods for surveying businesses,
farms and institutions. Besides invited papers and contributed papers, workshops
and software demonstrations are also planned. The conference Organizing
Committee is currently evaluating proposals for the invited paper sessions. A
call for contributed papers is planned for early summer 1999. For more
information please contact John Kovar, ICES II Organizing Committee Chair at 3A
Coats Bldg, Statistics Canada, 120 Parkdale Ave., Ottawa K1A 0T6, Canada.
E-mail: ( kovar@statcan.ca );
Telephone (613) 951-8615 and Fax: (613) 951-5711.
Workshop on Enquêtes sur les Forces de Travail (Labour Force Surveys) at
Libourne, France, June 2000
(Benoît Riandey)
This workshop is being supported jointly by IASS and CEFIL (Centre de Formation
de l'INSEE a Libourne) which is the Training Centre of INSEE, and is being
organised by a team under Mr.Michel Pironnet (of INSEE-CEFIL). The workshop will
focus on the experiences with longitudinal Labour Force Surveys of the many
countries that have implemented them. The European Union will soon be
implementing a longitudinal Labour Force Survey with the help of Eurostat. We
thank Ian Macredie (Statistics Canada) for accepting to Chair the Programme
Committee for this workshop. About 60 persons are expected to participate in the
workshop.
53rd Session of the ISI at Seoul, South Korea, 2001
(Dave Binder)
Dave Binder chairs the Program Committee for the IASS sponsored meetings to be
held during the 53nd session of the ISI in Seoul, South Korea, in 2001. The
committee has a long list of interesting topics to select from, for the IASS
sponsored invited paper meetings. It will propose these topics to the ISI
Program Chair in June.
Survey Statistician
(Mike Brick)
The deadline for submission of news items as well as articles of interest to our
members for the next (June 99) issue is March 31, 1999. Members, especially
those from developing and transition countries, are encouraged to submit these
to Mike Brick, the editor of our newsletter at ( brickm1@westat.com ).
A list of books (prepared by John Kovar) on Sampling Theory and Sample Surveys
will be published in the IASS Home Page as well as in the Survey Statistician.
It is hoped that survey practitioners and researchers will find this list
useful.
International Statistical Review
(Chris Skinner)
Good articles reviewing new developments in survey statistics are sought for the
International Statistical Review (ISR). Authors with tentative ideas for
articles are welcome to contact the IASS Associate Editor of ISR, Chris Skinner,
at ( cjs@soton.ac.uk ).
IASS
Top
International Association for
Statistical Computing
Call for
the Election of IASC Officers
2nd Membership Recruitment
You will soon receive a ballot paper for the election of the officers of the
IASC Executive Committee for the period 1999-2001 and six Council Members for
the period 1999-2003. It is important that our Council represents our entire
membership and therefore I urge you to take part in the election so that your
vote ensures a broad representation of all our members. Please return the ballot
as soon as possible but at the latest by April 30, 1999. This will enable us to
have the results during May 1999 such that we can constitute our new Council
early enough for going to work during the forthcoming Session of the ISI in
Helsinki. Therefore, your prompt return of the ballots would be greatly
appreciated. The return address is given on the ballot sheet.
This is also an occasion to invite you to the IASC General Assembly, to be held
August 17 at 11:15-13:00 during the Session of the ISI in Helsinki.
Last but not least I would like to ask you to help IASC increasing and
prospering. One possibility is your active engagement in IASC by taking part in
IASC's scientific events (ISI Sessions, COMPSTAT, Summer Schools etc.), in
IASC's publications forums such as the Statistical Software Newsletter (SSN) and
the Journal of Computational Statistics and Data Analysis (CSDA), or the
International Statistical Review, and in activities of IASC's regional sections
(ERS and ARS) and organizations IASC is collaborating with (as e.g. INTERFACE
and Assoc. Survey Comp.). Another possibility I would like to stress is the
recruitment of additional members of IASC. Please advertise IASC to your
colleagues and friends working in Statistical Computing and who have not found
their way to IASC yet. Invite them to become a member of IASC! The price-benefit
ratio of IASC in terms of the journal CSDA, the reduced conference fees and the
ISI publications should be convincing.
Session
Titles of IASC Program
The 53rd Session of the International
Statistical Institute (August 22-30, 2001, Seoul, Korea)
Please contact Professor Carey E. Priebe at The John Hopkins University ( cep@jhu.edu ).
