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Published three times a year, the ISI Newsletter provides a broad overview of the Institute's activities, and also includes additional information of interest to statisticians. The Newsletter is sent to all members of the ISI and its Sections (approx. 5,000) as part of their membership.
Editors: Ms. A. van Krimpen and Ms. S. Mehta, Graphic Designer: Mr. H. Lucas
President's Message
Over the last two years, I needed substantial preparation to feel able to start my role as new President of the ISI. While trying to understand the many duties of a President, I have been fortunate to receive substantial support from various people, from the outgoing President and Executive Committee, from the Staff of the Permanent Office, especially from Director Ada van Krimpen as well as from her predecessor Wim Senden. During the ISI Session in Durban, I had further opportunities to talk with dozens of people who are all devoted to our cause, furthering the ISI. By now, I look forward and with great anticipation to my two years as President.
Members of the ISI and its Associations will remember that the General Assembly of ISI accepted a Strategic Plan with eight major areas to which it wants to contribute. I want us to pursue these as vigorously as possible. A genuine restructuring of the Institute is long overdue and the Sections should carry far more responsibility in the decision-making. We want the enthusiasm and ideas of Young Statisticians to help move the ISI forward … and reciprocally, we want the ISI to play an important role in helping them progress in their careers. And there is so much more that the ISI can do to help support statisticians in developing countries, groups who are under-represented in our Society and statisticians who work in areas not within the current scope of ISI or Section activities.
Contacts with the incoming ISI Executive Committee and Council and the incoming Section Presidents in Durban have been extremely warm and constructive. I feel that we all share a common purpose in terms of what we are seeking for the ISI, and a common determination to achieve something significant over the next two years. If you have suggestions about how the ISI can improve or where it should be heading, please contact Ada or me. We want to hear from you, and we will respond.
It is my very pleasant task to say a few words of thanks to the outgoing President of the International Statistical Institute, Professor Denise Lievesley. Of course, Denise has had a long association with the ISI as a member, Executive Director and Section President. However, I would just like to focus here on her last few years as a member of the Executive Committee, first as Incoming President and then as President.
One thing of which you cannot accuse Denise is a lack of passion. And that is perhaps the most important thing she has brought to her leadership in the ISI – passion about a subject that has been dear to her heart for a long time. And what is this?
What can the ISI be doing to further the interests and the welfare of disadvantaged groups in our world, particularly women, particularly young people, particularly people in developing countries, and notably – as indicated by the location of the last ISI Session – people in Africa?
The ISI Session in Durban, or World Statistics Congress as it will be called in the future, provided ample evidence of her endeavors. Denise has made numerous visits to Africa, indeed, she recently spent six months in Ethiopia, developing an understanding of the issues for all these groups, encouraging people to participate, finding ways that would enable them to participate, and liaising with the Organizers to facilitate all these things happening.
And what has been the result? A remarkable outcome for Africa: A third of the delegates from Africa, young and old, female and male. This was not all due to Denise, of course, the Statistician-General of South Africa Pali Lehohla and his team, and all the Program Chairs and program participants and local support have done wonderfully well, as the outgoing President has amply acknowledged in her thank-you message during the General Assembly of the 57th ISI Session. However, her contribution has been unique, enormous, and essential. It is clear that we will miss her passion.
There was one other contribution she has made that will have struck everyone who has been at the Session, and again is unique. We were delighted for several days by the Vision Splendide of the Presidential attire. The Local Organizers had the splendid idea to dress Denise every day in different attire, each time typical for one of the many people that live in South Africa. For decades, there has been one boringly-dressed male President after another. Suddenly, we have been refreshed.
I would like to use this occasion to thank Denise and the whole outgoing Executive Committee for the collaborative spirit. We promise that we will do our utmost to help ISI in its future progress.I consider it a privilege that one of my first actions as new President of the ISI consists in sending a special word of thanks to the Local Organizing Committee of the 57th Session of the ISI in Durban, South Africa.
The number of participants exceeded most of the predictions that had to be based on aspects like travel costs, fees and security. With close to 100 invited paper sessions and a multiple of that of contributed papers, the scientific challenges have been clearly met. Though what made the Session stand out is the unexpectedly large contingent of participants from the African continent. Especially the more than 300 young statisticians from Africa, mainly supported by the World Bank and the African Development Bank, have given the entire meeting an authentic and uncommon flavour. More flavour came through the lavish and varied social activities that have been greatly appreciated by the participants.
It is our intention to continue the discussion on how we will keep a focus on Africa and the statistical development of this vast continent. In particular, the legacy of the Session as it touches the younger generation should remain our special focus. We pledge commitment and support to help advance statistics at all levels.
ISI wishes to extend its sincere gratitude to the Statistician-General Pali Lehohla and his entire team for the splendid work and the tremendous commitment that made the Session a success.
Jef Teugels,
ISI President
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Director's Message
The 57th ISI Session in Durban, South Africa, was an unforgettable experience for the approximately two-and-a-half thousand participants. The rich Scientific Programme offered various scientific paper contributions and the social events were unprecedented. From the momentous ceremony, where South African President Jacob Zuma honoured us with his opening speech, until the closing ceremony with the outstanding cultural programme, it was all equally impressive. Many of us were touched by the performances of learners of the Our Lady of the Rosary School and on top of that the female participants had the privilege of attending a Women’s dinner with a performance by musical icon Yvonne Chaka Chaka.
