ISI - International Statistical Institute
Newsletter Volume 27, No. 2 (80) 2003

Index

In this On-Line Issue

Message from the President

Message from the Director 

News of Members 

Executive Committee Meeting

In Memoriam 

54th Session 2003 (August 13th - 20th, 2003)
Administrative Meetings Programme – Berlin ISI Session
ISI Nominations Committee
SASA 50th Anniversary
An international conference in honour of Sir David Cox
Examining the Essential Functions of Statistical Organisations 
GUS/ISI Satellite Conference - Szczecin, Poland, 8 – 9 August 2003
Full programme of the Szczecin Satellite Conference

Calendar of events

News from ISI Sections


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Message from the President

This will be my last message in this Newsletter as President. It will also be my last message before ISI 2003 in Berlin. It has been a great honour to serve as President and a privilege I will remember for the rest of my life.

It is an important time in the long and important history of the ISI. Our membership is ageing. Whilst it is great that we can retain the interest and membership of older members, we need to balance that by attracting a larger number of younger members. We also need to attract relatively more female statisticians as well as statisticians from developing countries. Unless we make these changes to our membership, we run the risk of declining relevance. Furthermore, the demographics are such that it will not be too many years before our membership actually starts to decline.

What can we do about this? I have prepared a draft strategy document for discussion at the Executive Committee and Council meetings to be held in Berlin. I have outlined a summary in the following paragraphs and if you have any comments, please let me know (dennis.trewin@abs.gov.au ) or the ISI Permanent Office Director (@cbs.nl).

The vision I have for the ISI is for it to remain the peak international professional association of statisticians, no matter what their field of interest, by continual improvement to the range and quality of services provided to members. Some of you may feel this is not sufficiently ambitious but it may be a good starting point.

There will be challenges. I have already mentioned the ageing membership issue. Finances could become more difficult. ISI finances are largely dependent on corporate contributions, membership and publications. There may be pressures on all these sources. In particular, revenue from publications could decline, as more information becomes free on the Internet (if ISI decides to move in that direction).

Advances in technology should enable improvements in the range and quality of services at an affordable price. It should also be available to reduce the cost of existing services. However, technology is only an enabler. The ISI will need to find people to effectively deploy the technology.

What should be our key strategies to strengthen the ISI? I suggest the following:

The biennial Sessions should remain the flagship of the ISI. They should remain prestigious. This includes the scientific programme. Scientific merit should be the prime consideration in determining the programme. Statisticians want to hear from the top experts in their field. The basic format needs some changes to provide the flexibility to include keynote speakers of significance, including non-statisticians who will inspire statisticians.

Publications must move to become electronic. Hard copy will be the exception except perhaps for flagship publications like the International Statistical Review

Committees should be an important part of ISI activities. They allow experts from around the world to focus on specific issues or undertake particular tasks. To upgrade the effectiveness of Committees: 

The ISI Sections are a vital part of the ISI family. They are the most effective means of bringing new statisticians into the ISI family without the formality of ISI membership. Section members are also the main source of new ISI members. We should be actively looking at increasing the number of Sections in the ISI whilst ensuring the diversity of ISI activities is adequately covered. This means having a constructive dialogue with those interested in joining the ISI family, particularly those filling existing gaps. 

On the latter point, we have received an application from the Irving Fisher Committee for Section status . the International Association for Financial Statistics (IAFS) - although the scope is much broader than that of the Irving Fisher Committee. The Executive and Council have been considering this and the application may be put to the next General Assembly. At this stage the Council still has mixed views but will debate the application further in Berlin. I think that it is important to consider the application in the context of the last bullet point above. I believe that to prosper, the ISI must embrace more Sections. IAFS should be viewed in this light as one of several possible new areas of statistics that might become Sections and help to make the ISI family stronger. 

The ISI Executive Committee met in Voorburg last March and the Irving Fisher Committee's application was only one of several important issues we discussed. Among other things, we considered preparations for ISI 2003 in Berlin and remain confident that we have an excellent and well-organised Session. Our German colleagues are doing an outstanding job.

We also discussed future ISI Sessions. Preparations for ISI 2005 in Sydney are well in hand.  More details, including the Invitation booklet, will be available in Berlin. Portugal has offered to host ISI 2007 in Lisbon. I took the opportunity to visit Lisbon en route to the Executive Committee meeting and I am sure it will be a wonderful venue for the ISI. Lisbon has excellent conference facilities and many other attractions. We will decide whether to accept the Portuguese invitation or not in Berlin. I will certainly be encouraging a "yes" vote. Finally, South Africa has expressed strong interest in hosting ISI 2009.