• Smoothing methods for longitudinal data;
• Longitudinal models and estimation methods;
• Estimation and applications with biased sampling data;
• Empirical Bayes;
• Computational Issues in (Non-Empirical!) Nonparametric Bayes;
• Perfect Sampling;
• Markov Chain Monte Carlo (MCMC);
• On the Bootstrap;
• Model Selection;
• Quantile Estimation;
• Importance Sampling;
• Bandwidth Selection in Kernel Estimation;
• Change-Point/Change-Curve Detection;
• Optimization Techniques in Statistics;
• Statistical Issues in Genetics;
• Computational Biology;
• Semiparametric Modelling;
• Interactive Graphical Data Analysis;
• Statistical Visualization;
• Scan Statistics;
• Strategies for Data Analysis;
• Statistical Image Analysis;
• Human Brain Mapping: PET, MRI, and fMRI;
• From Functional Data Analysis to Complex Data Types;
• Statistical Methods for Intrusion Detection;
• Financial Data Analysis;
• Environmental Statistics;
• Knowledge and Distributed Intelligence (KDI);
• Data Mining;
• The Curse of Dimensionality;
• Statistical analysis of shape;
• Statistics on the Internet (teaching, collaborating and disseminating
statistics via the Internet);
• Kernel and Mixture Estimates;
• Statistical Pattern Recognition;
• Machine learning and statistics (comparisons, overlap, similarities and
differences);
• Spatial Statistics;
• Statistical methods for network analysis (general analysis of networks, or
applications to specific networks);
• Statistical Analysis of the Internet (in particular, statistical methods for
measuring the growth, traffic, etc of the Internet);
• Conditional Inference;
• Neural Networks;
• Nonparametric Smoothing;
• Multivariate Analysis;
• Optimal Design and Analysis of Experiments;
• Survey Sampling.
5th Summer School of ERS IASC – 1st
Announcement
3rd Millenium – Challenge for Industrial
Statistics
Island of Spetses, Greece, August 21-September 4, 1999
The 5th Summer School of ERS IASC, organized jointly with EUROSTAT,
will be devoted to the growing impact of statistical methodology on industrial
problems and will provide participants with the implementation of theory in
software and applications.
Main topics:
1. Detection of changes in industrial processes.
2. Quality improvement through design.
3. Quality control and statistical packages.
4. Reliability and failure time analysis.
5. Multiresponse problems in industry.
6. Economical aspects of industrial statistics.
7. TQM in industry and public administration.
All lectures will be complemented by solutions of real problems and case
studies. Potential participants are encouraged to submit problems for
consideration at this meeting.
Organizers:
Ch.P. Kitsos, Athens Univ. of Economy ( kitsos@aueb.gr ),
Athens Univ. of Economics, 76 Patission St., GR - 194 34 Athens, Greece, Phone:
+30.1.820 31 32
J. Antoch, Charles Univ. of Prague ( aromir.antoch@karlin.mff.cuni.cz ),
Charles Univ., Sokolovska 83, CZ - 186 75 Praha 8, Czech Republic, Phone/Fax:
+420.2.23 23 316
Secretary: Mrs Agla Demoirou
( agla@teiath.gr )
Lecturers:
Agelakis N., Hellenic Arms Industry, Athens
Katsalis G., Public Electricity Co., Athens
Antoch J., Charles University, Prague
Kitsos Ch., Athens University of Economy, Athens
Esposito V., University Federico II., Napoli
Lauro N.C., University Federico II., Napoli
Hothorn L., University of Hanover, Hanover
Lipitakis E., Greek Mathematical Society, Athens
Huskova M., Charles University, Prague
Skladas G.Technical University of Crete, Chania
Jaruskova D., Czech Technical University, Prague
Vutchkov I., University of Chemical Metallurgy, Sofia
Scholarships:
The stay of a limited number of participants will be supported by the European
regional Section of The International Association for Statistical Computing.
Hopefully, more scholarships will be provided by other International
organizations that have been contacted by the organizers.