The Durban Session was also unprecedented for its participation: It had the highest proportion of women, the highest proportion of participants from sub-Saharan Africa, and the highest proportion of young statisticians. It is important to mention its outreach to the African continent and the attention it gained in the media for the sake of statistics and the ISIBALO project for statistical capacity. It showed the positive spin offs for hosting a Session and we all hope that the positive effects will last long after the Session.
We owe our heartfelt thanks to Mr. Pali Lehohla, the Statistician-General of Statistics South Africa, Mr. Jairo Arrow, ISI Executive Secretary, and his fabulous team and Mr. Tim Dunne, Chair of the Local Scientific Programme Committee, for their excellent work!The Irish Ambassador Mr. Colin Wrafter and the Director-General of CSO Ireland, Mr. Gerry O’Hanlon, presented the plans for forthcoming ISI World Statistics Congress, as the Sessions will be called in future, which will be organised in Dublin from 21-26 August 2011. The Congress will be hosted in a brand new Conference Centre and promises to be an equally interesting event. The 2011 Congress will have a special Theme Day, “Water, quality and quantity”, during which all papers will address the theme from various statistical perspectives. You may consult the website www.isi2011.ie for staying up-to-date.
For me, after becoming the new ISI Director only as of 1st of August 2009, the Session offered an excellent opportunity to meet with so many people who are active in the ISI Family: the Section Presidents, the Committee Chairs, EC and Council members and many more. It was impressive to see how many plans there are for the future and the further enhancement of the ISI family. I returned from Durban loaded with ideas for future activities for the ISI.
One of the objectives is improving the communication with the ISI and Section members about the ISI activities. A first step will be a new website for the ISI that will provide our members and all those interested in ISI activities with up-to-date information. The aim is to have the new website ready in first half of 2010. The ISI Newsletter will continue to be published on the Internet, but will change in future. I would be happy to receive the advice and comments of our members with regard to these developments.
Equally important are the unremitting efforts to increase the membership of the ISI ensuring that ISI remains an active and significant organisation for statisticians from all over the world. The challenge will be to attract more members, from a younger age and to ensure better participation from developing countries. The new Executive Committee and Council are increasing their efforts in this area. Jef Teugels, the new ISI President, has already taken the necessary steps, as you will have read in his Message. The ISI Permanent Office in The Hague is ready to support these activities and to contribute with an experienced team.
I am happy to announce that the 2010 memebrship fees for ISI elected membership remain the same as in 2009.
Ada van Krimpen
ISI Director
ISI Durban Session: Glances of Durban
The ISI Session in Durban, South Africa, was the first ISI biennial conference that took place in sub-Saharan Africa. This has been said and printed many times before, even in previous issues of the ISI Newsletter. Only those who attended the ISI Durban Session really know what a wonderful, lively experience it truly was. Several photographs have been included to show what cannot be conveyed in writing.
In addition, we wish to convey a word of thanks from the 2009 Local Organising Committee to the participants who made the conference memorable. The ISI Permanent Office, in turn, would like to thank the members of the Local Organising Committee for their hard work and dedication, as well as their kindness and sense of humour!
ISI Permanent Office
Performance at the Opening Ceremony on Sunday, 16th August 2009
Dancers enjoying themselves at the Opening Ceremony
Windy Durban!
The effect of windy Durban on the front entrance of the ICC
Dancing at the Women's Dinner, City Hall, Durban
ISI General Assembly: The Executive Committee and ISI Director seated with ISI President Denise Lievesley speaking to the audience
ISBIS President Nick Fisher's trendy attire while speaking at the ISI General Assembly
School children performing at the ISI General Assembly
Dr. Jairo Arrow checking that everything is in order prior to the VIP Dinner
Guests gathering for the VIP Dinner
School children performing at the Closing Ceremony on Saturday, 22nd August 2009
String Orchestra performing during the Gala Dinner
Incoming ISI President Jef Teugels, Director-General of CSO Ireland Mr. Gerry O'Hanlon and ISI Director Ada van Krimpen already preparing for the Dublin Congress at the Gala Dinner
Performance at the Gala Dinner
Awards Presented in Durban
Various awards were presented at the ISI General Assembly in Durban on 21st of August 2009.
The fourth ISI Mahalanobis Award was presented to Professor Pedro Alberto Morettin (Brazil) during the ISI General Assembly in Durban on 21st of August. At the ISI General Assembly, Professor Lynne Billard, who chaired the ISI Mahalanobis Committee, gave an introduction about this prestigious award and a background of Professor Morettin’s career. This was followed by a speech by the Honorable Minister of State for Statistics & Programme Implementation, Government of India, Shri Sriprakash Jaiswal. Professor Morettin received a certificate from the ISI as well as a plaque from the Government of India.
Initiated and financially supported by the Government of India, the biennial ‘Mahalanobis Prize’ serves to honour the memory of Professor P.C. Mahalanobis by recognising the lifetime contribution of selected statisticians from developing countries who have earned their reputation in developing countries. Previous winners of this Prize include Prof. C.R. Rao, Prof. Ben Kiregyera and Dr. Isidoro P. David.