Another important item of discussion was electronic publications. We have been looking at the best way of moving ISI publications to the electronic world, recognising that there is limited expertise to do this in the ISI Permanent Office. We were also wary of getting too closely involved with commercial publishers. A development that looks especially promising is Project Euclid. This is a non-profit USA based organisation that has already assisted several professional associations to move their journals into electronic form. The Executive Committee has agreed that the Permanent Office should start negotiations with Project Euclid on a 12-month trial to make selected ISI journals available on an electronic basis. We will keep you advised of developments.

Well, that is all for now. I hope that I will see many of you in Berlin. If you haven't already registered, it is not too late. This can be done via the website at http://www.isi-2003.de/ . 

In conclusion, I would like to thank all of the Executive team for their great support over the last two years. Jae Chang Lee, Denise Lievesley, Steve Stigler and Jef Teugels. Each of us has a different perspective and that has led to interesting debates on things that are important to ISI. I would also like to thank the staff of the ISI Permanent Office for their excellent contribution, in particular Marcel Van den Broecke, Daniel Berze and Ank Lepping. They have provided extremely efficient secretariat services for the ISI family.

I hope to see many of you in Berlin

With my best wishes,

Dennis Trewin

President ISI

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Message from the Director 

This will be my last message, since my job as Director of the Permanent Office will end after the Berlin Session on August 20, 2003, where I will have a chance to say good-bye to you in person. I have enjoyed my six years in office at the ISI but I am sure I will equally enjoy what I have been doing in my spare time since 1980, and what I will be doing full time from September onwards, namely to conduct research in historical cartography, concentrating on the first maker of an atlas ever, the Antwerp cartographer Abraham Ortelius (1527-1598), see also www.orteliusmaps.com .

I am pleased to announce that the first Mahalanobis Prize, established by the Indian Government two years ago through its Ministry for Statistics and Program Implementation to commemorate P.C. Mahalanobis, will be handed out during the Berlin ISI Session General Assembly on Monday, August 18, to Professor C.R. Rao in recognition of his lifetime achievements in Statistics. This eminent statistician needs no introduction for anyone working in statistics.

We are very pleased to announce that a new membership directory, containing details on all ISI members and all members of the five ISI Sections has now been compiled, and has been printed by INSEE, the French National Statistical Office. I want to express my sincere gratitude to INSEE for the splendid job they have done in printing more than 5,000 copies of this hefty publication - merci beaucoup! For the first time in the history of the ISI, all members of the IASS, which is administered in Libourne, France, have also been included in this membership directory. You may already have received your own copy. We apologise for a mistake that occurred in the final formatting of the text. A number of French members have wrongly been attributed to Portugal. 

Their names are:

Silvie Mabile
Jacques Mairesse
Edmond Malinvaud
Jean Luc Marie
Sokorn Marigot
Maryse Marpsat
H.M.F. Masse Damiani
Jean P. Masson
Jean René Mathieu
Pascal Mazodier
Sylvie Méléard
Jean Memin
Jacques Méraud
Monique Meron
Mounir Mesbah
Henri Michel
Xavier Milhaud
Jean Claude Milleron
Arie Mizrahi
Alain Monfort
Jean Marie Monnez
Jean Moosmann
Antoine Moreau
Sylvain Moreau
Annie Morin
Alain Morineau
Muambayi Mulamba

Finally, Bart Meganck should have been listed under Luxembourg instead of Portugal. All of these persons have been informed individually about this mistake, and we will insert a list of corrections in the remaining copies of this membership list.

A cumulative historical membership directory will be made available to all participants attending the Berlin Session. This directory contains the names and further details about all statisticians who have been or who are still a member of the ISI since its foundation in 1885. It also contains some statistics on these statisticians. This book has been printed at the expense of Statistics Norway. Thanks to Statistics Norway for supporting this project - mange tak!