First Announcement: Word'97 format PostScript format
Registration form: Word'97 format PostScript format
Scholarships: Word'97 format PostScript format
IASC Home Page:
IASC
Top
International Association for Statistical Education
1. Communication
Networks for Statistics Educators
IASE keeps its members in touch by a variety of means. On the hard-copy
publications front, the International Statistical Review, Short Book Reviews and
the Annual Review of International Statistics along with IASE Review and the
IASE section in the ISI Newsletter, keep IASE members informed about the
Association activities and allow contacts with other like-minded folk. As well
as receiving the above-mentioned ISI/IASE publications free, members can still
take advantage of concessionary rates on conference registrations and on the
purchase of ISI/IASE books On the electronic publishing front, IASE has a web
site at the address:
http://www.stat.ncsu.edu/info/iase/
It is possible to access this web site directly or via the Journal of Statistics
Education (JSE) Information Service at:
http://www.stat.ncsu.edu/info/
Those interested in research in Statistical Education are referred to the
International Study Group in Research on Learning Probability and Statistics,
which started at ICOTS I, in 1982. Requests to become a member of the group or
to get more information should be sent to Carmen Batanero ( batanero@goliat.ugr.es ).
One result of ICOTS-5 was the setting up of six new discussion lists about
specific themes in statistical education. The group topics were:
• teaching statistics by distance education;
• teaching statistics to research workers;
• technology in teaching statistics;
• teaching statistics in post secondary settings;
• linking statistics teaching in schools with the outside world;
• linking official statistics with statistics teaching.
By October 1998, most of these lists had been launched as e-mail lists. The
first two may be joined by sending the message 'subscribe tsdist-l' or
'subscribe tsres-l' to
majordomo@swin.edu.au . They are run from Swinburne
University in Melbourne, Australia, by Glenda Francis and John Taffe,
respectively. The third and fifth lists, tstech-l and tsschl-l, are run from the
University of Central Queensland (also in Australia), by Rex Boggs. To join send
the message 'subscribe tstech-l' or 'subscribe tsschl-l' to
majordomo@cq-pan.cqu.edu.au .
You will receive a welcoming message with instructions on how to post to the
list, as well as messages that others post to the list after you join.
Please help to make the ICOTS-sponsored e-mail networks a success. You all are
invited to join at least one of these lists and to share your ideas. The list
members may be found in the IASE web site. Further developments will also be
posted there. More information can be obtained by John Taffe at
jtaffe@vic.bigpond.net.au the "reference person" for all the groups on behalf of
the IASE.
2. A tribute to a friend and colleague:
Andrejs Dunkels (1930-1998)
by Brian Phillips
The best part of being involved with an International Organisation such as the
IASE is the opportunity to meet wonderful people from around the world. I am
sure that many will agree with me, that Andrejs Dunkels was on the top of the
list of people we have been privileged to meet, listen to, work with, discuss
ideas and have fun with.
Andrejs was born in Riga, Latvia, in 1939 where his father was a judge and
musician. With his family, he escaped to Sweden in 1944, but was unable to
return to Latvia for many years because of the Russian occupation. From 1959 he
studied Mathematics and Physics at Uppsala University then worked as a teacher
and university lecturer, obtaining an MSc(Ed) in 1965. From 1966 to 1968 he
established the Mathematics Department at the Kenya Science Teachers College in
Nairobi. In 1969 he took up a position in the Mathematics Department at the Umeä
University in Sweden. While teaching, he continued his studies gaining a
Licentiate in 1972 and Diploma of Education (Honors) in 1973. From that time on
he worked at Luleå University, Sweden where he spent half his time teaching
engineering students, the other half teaching student teachers, specialising in
mathematics for grades 1-7.
Andrejs was equally at home teaching university students or working with young
children in primary school and described his methods as small peer group
teaching using an exploratory style. In 1986 he was awarded the distinction
“Teacher of the Year” at his University. Over a period of more than 20 years
from the mid 1970's, Andrejs delighted conference delegates round the world with
many invited conference papers in mathematics and statistics education, wrote
many articles and was author and co-author of numerous text books especially for
primary school children. He was also the illustrator and translator of a number
of texts and was heavily involved with many associations and publications in a
number of countries. He was a sporty person who loved jogging, skiing, and
hiking and was very musical, singing in a choir. He also had a passion for
languages, his repertoire including English, Swedish, Latvian, Swahili plus some
German and French. Anyone who was lucky enough to hear him speak would know what
a great communicator he was. This was epitomised in his wonderful statistics
cartoons called "Footies" which often appeared in his articles, and talks.