Professor Pedro Alberto Morettin and Professor Lynne Billard Professor Pedro Alberto Morettin (left) and the Honorable Minister of State for Statistics & Programme Implementation, Government of India, Shri Sriprakash Jaiswal
One of the fundamental objectives of the ISI is to define and institute a constructive role for the ISI in supporting the development of young statisticians. With this in mind, the ISI Jan Tinbergen Awards were established as an international competition for young statisticians from a developing country with the first prize taking place at the 1983 ISI Session; they continue to be presented at the biennial meetings of the ISI. In Durban, the following three winners received the ISI Jan Tinbergen Award, named after the famous Dutch econometrician:
• Mr. Pierre Joubert Nguetse Tegoum (Cameroon): "Estimating the Returns to Education in Cameroon Informal Sector"
• Mr. Mohammad Arashi (Iran): "Problem with Estimation with Balanced Loss Function in Elliptical Models"
• Mr. Sudheesh Kumar Kattumannil (India): "Some Results on Lower Variance Bound: A Unified Approach"
In addition to a cash prize, generously provided by the Dutch ‘Stichting Internationaal Statistisch Studiefonds’, these three individuals will received support to participate at the Durban Session and they presented their winning papers at a special Invited Paper Meeting (IPM 101). The Jan Tinbergen Jury was chaired by Mr. Eric Schulte Nordholt.
The ISI Jan Tinbergen Award Prize Winners and Professor Denise Lievesley
There were a few prizes awarded by the IASS and IAOS Sections of the ISI at the ISI General Assembly in Durban. For these prizes, the winners are given a monetary prize as well as support for expenses in order to present their papers at the ISI Durban Session.
The IASS Cochran-Hansen Prize was awarded by IASS President Pedro Silva to Dr. Hukum Chandra (India) for his paper entitled, "Small Area Estimation under Transformation to Linearity". The Prize was established in 1999 and is given to a young statistician from a developing country for the best paper on survey research methods.
IASS President Pedro Silva (right) hands over the Prize to Dr. Hukum Chandra
The IAOS Prize for Young Statisticians is awarded to a young statistician from a developing country. This year the IAOS Prize was given to two young statisticians, Mr. Neimar Rodrigues Guimarães (Brazil) for his paper "Detection of Multivariate Outliers for the Brazilian Industrial Employment Survey by Robust Methods" and Mr. Makan Doumbouya (Guinea) for his paper "Evaluation du Système Educatif-une approche par les pseudo-panels". IAOS President Mr. Olav Ljones presented the IAOS Prizes and Dr. Jennifer Madans chaired the Committee.
The IAOS Prize for Young Statisticians Award Winners
News from the ISI Permanent Office
Most of you would not recognise her if she were to cross your path, though many of you have received letters or e-mails from Mrs. Margaret de Ruiter-Molloy, the Membership Officer of the ISI Permanent Office. She has been roaming the ISI halls for longer than any of her colleagues. This past September Margaret celebrated her tenth anniversary at the ISI. We appreciate Margaret’s cheerful personality and her dedication to her work. We only hope she stays at least another decade if not longer.
To Margaret: Sláinte!
[Gaelic for cheers.]Mrs. Margaret de Ruiter-Molloy
ISI Membership Elections 2009
We would like to congratulate the 12 new ISI members, who were elected in the first round of the 2009 ISI membership elections. For those who wish to contact any of these individuals, please note that the ISI website contains a component including the names and addresses of all ISI members (see http://isi.cbs.nl/isimembers/isimembers.htm), and these new members will be added to this list in the coming weeks.
Elected Membership
Gutu, Samia Zekaria Ethiopia Smedt, Marleen de Belgium Hossain, Md Monir Bangladesh Trendafilov, Nickolay Trendafilov Bulgaria Jandhyala, Venkata K. India Waymire, Edward Charles United States Okafor, Christopher Maduabuchi Nigeria Zhang, Hao United States Payton, Mark United States Zhang, Li-Chun China Rosenberger, William United States Zhao, Yichuan China
We regret to announce the deaths of the following members
Born Elected Deceased Mr. René A.J. Cavé 1919 1974 11 September 2008 Professor Irving John Good 1916 1964 5 April 2009 Dr. Knut Håkan Medin 1922 1970 6 May 2009 Professor Hugh D. Brunk 1919 1973 19 July 2009 Professor Mir Maswood Ali 1929 1980 18 August 2009 Professor Daniel Schwartz 1917 1962 6 September 2009 Professor Erich Leo Lehmann 1917 1954 13 September 2009 Professor S.R. Anant Rao 1925 1974 21 September 2009 In Memoriam
ISI Committee Matters
Report on Meeting of National Statistical Societies Durban 18th August 2009
Representatives of 30 National Statistical Societies met in Durban with members of the Committee on Strengthening Cooperation between ISI and National Statistical Societies to discuss the concept of an International Federation of National Statistical Societies.