Some of you may have noted a message in the February 2003 issue of AMSTAT News, p.13 saying that the ISI had not responded to an informal offer of the ASA to hold the 56th ISI Session in the USA. In fact, the ISI took the initiative and asked the ASA to explore the possibility of having a Session in the USA in 2009. During the ASA’s August 2002 Joint Statistical Meeting in New York City, ASA President Myron Straf informed us in that he had thoroughly explored the possibility of financing such a Session, and that he had approached both public and private potential funding organisations for this purpose. Regrettably, he had been unsuccessful and therefore was forced to conclude that an ISI Session in the USA in 2009 was not feasible. In the same meeting, we explored other forms of co-operation between the ISI and the ASA since we felt that such contacts would be in the interest of both organisations. Meanwhile, the National Statistical Office and the National Statistical Society of Portugal have decided to host the 2007 Session and a proposal has been received from South Africa (to be considered by the ISI Council in Berlin) for 2009.

Marcel Van den Broecke, Director

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News of Members 

Former ISI Council member (1989-1993) Prem Narain was presented with the National Award in Statistics on February 21, 2003 at New Delhi, by the Minister of Statistics and Programme Implementation, Mr. S.B. Mookerjee. This biennial award has been instituted by the Government of India in the memory of the late Prof. P.V. Sukhatme, a well-known statistician and nutritionist, to recognise senior statisticians for their lifetime contributions in the field of applied statistics. Narain is an agricultural statistician and statistical geneticist who worked as the Director of the Indian Agricultural Statistics Research Institute, New Delhi (1981-1992). Currently, he is the Executive President of the Indian Research Society of Agricultural Statistics, New Delhi. He delivered a public lecture ‘On some contributions of Pandurang Vasudeo Sukhatme’ after receiving the award.

 

Recognising his lifetime achievements in statistics, ISI honorary member C.R. Rao has been announced the recipient of the ‘Mahalanobis Prize’, established by the Indian Government two years ago through its Ministry for Statistics and Program Implementation to commemorate the many faceted contributions of P.C. Mahalanobis. The award will be handed out during the Berlin ISI Session General Assembly on Monday, August 18.

 

 

The Statistical Society of Canada (SSC) announced that David R. Bellhouse has been awarded the 2003 SSC Service Award. This award is intended to recognise distinguished service to the Society, and is awarded to an individual who has made significant contributions to the operation or welfare of the SSC over a period of years.

 

The SSC has also announced that Mary E. Thompson has been awarded the 2003 SSC Gold Medal. The Gold Medal is given to a person who has made substantial contributions to statistics, or to probability, either to mathematical developments or to applied work. The Gold Medal is intended to honour current leaders in their fields. 
The SSC has also announced that ISI member Marc Moore has been nominated an SSC Honorary member. An SSC Honorary member is a statistical scientist of outstanding distinction who has contributed to the development of statistics in Canada. These announcements were made at Dalhousie University, site of the SSC’s Annual Meeting in June 2003.

 

ISI member Professor Chris Heyde has been awarded Membership of the Order of Australia (AM) during the 2003 Australian New Year's Honours in recognition of his contribution to Australian society.

 

 

The Governing Body of St. Peter's College, Oxford has announced the election as Master, from 1 October 2003, of ISI member Professor Bernard Walter Silverman, FRS.

 

 

 


ISI Executive Committee Meets at ISI Permanent Office 

During their March 13-14 meeting at the ISI Permanent Office...

...the ISI Executive Committee posed for the following photograph:

Pictured left to right:
Stephen Stigler, Jef Teugels, Dennis Trewin, Denise Lievesley, Jae Chang Lee


In Memoriam 

Deceased Members

The ISI regrets to announce the death of our colleagues:

  Born  Elected  Deceased
Professor Vasant P. Bhapkar  1931  1983  23 July 1999
Dr. Tadakazu Okuno  1922  1974  24 December 2002
Dr. Richard L. Anderson  1915  1972  19 January 2003
Professor Kensei Araya  1935  1997  February 2003
Mr. Barrie Nicholas Davies  1914  1965  9 February 2003
Mr. Jerzy Berent  1917  1972  18 March 2003
Mr. Rob Kempton  1946  1987  11 May 2003
 

Rob Kempton (1946 - 2003)

The statistical profession lost an exceptional leader when Rob Kempton died of a heart attack while on a cycling holiday in Yorkshire, England on 11 May 2003. He was 56 years old and was due to take up the post of President of the International Biometric Society in 2004.

Rodney Alistair Kempton, or Rob as he was known by all, was born near London on 2 July 1946. He graduated from Oxford University in 1968 with a BA degree in mathematics and followed this with a postgraduate degree in applied statistics.