Andrejs started to have health problems in 1975. Despite his health problems
Andrejs completed his Ph.D. in 1996 and travelled again. During the last few
months of 1998, his condition was improving so we were all devastated to hear
that he died of a heart attack on December 30, 1998.
Andrejs is survived by his wife Kerstin Vännman, a son and three daughters.
Andrejs and Kerstin both showed a great passion for the teaching of statistics,
Kerstin being one of the leading forces in establishing the IASE. Our thoughts
and sympathies go out to Kerstin and family.
Andrejs lived a wonderful life and had a great influence on all who knew him. He
was a most warm and caring person who made anyone in his company feel special.
He cared, he loved, he was open, he was an inspiration, he was Andrejs.
Many of his friends have the warmest memories of Andrejs. Unfortunately space
does not permit including any of their comments here, but some have been
recorded in an expanded article which is on the web ( www.swin.edu.au/maths/icots5/andrejs2.html ).
IASE
3. Profiles of the candidates for
IASE Executive Office
This year elections will be held for the IASE Executive Committee. A paper
ballot has already been sent to IASE members from the ISI Permanent Office and
must be returned no later than March 31, 1999. There is one candidate for
President-elect and six candidates for Vice President. Four Vice Presidents will
be elected. All members who have agreed to participate in the election are
actively engaged in promoting statistical education, as illustrated in the
following profiles.
President-Elect:
Carmen Batanero is Senior Lecturer in the Department of Mathematics Education at
the University of Granada in Spain. Before entering this Department in 1988, she
worked at the Department of Statistics, where she taught Probability and
Biostatistics for 11 years. She is presently teaching statistics and statistical
education, doing research and supervising doctoral dissertations on statistical
education, in addition to being involved in doing consultancy and in the
statistical training of researchers in Education. Her publications include
research papers and books directed to teachers. She helped to establish a new
stochastics group at PME (Psychology of Mathematics Education) and is currently
co-ordinating the International Research Group for Research on Learning
Probability and Statistics. She is Chair of the Scientific Committee for the
IASE Round Table to be held in Japan the year 2000.
Vice-President:
Dani Ben-Zvi is a research associate of the Science Teaching Department, at the
Weizmann Institute of Science in Israel. He teaches statistics and statistics
education. He developed an innovative Exploratory Data Analysis curriculum,
implemented it in schools and teacher colleges, and undertook research on
learning. His publications address issues related to the learning and teaching
of statistics, including research papers on learning processes, the use of
educational technology, and textbooks for students and teachers. He presented
his work at local and international forums, including ICOTS, ISI, and IASE
Roundtable. He currently serves as a co-chair of the First International
Research Forum on Statistical Reasoning, Thinking and Literacy (SRTL), a
co-chair of the PME Stochastics Research Group, and as secretary of the
International Program Committee for ICOTS 6.
Joan Garfield is an Associate Professor of Educational Psychology at the
University of Minnesota in the USA. She teaches courses in statistics and has
focused her research on statistics education. She recently co-edited two books
on statistics education, The Assessment Challenge in Statistics Education (with
Iddo Gal) and Research on the Role of Technology in Teaching and Learning
Statistics (with Gail Burrill). Current publications and presentations are on
the assessment of statistical reasoning and on the use of simulation software to
overcome misconceptions related to statistical inference. She has served on the
program committee for ICOTS 5, chaired the 1996 IASE Roundtable Conference, and
co-chairs the First International Research Forum on Statistical Reasoning,
Thinking and Literacy (SRTL). She is secretary of the Joint Committee on
Statistics for the American Statistical Association and the Mathematics
Association of America, and serves on the National Research Council's Committee
on Applied and Theoretical Statistics and the National Council of Teachers of
Mathematics' Research Advisory Committee.
Tae Rim Lee is professor in the Department of Applied Statistics, Korea National
Open University since 1996. She is the editor of the Korean Statistics
Dictionary. She has been the secretary of the Korea Association of Statistical
Education (1997-1998). In the field of Statistics, the IASE serves many goals
and a broad membership with diverse interests and needs. She thinks it is very
important role for IASE to have initiative for the right way to support and
contribute to the building of an intimate relationship between members who have
a wide range of interests and goals.
Lionel Pereira-Mendoza has taught in England, Nigeria, Canada and is currently
an Associate Professor at the National Institute of Education in Singapore. His
primary research interest in the teaching of statistics to primary children and
he has published extensively, particularly in journals that focus on the
teaching of mathematics and statistics at the elementary school level. He has
presented papers at both ICOTS and ISI meetings. He organised the Round-Table in
Statistics Education and was the IASE contact for ICOTS V, where he served on
both the Local organising committee and the International Programme Committee.