ISI President Denise Lievesley opened the meeting with background information on ISI’s commitment to strengthening relations with National Statistical Societies, and ISI President-Elect Jef Teugels presented the concept of an International Federation of National Statistical Societies. Broadly speaking the IFNSS should be constituted as a non-profit umbrella organisation for national societies with the following basic aims:
• to promote Statistics;
• to advance international cooperation in the field of Statistics;
• to stimulate research, development and application of Statistics in science and human activity;
• to further the dissemination and exchange of Statistics;
• to encourage education in Statistics.While some thinking had been done by ISI on how the federation might work, views were sought from the representatives of National Statistical Societies before final proposals are brought forward by the Committee.
There was general support for the proposal. Participants identified many potential benefits such as sharing ideas and resources between societies, facilitating the development of statistics globally and promoting the discipline. Issues were raised for the Committee to consider further, before formal proposals are made. These related to structural, cultural and organisational matters. Views were expressed that a virtual organisation (community of practice) could be established quite quickly on the Internet, as an alternative to the normal ISI formal committee structure.The meeting was closed by Louis Chen, incoming ISI Vice-President who has been delegated responsibility for this work. He welcomed the open discussion on the concept and the ideas and views expressed by the representatives. He looked forward to receiving the report on this meeting and to make quick progress in improving collaboration between ISI and National Statistical Societies before Dublin 2011. He thanked Mary Sweetland (UK) for facilitating the meeting. He would also like to request ISI Members to bring this news to the attention of their respective National Statistical Societies of which they are members. He would welcome any further views or suggestions to be sent to him at matchyl@nus.edu.sg.
Mrs. Mary Sweetland
ISI Committee on Risk Analysis (ISI-CRA): ICCRA3 in Porto Heli
The Third International Conference on Cancer Risk Assessment (ICCRA3) took place between 16-18 July 2009, in Porto Heli on Peloponnesus in Greece, organized by Prof. Christos P. Kitsos, Technological Educational Institute of Athens, member of ISI-CRA. The Conference was attended by 44 participants from Europe, Asia and North America.
A total of 25 presentations were given during five sessions that covered general aspects of risk analysis, statistical methods (e.g. periodograms and dose additivity and mixtures), data analysis (addressing e.g microorganisms, HPV infections, leukaemia and pollutions), risk assessment (including carcinogenesis models, regression, clustering and shape analysis), and modelling (e.g. for screening and prevention, metastasis and low level radiation).Selected papers presented at the Conference have been published in the series of Biometrie und Medizinische Informatik - Greifswalder Seminarberichte issued by Karl-Ernst Biebler and Bernd Jäger (Greifswald) as 15th volume on Cancer Risk Assessment by Christos P. Kitsos, Alexandros G. Rigas and Karl-Ernst Biebler (ISBN 978-8332-8245-5, ISSN 1439-5320) with Shaker Verlag, Aachen, 2009.
All abstracts of the Conference as well as a selected number of long versions of the presentations were available on a CD “ICCRA3 Porto Heli 16-18 July 2009”, edited by Christos P. Kitsos and Chris C. Caroni.
The full programme of the Conferences that have been held is also available on the ISI-CRA website:
http://www.meduniwien.ac.at/isi-cra
In Europe, the ICCRA series of international conferences on risk assessment and risk analysis has become a successful forum for mathematicians, (bio-) statisticians, epidemiologists and medical and public health scientists working for methods and methodological research relevant in cancer risk assessment and related fields relevant for human health and life. During ICCRA3, it was decided to continue this series by organising an International Conference on Risk Assessment (ICRA4), to be held in 2011, when the ISI meets in Dublin, then in the second half of May in Cyprus under the Chair of Alexander Karagrigoriou, University of Cyprus.
ICCRA3 has been co-sponsored by the ISI Committee on Risk Analysis.Lutz Edler,
Chair, ISI Committee on Risk AnalysisISI Committee Brings Challenges Facing Women to the Forefront
A Report on Activities of the Committee on Women in Statistics 2009 ISI Meetings in Durban, South Africa
The Committee on Women in Statistics, chaired by Dr. Cynthia Clark (USDA/NASS), upheld its commitment to promote and strengthen the representation of women in statistics and to support the compilation of statistics on women by spearheading several well-received activities at the 2009 International Statistical Institute (ISI) Session in Durban, South Africa. The activities were strongly supported by Professor Denise Lievesley, who is the first woman to serve as the President of ISI, and provided an opportunity for members to initiate a dialogue on the many challenges women face around the world – including leadership and professional development as well as violence and personal struggles.
Significant thought and planning went into organizing the Committee sponsored activities to ensure a diverse offering of meeting platforms was afforded to attendees. The activities ranged from a panel discussion on Issues Facing Women in Leadership Roles in Official Statistics, and a formal presentation on Violence against Women: How Indicators can Influence Policy Development, to a mentoring reception and dinner hosted by ISI President Denise Lievesley at the Mayoral Building, and a meeting of country representatives. Additionally, Dr. Cynthia Clark presented a short report on the Committee at the ISI Council meeting in Durban and was invited to meet with the incoming ISI President Jef Teugels and the President-Elect Jae Chang Lee.