After university Rob worked for six years as a statistician at Rothamsted Experimental Station. Here he laid the foundations of his lifelong enthusiasm for biometry and the opportunity it provided for his involvement in a wide range of applications in the life sciences, spanning agriculture, the environment, food, medicine and health. Much of his consultancy work at Rothamsted was in ecology - nature in all its forms was an abiding interest for Rob - and from his experience as a consultant evolved the book with P.G.N. Digby on "Multivariate analysis of ecological communities".

In 1976 Rob was appointed head of the Statistics Department at the Plant Breeding Institute, Cambridge, where he worked for 10 years. His subsequent contributions to research in the design and analysis of experiments with carryover of treatment effects between experimental units was stimulated by his observations of competition between adjacent varieties in plant breeding trials at Cambridge. The book that he edited with P.N. Fox, "Statistical methods for plant variety evaluation", encapsulated, in Rob's typically clear and concise style, many of the statistical good-practices in plant breeding.

Rob moved to Edinburgh in 1986 to take over as director of the newly-established statistical consultancy and research organisation that came to be known as Biomathematics & Statistics Scotland (BioSS).

It was at BioSS that Rob's outstanding abilities as a leader came to the fore. He had the difficult task of convincing directors of government-funded agricultural and biological research organisations in Scotland that a pooling of their statistical staff into a centrally managed team was the right thing to do. By virtue of his enthusiasm, negotiating skills, and sheer hard work, Rob won acceptance of the need for a strategic research and consultancy capability in mathematics and statistics to underpin individual scientific projects while enhancing co-ordination and collaboration within the government's overall research programme. 

At BioSS, Rob built up a team of innovative-thinking mathematicians, statisticians and postgraduate students from diverse backgrounds: more than 12 nationalities have been represented in BioSS. All who worked with him have a common experience - they came as employees/students and ended up as friends. His colleagues were an extension of his family. Like all good parents he knew when to be firm but also when to overlook, or at least find a way around, weaknesses. In a recent scientific review of BioSS's past seven years of operation, the review chairman, in summarising his team's findings, referred to BioSS as a "national asset" - a tribute which, sadly, came too late for Rob to cherish.

A strong supporter of the International Biometric Society (IBS), Rob gave many years of service to its work, initially as British region secretary and then as regional president. His presidential address in 1996 on "Life in a competitive environment" is remembered as a special event in the region's history.

In the late 1980s, Rob, through the British region of the IBS, initiated a scheme to support East Africans with membership of the IBS. He worked tirelessly to get IBS groups going in Africa and this lead to the formation of the Sub-Saharan African Network of biometricians (SUSAN). He played a key role in arranging for the IBS to meet in Africa for the first time in 1998. The many tributes that have come from Africa write of his selfless mentoring role in encouraging individuals to develop research ideas and to share results with others.

In recent years Rob's guiding hand has been sought in reviews of the work of biometrics departments in France, the Netherlands and Kenya. He had also been serving as advisor to several U.K. government agencies including the Food Standards Agency and Forest Research.

In the academic sphere Rob was external examiner for biometry courses at the Universities of Oxford, Reading and York. Over the last decade he has been the main supervisor for seven Ph.D. students. Recent research interests concerned the estimation of risk. He was leading a group studying methods for assessing potential health risks from food, including pesticides, microbial organisms and GMOs and was a member of the Risk Analysis Committee of the ISI.

Rob will be remembered not only as a biometrician and scientific leader whose contributions are widely recognised but also as a kind, modest, man with a strong sense of social responsibility. His many friends will cherish warm memories of Rob, the person: his enthusiasm, the lively conversation and infectious chuckle, his ever-encouraging words. 

May the gratitude of all whom his life has touched be of some solace to his wife, Annelise, daughter Emily, twin sons, William and Benjamin, his mother, two brothers and sister.

Tributes to Rob can be found in the BioSS web pages at:

http://www.bioss.ac.uk 

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54th Session 2003 
(August 13th - 20th, 2003)

The preparations for the 54th ISI Session in Berlin are in full swing. The National Organising Committee (NOC) is working hard to meet the expectations and standards of the participants and is looking forward to welcoming you all at the International Congress Centre in Berlin in less than 100 days. Thanks to your co-operation and support, the NOC can offer you an exciting scientific programme, which will be supplemented by a special session on ‘Demographic Challenges in the 21st century’, and special presentations by the e-government initiative of the German Federal Government BundOnline and SAS, both in co-operation with the German Federal Statistical Office. Another highlight will be a special address by Eugenio Domingo Solans, Member of the Governing Council and the Executive Board of the European Central Bank. 