He is a member of the International Programme Committee for ICOTS 6 as well as a
member of the ISI Programme co-ordinating committee for the ISI meeting in Seoul
in 2001.
David Ospina is Statistics Director, National University of Colombia at Bogotá.
He has been working at the National University since 1971. He has taught many
different courses at the undergraduate and graduate level. However, his main
area is sampling. He has directed several theses and written several articles
which have been published mainly in Revista Colombiana de Estadística (Colombian
Journal of Statistics). Some of his research experience has to do with social
issues. As a member of a multidisciplinary group (anthropologists, psychiatrists
and statisticians) he contributed to study the problem of rural and urban
violence in Colombian families. Some books and several articles were published
describing the findings of this study. As the Director of Statistics Programs,
he has been able to detect and help to solve some of the main problems related
to statistics courses that students and professors have to face every day. He is
very committed to education issues.
Gilberte Schuyten is Professor in the Faculty of Psychology and Educational
Sciences at Gent University, Belgium. She is head of the department of Data
Analysis of the Faculty. She has an appointment at the Faculty of Psychology and
Educational Sciences where she teaches statistics, data analysis, research
methodology and didactics of mathematics. She advised the government in
introducing 'New Math' curricula during the seventies and in introducing
computers at schools in the eighties. Since 1990 she became involved with ICOTS,
ISI and IASE. She presented several papers dealing with empirical research
results during these meetings. Her special interest is in statistics learning of
students in the social sciences focusing on the impact of student cognitive and
affective characteristics and on the impact of electronic devices. She also
participated with a research report at the IASE Round Table at Granada in 1996
and organised three sessions on 'Research in Teaching Statistics at
Post-Secondary Levels' at ICOTS-5 in Singapore in 1998.
4. The Korea Association for Statistical
Education and Consulting (KASEC)
Dr. Tae Rim Lee, Korea National Open University ( trlee@av9500.knou.ac.kr )
The Korea Association for Statistical Education and Consulting was founded in
1983 with the following objectives:
1. To promote the development of statistical education;
2. To exchange information and to standardise statistical consulting.
The number of members of KASEC is 186. They come from various research fields,
including statistics, medicine, management, economics and statistical education.
The Regular meeting of the KASEC took place on December 12, 1998 at Korea
National Open University located in Seoul. The conference was a nationwide
scientific event for the dissemination of technical and educational information
concerning cyber university and statistical education in the broad sense of
statistics subjects and in as wide a range of applications as possible.
During the conference the following papers were presented:
1. The Cyber University and Education of Statistics (David , Sung Kyun Kwan
University);
2. Statistical Data Analysis and Java on the Web (Sung-Soo Kim, Korea National
Open University);
3. Calculation of statistical tables on the Internet (Jean Soo Whang, Inha
University);
4. Statistical Analysis on the W.W.W.(Kyung Soo Han, Chonbuk National
University);
5. Categorical Data Analysis on the Internet (Jong Seon Hong , Sung Kyun Kwan
University);
6. Teaching Statistics On the World Wide Web (Jong K. Sohn, Kyungpook National
University and Korea Virtual University);
7. Report on ICOTS-5 in Singapore (Tae Rim Lee, Korea National Open University);
During the conference the Korea National Open University cable television taped
the sessions so that in January 1999, this conference was transmitted to the
entire country through channel 47 entitled "Cyber University and Statistical
Education.
IASE
5. IASE Round Table Conference
Training Researchers in the Use of Statistics, Meiji University, Tokyo, Japan,
August 7-1, 2000
Scientific Committee: Carmen Batanero (Spain), Theodore Chadjipadelis (Greece),
Joan B. Garfield (USA), Anne Hawkins (UK), Yuki Miura (Japan), David Ospina
(Colombia), Brian Phillips (Australia).
Local Organising Committee: Yuki Miura, Kensey Araya, Masakatsu Murakami,
Toshiro Shimada.