One of the highlights of the Committee’s activities was a Special Topics Session (STCPM 25), a panel discussion on the Issues Facing Women in Leadership Roles in Official Statistics. The session was organized and chaired by Martha Farrar, the ISI Committee on Women in Statistics Webmaster, and featured panellist Inger Eklund, Director of Regions and Environment Department, Statistics Sweden; Susan Linacre, Advisor for Strategic Projects, Australian Bureau of Statistics; Eva Laczka, Director of Department for Agricultural and Environmental Statistics, Hungarian Statistical Office; and Awa Thiongane, Senior Regional Advisor of the African Centre for Statistics of the United Nations. The Committee was honoured to have Denise Lievesley, ISI President, serve as the panel moderator.
Each panellist brought a unique perspective on how gender has influenced their careers. The topics of discussion included:
• Personal drivers – Why I am a leader, what is driving me, what are my personal goals and how do I reach them?
• General influences that effect women in advancing to leadership positions – What are the impacts of culture, impacts of role models, and advantages and disadvantages of being a female leader?
• Managing career transitions for women – How to successfully join the workforce (part-time or full-time), start a family, and transition to retirement.
• Organizational drivers – What are strategies to build management and leadership confidence in young women, to increase the number of female leaders in science, and to mentor female statisticians?The Issues Facing Women in Leadership Roles in Official Statistics session was a popular choice among ISI Session attendees filling the room to full capacity with approximately 60 people. A summary of the discussion will appear in the next issue of the ISI Newsletter.
Another highlight from the Committee on Women in Statistics was Special Topics Contributed Paper Session (STCPM 24), a sponsored session titled Violence against Women: How Indicators can Influence Policy Development. The session, organized and chaired by Dr. Cynthia Clark, addressed one of the 12 critical areas of concern relating to women that emerged in the 1995 U.N. Beijing Platform for Action. A jointly sponsored session at the 2008 meetings of the U.N. Commissions on Statistics and on the Status of Women discussed a report authored by an expert group that recommended indicators to measure the scope, prevalence, and incidence of violence against women covering physical violence, sexual violence, intimate partner violence, and the practices of female genital mutilation and early marriage.
This ISI session was conceived as an opportunity to present results of surveys in three countries with a focus on how the data has influenced policy. The presentations included:
• Luay Shababeh, Director, Palestine Central Bureau of Statistics
Some Insights on Policy Implications and Methodology of Quantitative Measurement of Domestic Violence
• Linda Osterberg, Committee Secretary, Commission of Inquiry (Delegation for Gender Equality in Higher Education), and Carolina Nordstrom, Department of Population and Welfare Statistician, Statistics Sweden
Statistics and Policy-Making on Men’s Violence against Women: the Swedish Example
• Linda Laura Sabbadini, Division Director for Surveys on Living Conditions and Quality of Life, Italian National Statistical Institute (also a member of the U.N. expert group that reported to the Commissions in February 2008)
Italian Violence against Women Survey: Lessons for Policy Makers.The Committee was pleased to have Grace Bediako, Government Statistician (Director) of the Ghana Statistical Service, as the session discussant. The Violence against Women: How Indicators can Influence Policy Development session was a topic of interest for many with approximately 30 participants attending the meeting. A paper on this topic, with a case study from each of the three papers, is planned for submission to the International Statistical Review.
Beyond providing intriguing sessions to stimulate intellectual thought and debate, the Committee on Women in Statistics seized the 2009 ISI Session as a unique opportunity to also provide activities for professional and personal growth and development. Denise Lievesley conceived the idea of hosting a reception and dinner for women attendees at ISI with the goal of providing an opportunity for mentoring among women, inviting a motivational speaker, and celebrating female professional leadership. The evening proved to be a fun celebration with African music and dance performances, excellent table discussions and delicious food.
The Committee presented a memento of its appreciation to Denise Lievesley for her leadership in tackling issues that have been important to her – giving every person the opportunity to develop their full potential and tackling poverty and injustice across the world. She was recognized as being an example of leadership with the words of Pauline Tangiora, a Maori Elder, “Those who lead give sight to those who follow; those who follow give life to those who lead”.
The efforts put forth by the Committee on Women in Statistics for the 2009 ISI Session were deemed a great success. The Committee sponsored activities were not only well attended, but also initiated great discussions for future endeavours and continued to promote and strengthen the representation of women in statistics and leadership. Members of the Committee have already taken an active role in the 2011 ISI Session in Dublin by attending planning meetings and proposing topics for invited sessions.
Martha Farrar
Webmaster, ISI Committee on Women in StatisticsISI Satellite Meeting on Agricultural Statistics
Maputo, Mozambique 13-14 August 2009
The International Statistical Institute’s (ISI) Committee on Agricultural Statistics has been instrumental in increasing international awareness of the need to improve the data system for agriculture and has been involved in the organization of four international conferences starting in 1998. The most recent effort was the Satellite Meeting hosted by the National Statistical Office of Mozambique in cooperation with the African Development Bank, the UN Food and Agricultural Organization, the World Bank, the UN Statistics Division, the Partnership in Statistics for Development in the 21st century, Eurostat, the US Department of Agriculture, and the ISI Committee on Agricultural Statistics.
The ISI Satellite Meeting was an outgrowth of the 2007 International Conference on Agricultural Statistics (ICAS IV), where a major outcome was that there was a serious lack of direction on how to meet emerging data requirements to guide policies regarding agriculture’s impact on global warming, the use of bio-fuels, the environment, and food security in addition to those posed by the Millennium Development Goals.