Registration: 

As of May 26th, 2003, 1551 participants from 93 different countries had completed the final registration for the 54th ISI Session in Berlin (not including 240 accompanying persons). The names of the registrants by country are available in the “who-is-who”-section of the session’s web site at: 

http://www.isi-2003.de

Anyone who has not completed the final registration so far is recommended to do so as soon as possible so that the NOC can finalise registration preparations for the session. Participants can use the web site or fax/airmail to submit their registration forms.

Submission of Papers and Contributed Paper Schedule:

As of May 26th, 2003, 1041 Contributed Papers in addition to the 297 Invited Papers had been registered. This is far more than the expected number of 600 Contributed Papers. Therefore, the Local Programme Committee needs more time to finalise the Contributed Paper Schedule. However, it will be published as soon as possible. 

The NOC will do its best to accommodate papers that were submitted late, as long as they arrive before the close of the final manuscripts for the Proceedings and the Programme Book.

Proceedings:

The Proceedings of the 54th ISI Session will be published on the internet in early July, on a CD-ROM and in a printed version. The CD-ROM publication will be given to each participant upon arrival at the session. Participants who would like to have a printed version should indicate this on their registration form.

 

Contact Information:

Mr. Bernd Stoertzbach

Executive Secretary of the 54th ISI Session 

Federal Statistical Office

Gustav-Stresemann-Ring 11

65180 Wiesbaden

Germany

Tel: +49-611-75-2351

Fax: +49-611-75-3950

E-mail: isi@destatis.de

Website: http://www.isi-2003.de 

 

 

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Programme of Short Courses on Survey Methodology in Berlin 2003  


Administrative Meetings Programme – Berlin ISI Session

ISI

        

Committee

Date

Time

Room

Outgoing ISI EC

Tue 12.08.2003

13:00 - 17:30

Room 17/18

ISI Outgoing Council

Wed 13.08.2003

08:30 - 11:45

Hall 6

Incoming & Outgoing ISI Council

Fri 15.08.2003

07:30 - 09:00

Hall 6

ISI Incoming Executive Committee

Wed 20.08.2003

11:15 - 13:00

Bureau 41/42

ISI General Assembly & Jan Tinbergen Award Presentations

Mon 18.08.2003

15:15 - 17:30

Hall 3

       

Joint meeting of the ISI General Topics Committee and Programme Co-ordinating Committee for the 55th Session, together with representatives of Outgoing Programme and Programme Co-ordinating Committees for the 54th Session, as well as both Local Programme Committee Chairs

Thu 14.08.2003

07:30 - 09:00

Hall 8

ISI Programme Co-ordinating Committee I

Fri 15.08.2003

07:30 - 09:00

Room 17/18

ISI Programme Co-ordinating Committee II

Wed 20.08.2003

11.15 - 13:00

Room 17/18

ISI General Topics Committee I

Thu 14.08.2003

11:15 - 13:00

Room 15/16

ISI General Topics Committee II

Tue 19.08.2003

11:15 - 13:00

Room 15/16

       

ISI Member Auditors

Thu 14.08.2003

07:30 - 09:00

Bureau 52

ISI Nominations Committee I

Thu 14.08.2003

07:30 - 09:00

Bureau 42a

ISI Nominations Committee II

Tue 19.08.2003

11:15 - 13:00

Room 13/14

       

Mahalanobis Committee

Thu 14.08.2003

11:15 - 13:00

Room 13/14

History of Statistics Committee

Mon 18.08.2003

11:15 - 13:00

Room 11/12

ISI Publications Committee

Tue 19.08.2003

11:15 - 13:00

Room 11/12

ISI Service Certificates Review Committee

Tue 19.08.2003

11:15 - 13:00

Room 17/18

       

Open Meeting of National Statistical Societies

Fri 15.08.2003

11:15 - 13:00

Hall 9

       