A description of this roundtable conference appeared in the previous issue of
ISI News. Since this conference was announced, statistical educators from
different countries and with experience in the training of researchers in fields
such as education, psychology, sociology, biology, medicine or agronomy have
started offering their contributions. It is hoped that papers will cover the
outlined topics and in particular will discuss the teaching of experimental
design, multivariate, bayesian statistics, the use of technology, co-operation
in training of researchers in developing countries, continuous training of
researchers, teaching at a distance, educational problems of consultancy, the
influence of previous beliefs on interpreting association and the statistical
tests controversy. There is still time to be involved in this conference, as the
first deadline to submit your expression of interest is June, 30, 1999.
More information can be obtained from Carmen Batanero
batanero@goliat.ugr.es
or from the Web site:
http://www.ugr.es/~batanero/iasert.htm .
6. IASE’s role in future
conferences
ICME-9 Conference, Tokyo/Makuhari (Japan), July 31-August 6, 2000
International Program Committee Chair: Prof. Hiroshi Fujita
Major events: Plenary Lecture; International Round Table; Regular Lecture;
Working Group for Action (WGA); Topic Study Group (TSG); Poster Presentation;
ICMI Study Group; ICMI General Assembly; Social Activities; Exhibitions. Prof.
Hiroshi Fujita has invited Dr Susan Starkings, the IASE member who acted as
ICME-9 contact facilitator, to be the chief organiser of the Topic Study Group
No. 4 on: “The Teaching and Learning of Statistics”. More details can be
obtained from Susan Starkings at ( starkisa@vax.sbu.ac.uk )
IASE Sessions in the ISI's 53rd Biennial Meeting — Seoul (Korea) 2001
Lionel Pereira Mendoza is the representative of the IASE within the Programme
Co-ordinating Committee for the 2001 ISI Congress in Seoul (Korea). The
Committee will meet during the 52nd ISI Session. Suggestions are
being actively sought regarding session topics and organisers. There will be six
or seven themes directly related to Statistical Education. Suggestions
concerning any aspects of teaching statistics are welcome but preference will
generally be given to topics of wide interest. Sessions that are organised in
collaboration with IASE’s sister associations within the ISI family are strongly
encouraged. Suitable names and contact information for organisers, speakers and
discussants will also be appreciated. Suggestions should be sent to Lionel
Pereira Mendoza ( mendoza@singnet.com.sg )
or ( pereiraml@am.nie.ac.sg ).
IASE
7. The Journal of Statistics Education becomes an ASA Journal
Jacquelin Dietz, Editor, JSE, North Carolina State University, USA.
( dietz@stat.ncsu.edu )
( http://www.amstat.org/publications/JSE )
Exciting changes are in store for the Journal of Statistics Education! As of
January 1999, JSE is an official journal of the American Statistical
Association. The new relationship between JSE and ASA will offer many advantages
and opportunities to both parties. Subscribers will see some immediate changes
and gradually a larger and stronger journal.
Since its first issue in 1993, JSE has been published independently by an
international Editorial Board, with funding from the Department of Statistics at
North Carolina State University, the Fund for the Improvement of Post-secondary
Education (US Department of Education), and the Exxon Education Foundation. For
years, the journal staff has sought the financial stability and prestige that
would come from sponsorship by a professional society.
ASA will subsidise JSE for a three-year period, with the expectation that the
journal will become self-supporting, primarily through advertising. There will
be a low subscription fee, $10 per calendar year for all subscribers, whether or
not they are members of ASA. This is in part a recognition that (despite net
culture) nothing is really free, and in part a result of the need to give
potential advertisers a meaningful count of subscribers.
The Table of Contents and abstracts will continue to be freely available, and
the existing JSE archive will move to the ASA web site and will remain
accessible to all. Future volumes of JSE will become freely accessible after one
year, in yearly blocks. For example, the 1999 volume will become freely
available after January 1, 2001. Current subscribers will always have access to
all issues of JSE.
Subscribers will receive an e-mail announcement whenever a new article is
released and will use a password to access current issues. The system of
releasing articles as they are accepted rather than waiting until a full issue
is assembled will further reduce publication delays. Articles will continue to
be grouped in issues for bibliographic purposes. Because the World Wide Web is
now so widely accepted, the ascii version of JSE will be discontinued.
JSE encourages the submission of well-written manuscripts that will be
interesting and useful to teachers of statistics at any level from primary
through workplace education. Dataset articles, articles that make innovative use
of the electronic medium, reports on research on teaching and learning
statistics, and articles by authors outside the United States are especially
welcome.
IASE
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23, No. 1 (67)
1999
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