As a result, the United Nations Statistical Commission (UNSC) initiated an effort to develop a global strategy to improve agricultural statistics. The development of the global strategy by the World Bank was done in collaboration with those named above as Organizers of the Satellite Meeting. The primary focus of the Meeting was on a detailed review and discussion of the draft global strategy by over 200 experts from national and international organizations. A consensus was reached among all participants about the following principles for the global strategy to improve agricultural statistics:
• To establish a minimum set of core data to be provided annually to meet the emerging data needs.
• To integrate agriculture statistics into the national statistical systems in order to meet the requirements of policy makers and other users.
• To adopt a suite of methodologies that includes the development of a Master Sampling Frame for Agriculture, the implementation of an Integrated Survey Framework, with the results available in an Integrated Data Base.The Global Strategy will be revised to reflect the outcome of the Satellite Meeting followed by the preparation of an implementation plan. The Strategy will be presented to the 41st session of the UN Statistical Commission in February 2010. Both will also be the primary topics to be considered by the ISI International Conference on Agricultural Statistics (ICAS V), to be held from 13-15 October 2010 in Kampala, Uganda.
Fred Vogel
Chair, ISI Committee on Agricultural Statistics
President’s Report: To the Members of the ISI and its Associations
To the Members of ISI and its Associations,
We would like to inform you about a number of new initiatives taken up by the incoming Executive Committee of the ISI. In this issue of the Newsletter, I restrict attention to the role of the new Executive; in a next issue, the important activities of the members of the Council will be highlighted.Each member of the Executive Committee has taken up responsibility for a number of tasks.
• As President, I would like to proceed with the portfolio of restructuring the ISI into an attractive and relevant organization. As part of this obligation, I will pay special attention to the distinctive role played by our subject area committees. Moreover, I would like to help ISI in developing new and innovative activities for young statisticians and for developing countries.
• President-Elect Jae Chang Lee (South Korea) has selected as main portfolio the collaboration of the ISI with its many and diverse Associations and the interaction among the latter, this in close collaboration with the Permanent Office. He will pay special attention to all issues that are related to education, in particular the educational obligations of the ISI towards developing countries.
• The statutory required portfolio finance is taken up by Vice-President Hallgrímur Snorrason (Iceland) who will also help the Executive Committee in meetings it obligations and challenges to the wider international community. The cooperation of our Institute with other international institutions (UN, UNESCO, Eurostat, …) is of crucial importance and needs to be intensified.
• We have to admit that over the recent decades, the ISI has not paid sufficient attention to the benefits of forging stronger relations and interactions between the ISI and the many National Statistical Societies. Vice-President Louis Chen (Singapore) has accepted to guide the ISI in the construction of a proper framework for this vital activity.
• Vice-President Vijay Nair (USA) has already served two years on the previous Executive where he took care of the wide slate of publications. He will continue this important task. Apart from helping the Sections with their publications whenever necessary, he will work together with the Permanent Office to improve the ISI Newsletter and the ISI website, the ISI’s main means of communication.
• Finally, the new Director Ada Van Krimpen is responsible for the efficient management of the Permanent Office. She will play a key role in a number of important tasks like fundraising, IT and publicity, all crucial aspects when trying to make ISI a competent and up-to-date institute.
Moreover, she can be addressed by all of the Associations in order to improve the interaction between them and the ISI.Of course, many of these responsibilities are intertwined. Through regular e-mail contact and carefully planned reunions, each member of the Executive Committee will offer his/her findings to the colleagues for further improvements. It is our sincere hope that in the very near future, the membership of the ISI and its Associations will be able to show their support to innovative proposals that will be worked out by the Executive Committee.
Jef Teugels
ISI President
The International Statistical Review
Editorial Transition and Revised Editorial Policy
Eugene Seneta and Kees Zeelenberg retire as Joint EditorsProfessor Eugene Seneta and Dr. Kees Zeelenberg retired as Joint-Editors of the International Statistical Review on August 31, 2009. They will continue to handle papers that were submitted before August 31. All submissions after this date will be handled by the new editorial board.
The ISI Executive Committee wishes to express its appreciation to Eugene, Kees, their Associate Editors, and the many reviewers for their outstanding effort in service of the journal over the last few years.
Ali Hadi appointed as new Editor-in-Chief
Professor Ali S. Hadi is serving as the Editor-in-Chief of the International Statistical Review starting 1st September 2009. Ali is a Professor in the Department of Mathematics and Actuarial Science at the American University in Cairo (AUC), where he is currently the Vice Provost and Director of Graduate Studies and Research.
Professor Ali S. Hadi
Ali received his Bachelor of Science degree from Ain Shams University in Cairo in 1972 and his Masters (1980 and 1982) and Ph. D. (1984) degrees in Statistics from New York University. From 1984-2000, Ali was a faculty member at Cornell University in the USA, where he served as Chair of the Department of Social Statistics in the School of Industrial and Labor Relations.
Ali’s research covers a broad range of areas, including Data Mining, Visualization of massive and high-dimensional data, Statistical Computing and Graphics, Robust Methods, Linear and Nonlinear Models, and Multivariate Analysis. He has written five books and published more than 100 articles. Ali has also received numerous awards and honors, including Excellence in Teaching and Excellence in Research and Creative Endeavor Awards. He is a Fellow of the American Statistical Association and an elected member of the International Statistical Institute. Ali has extensive editorial experience, having served as editor and associate editor for several journals.