Open Meeting of the ISI Committee on Professional Ethics

Wed 13.08.2003

12:00 - 15:00

Hall 4/5

ISI Committee on Professional Ethics

Tue 19.08.2003

07:30 - 09:00

Room 13/14

ISI Environment Committee

Thu 19.08.2003

07:30 - 09:00

Room 17/18

Women in Statistics Committee Meeting

Thu 14.08.2003

11:15 - 13:00

Hall 8

Life Sciences Committee

Fri 15.08.2003

07:30 - 09:00

Room 11/12

Khowarizmi Committee

Fri 15.08.2003

07:30 - 09:00

Room 13/14

Travel & Tourism Committee

Fri 15.08.2003

07:30 - 09:00

Room 15/16

Irving Fisher Committee on Central Bank Statistics

Fri 15.08.2003

11:15 - 13:00

Hall 6

Agricultural Statistics Committee

Mon 18.08.2003

07:30 - 09:00

Room 11/12

ICAS 3 Committee

Tue 19.08.2003

07:30 - 09:00

Room 11/12

ISI Statistics in Business & Industry Committee

Thu 14.08.2003

11:15 - 13:00

Hall 9

ISI Committee on Risk Analysis

Thu 14.08.2003

11:15 - 13:00

Room 17/18

ISI Sports Statistics Committee

Fri 15.08.2003

11:15 - 13:00

Room 15/16

 

Bernoulli Society

     

Committee

Date

Time

Room

BS East Asian & Pacific Regional Committee

Thu 14.08.2003

11:15 - 13:00

Room 31/Bern.

BS European Regional Committee

Mon 18.08.2003

11:15 - 13:00

Room 13/14

BS Publications Committee

Fri 15.08.2003

07:30 - 09:00

Room 31/Bern.

BS Programme Committee

Fri 15.08.2003

11:15 - 13:00

Room 31/Bern.

BS Council meeting

Mon 18.08.2003

07:30 - 09:00

Room 17/18

BS Committee for Probability & Statistics in the Physical Sciences

Mon 18.08.2003

11:15 - 13:00

Room 31/Bern.

BS General Assembly

Tue 19.08.2003

11:15 - 13:00

Hall 6

IASC

     

Committee

Date

Time

Room

IASC Programme Committee

Fri 15.08.2003

11:15 - 13:00

Room 33/IASC

IASC Council meeting I

Mon 18.08.2003

07:30 - 09:00

Room 15/16

IASC Council meeting II

Mon 18.08.2003

11:15 - 13:00

Room 15/16

IASC General Assembly

Tue 19.08.2003

07:30 - 09:00

Hall 6

IASC EARS BoD

Wed 20.08.2003

07:30 - 09:00

Room 15/16

IAOS

     

Committee

Date

Time

Room

IAOS Executive Committee

Thu 14.08.2003

07:30 - 09:00

Room 15/16

SCORUS Meeting

Thu 14.08.2003

11:15 - 13:00

Room 11/12

IAOS Programme Committee

Fri 15.08.2003

11:15 - 13:00

Room 32/IAOS

IAOS General Assembly

Mon 18.08.2003

11:15 - 13:00

Hall 6

IASS

     

Committee

Date

Time

Room

IASS Council

Thu 14.08.2003

07:30 - 09:00

Hall 10

IASS General Assembly

Thu 14.08.2003

11:15 - 13:00

Hall 6

IASS Programme Committee

Fri 15.08.2003

11:15 - 13:00

Room 34/IASS

IASS Executive Committee

Tue 19.08.2003

07:30 - 09:00

Room 34/IASS

IASE

     

Committee

Date

Time

Room

IASE Executive Committee

Fri 15.08.2003

11:15 - 13:00

Room 35/IASE

IASE General Assembly

Mon 18.08.2003

07:30 - 09:00

Hall 6

IASE International Statistical Literacy Committee

Thu 14.08.2003

07:30 - 09:00

Room 11/12

IASE Programme Committee

Fri 15.08.2003

11:15 - 13:00

Room 11/12

IASE ICOTS 7 planning meeting

Tue 19.08.2003

11:15 - 13:00

Hall 8

 

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ISI Nominations Committee 

ISI members are welcome to contact any of the ISI Nominations Committee members should they wish to make suggestions for the post of President-Elect, Vice Presidents and Council members of the ISI, to be considered for the next round of ISI elections. The Nominations Committee is composed of the following individuals: 

Michel Euriat (Chair - michel.euriat@insee.fr);
Mary Chamie (mchamie@un.org);
Yutaka Tanaka (tanaka@ems.okayama-u.ac.jp);
Carmem Feijo (cfeijo@terra.com.br);
Carlo Malaguerra (carlo.malaguerra@bluemail.ch);
Brian Phillips (BPhillips@groupwise.swin.edu.au).