On the personal side, Ali was born and raised in Saft El-Nour, a small village in Upper Egypt. While attending graduate school at New York University, Ali worked in restaurants to support himself and his family. He started as a dishwasher, and, over an eight-year period, he was promoted to cook, first cook, assistant chef, and, finally, to head chef, specializing in French-Continental cuisine.
The ISI Executive Committee is pleased that Professor Hadi has agreed to take on this position as we continue efforts to establish IS Review as a top-quality review journal. He is supported in his efforts by an excellent team of Area Editors:
• Enrique Castillo, University of Cantabria, Spain.
• Raymond Chambers, University of Wollongong, Australia
• Abdel H. El-Shaarawi, National Water Research Institute, Canada
• Marc Hallin, Université libre de Bruxelles, Belgium
• Alan Karr, National Institute of Statistical Sciences, USA
• Eric Schulte Nordholt, Statistics Netherlands, The Netherlands
• Chris Wild, Auckland University, New ZealandRevised editorial policy and new editorial structure
An ad-hoc committee was set up about two years ago to examine how IS Review can be refocused to make it a top-tier review journal. The recommendations of this committee, made up of past and current editors of the journal as well as several at-large members, have led to a revision of the journal’s editorial policy. The revised policy (see below) is intended to enlarge the scope of review papers and attract articles that will be of broad interest. It is also imperative that the editorial board is very proactive in identifying and attracting suitable papers. To facilitate this, the editorial board has been restructured to have an Editor-in-Chief and several Area Editors, all of whom will be involved in recruiting papers.
The revised editorial policy reads as follows:
The International Statistical Review (ISR) is the flagship journal of the International Statistical Institute (ISI) and of its family of Associations. It publishes review papers of wide interest in statistics and probability. The term review is to be interpreted broadly. The types of papers that are suitable for publication include (but are not restricted to) the following:
• reviews/surveys of past developments in theory, methodology, statistical computing and graphics, statistical education, and application areas;
• tutorials on important topics;
• expository papers on emerging areas of research or application;
• papers describing new developments and/or challenges in relevant areas;
• white papers on topics of importance to the profession or society;
• historical assessment of seminal papers in the field and their impact; and
• papers on the history of statistics and probability.Papers must be of interest to a sufficiently broad spectrum of the members of ISI and its family, which include researchers in theory and methodology as well as researchers and practitioners in official statistics, survey statistics, statistical computing, statistical graphics, statistical education, business and industrial statistics, environmetrics and special interest groups in life sciences, risk analysis, sports statistics, and others. Selected papers will be published with discussions and a rejoinder by the author(s).
The journal will also publish interviews with statisticians who have made prominent contributions to research and applications and to the development of the profession. Proposals should be sent to the Editor-in-Chief.Vijay Nair
ISI Vice-President
Historical Anniversaries: Lucien March
Lucien March was born in France on 6th of December 1859. There is not much information available about his youth. After completing his formal education, he started higher education in the Ecole Polytechnique of Paris in 1878, one of the “Grandes Ecoles” which are French higher education schools that recruit their students through competitive examinations and that propose high level teaching.
March finished his studies in the naval guns corps and became Engineer in the mechanical industries before being taken on by the “Office du Travail” (Labour Office) in September 1892, participating in 1893 in a large survey about wages and work hours. Being in charge of the population census of 1896, he remembered the meeting with the American engineer Herman Hollerith during the World Fair of 1889, where he discovered the data processing machine using punch cards that had been built for the American Census of 1890. After a study of its running during the ISI Congress of Vienna in 1892, he adopted this machine for the French enterprises Census of 1896. In order to describe firms and the labour force, March chose to ask individuals, in the context of the population Census, about their occupations and the activities of their employers. Later, for the 1901 Census, he added to the Hollerith machine another one of his own, which did not use any punch card and could produce and print cross-tables directly involving two criteria: The “ classicompteur imprimeur” that was to be used until the 1930’s in France as well as in several European countries.
The Statistique Générale de la France (SGF), founded in 1840 with Moreau de Jonnès as its first Director, was included in the Office du Travail in 1889. In 1901, March became the Chief of the Technical Services of the Office and of the SGF. He retired and left office in 1920, replaced by Michel Huber.
When March started working for the SGF, statistical tools used by social scientists were those proposed by Quetelet and his successors. The innovations were not developed in this area: They came from eugenist biometrics, namely Francis Galton and Karl Pearson. They concerned regression and correlation but also standard deviation, estimation by the method of moments… Some statisticians later transferred these tools to the world of social sciences. Among these figures are Udny Yule, Arthur Bowley… and Lucien March.
The first studies of March were devoted, in 1898, to search for mathematical functions to adjust empirical distributions of wages. He chose a generalization of the Pareto law also inspired by the system of curves proposed by Pearson (type III). He was also interested in using coefficients of concordance between time series. His methodology has an essential characteristic: It is and must be independent of probability (This characteristic was in fact shared by many engineers and scientists in France). He also contributed to the theory of indexes.
The influence of Pearson on March concerns not only statistical tools but also philosophical aspects. Pearson had published the Grammar of Science in 1892. The third edition of this book (1911) contained a new chapter about statistics and the concept of contingency. March translated this book into French in order to diffuse the ideas of Pearson in French speaking countries. Moreover, he defended the eugenic ideas of Pearson and contributed to the birth of a Société française d’eugénique.
March also participated greatly to the debates on statistics in the area of economics. He treated of this problem within the Société de Statistique de Paris from 1897 (he became President of this Society in 1907). He was also a delegate of the French Official Statistics for the IIS that he joined in 1901. He became the Organizer of the Congress of this Institute in 1909, which was held in Paris. Finally, he participated in the creation of the Institut de Statistique de l’Université de Paris in 1922 with Emile Borel, Michel Huber and Georges Darmois.
Lucien March was not an innovator in statistics, but his role deserves to be recalled. He died on 4th of April 1933 in Mennecy, France.Jean-Jacques Droesbeke
Chair, Christiaan Huygens Committee
on the History of Statistics
Memories of the Past
ISI President Professor Friedrich Zahn addresses the Mexican Parliament at the start of the 21st ISI Session in Mexico City, 1933.
Announcements
The 2010 Young Statisticians’ Meeting (YSM 2010) is a two-day conference organised by young statisticians (those in the first 10 years of their statistical career) for other young statisticians. The event takes place on the 30th and 31st March 2010 at the University of Liverpool. YSM 2010 provides an excellent opportunity for young statisticians from academia, industry and the government sector to network amongst their peers, present their own research and discover a variety of statistical topics currently being researched in a friendly atmosphere.
The event is supported and sponsored by the Royal Statistical Society (RSS) and the programme includes workshop sessions and plenary sessions with guest speakers, plus a series of parallel presentation sessions and a poster session enabling young statisticians to present their work.
Further information can be found on our website: http://www.liv.ac.uk/ysm2010/
Dr. Jamie Kirkham
Event Treasurer, Young Statisticians’ Meeting 2010
E-mail: jjk@liv.ac.uk
Granger Econometrics and Statistical Modelling
EJPAM has decided to dedicate a special issue to honor Professor Sir Clive W.J. Granger’s outstanding contributions; he was one of our distinguished Advisory Editors.
This special issue of EJPAM will be entitled "Granger Econometrics and Statistical Modeling" and will be dedicated to the memory of Prof. Sir Clive W.J. Granger.
Paper submission deadline is 15 February 2010. The special issue will be published on 27 May 2010, the first anniversary of Sir Granger's passing. Our Editor is Prof. Hamparsum Bozdogan, who is also one of our distinguished Advisory Editors.Please see the Special Issue Call for Papers at
http://www.ejpam.com/html_files/announcements/Special_Issue_Call_for_Papers_Granger.pdf.Eyup Cetin, Editor-in-Chief, EJPAM
Nominations Sought for 2011 Waksberg Award
The journal Survey Methodology has established an annual invited paper series in honor of Joseph Waksberg to recognize his contributions to survey methodology. Each year a prominent survey statistician is chosen to write a paper that reviews the development and current state of an important topic in the field of survey methodology. The paper reflects the mixture of theory and practice that characterized Joe Waksberg’s work.
Previous honorees have been Gad Nathan (2001), Wayne Fuller (2002), Tim Holt (2003), Norman Bradurn (2004), J.N.K. Rao (2005), Alastair Scott (2006), and Carl-Erik Särndal (2007), Mary Thompson (2008), Graham Kalton (2009), and Ivan Fellegi (2010).
The recipient of the 2011 Waksberg Award will give the 2011 Waksberg Invited Address at the Statistics Canada Symposium to be held in the latter half of 2011. The paper will be published in a future issue of Survey Methodology.
The author of the 2011 Waksberg paper will be selected by a four-person committee appointed by Survey Methodology and the American Statistical Association. Nomination of individuals to be considered as authors or suggestions for topics should be sent before February 28, 2010, to the Chair of the Committee, Dan Kasprzyk (DKasprzyk@Mathematica-Mpr.com).
ISS-2009 on Inferences in GLLMMs
The International Symposium in Statistics (ISS) on Inferences in Generalized Linear Longitudinal Mixed Models (GLLMMs) took place in Memorial University, Canada, from July 20 to 23, 2009. This meeting with its specialized GLLMMs theme was attended by 45 delegates from many countries such as Australia, Japan, India, Mauritius, Denmark, Italy, USA and Canada. The symposium started with a plenary talk entitled ‘GLLMMs and Inferences’ by Professor Brajendra C. Sutradhar, an ISI member and host of the Symposium. Other plenary talks were delivered by highly reputed Professors: Raymond J. Carroll, Noel A. Cressie, William T.M. Dunsmuir, and Mary E. Thompson. In total, 22 papers were presented and 6 of them by graduate students. Thus, the meeting was a grand success with an excellent academic program complemented by various social events including a barbeque, the Symposium banquet and an ocean tour.
Springer E-mails: orders-ny@springer.com (inside the Americas) and
orders-hd-individuals@springer.com (outside the Americas)
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News from ISI Sections Volume 33, No. 3 (99) 2009