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Conferences, Meetings and Calls for Papers

SASA 50th Anniversary

The South African Statistical Association (SASA) celebrates its 50th anniversary during 2003. The SASA Executive Committee is planning a special conference to commemorate this event. The conference will be held from 5 to 7 November 2003 at the Caesar’s Palace Conference Centre in Kempton Park, Gauteng, South Africa.

Conference organiser:
Dr. Amanda Lourens at amanda@techpta.ac.za

phone numbers: 012-318-4223 or 082-458-0238.

Website: www.sastat.org.za 

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Celebrating Statistics: An international conference in honour of Sir David Cox
on the occasion of his 80th birthday.

 Neuchâtel, Switzerland, 14-18 July 2004

Organized by: Anthony Davison (EPF, Lausanne) Yadolah Dodge (University of Neuchâtel) Nanny Wermuth (University of Mainz)

The conference will take place over five days, and will include an opening session, invited paper sessions, contributed sessions, and poster sessions. 

INVITED SPEAKERS

The invited speakers include: Ole Barndorff-Nielsen (Aarhus), Sarah Darby (Oxford), David Firth (Warwick), Peter Hall (Canberra), Valerie Isham (University College London), Peter McCullagh (Chicago), Nancy Reid (Toronto), Brian Ripley (Oxford), Ignacio Rodríguez-Iturbe (Princeton), Andrea Rotnitzky (Harvard), Neil Shephard (Oxford), and Scott Zeger (Johns Hopkins).

CONTRIBUTED PAPERS

Those wishing to contribute a paper should email a pdf file containing an abstract (up to one side of A4) to the address below, by 1 March 2004. They will be informed by 15 April 2004 whether the paper has been accepted.

REGISTRATION 

To register, complete the form available from www.unine.ch/statistics 

Send the completed form to: 

Statistics Group, 
P.O. Box 805, 
CH-2002 Neuchâtel
Switzerland. 
Phone: +41-32-718-1380. Fax: +41-32-718-1381. 
cox.2004@unine.ch

CONFERENCE FEE

The fee of CHF 250 covers the reception on the afternoon of 14 July, the gala diner on the evening of 15 July, attendance at the scientific sessions, coffee breaks and an excursion on the afternoon of 17 July.

Meals and accommodation are not included.

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Examining the Essential Functions of Statistical Organisations

Satellite Conference in Szczecin, Poland, August 8-9, 2003
(Satellite to the Berlin ISI Session, August 13-20, 2003)

Managers of national statistical offices must view their responsibility for organisational design in a way that takes into consideration the constantly evolving society that these organisations measure. Yesterday’s organisational paradigms are today’s dinosours. With this in mind the Polish Central Statistical Office (GUS) together with the International Statistical Institute (ISI), have organised a conference examining the essential functions of official statistical organisations in anticipation of recent and forthcoming changes.

There will be eight sub-topics included in this conference, each one organised by respected officials in the statistical community: 

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Full programme of the Szczecin Satellite Conference

Aug 7

 

20:00

Cocktail Welcoming Reception

Aug 8

 

9:00

Welcome and Opening Ceremony 
(GUS and ISI representatives)

Identifying changes: New Environments for Official Statisticians

(Organisers: Marcel Van den Broecke / Daniel Berze)

9:15

Speaker #1 (Donal Garvey)

9:45

Speaker #2 (Heli Jeskanen-Sundström)

10:15

Open discussion

10:30

Coffee break

Impact of Technologies on Statistical Operations and organisations (Organiser: Dennis Trewin)

 

10:45

Dennis Trewin - Overarching comments

11:05

Speaker #3 (Geert Bruinooge)

11:35

Speaker #4 (Zoltan Papp & Peter Pupkli)

12:05

Open discussion

12:30

Luncheon

Functions and structures of statistical organisations (Organiser: Willem de Vries)

 

13:30

Speaker #5 (Pali Lehohla)

14:00

Speaker #6 (Aija Zigure)

14:30

Open discussion

14:45

Coffee break

Quality issues (Organiser: Ivan Fellegi)

 

15:30

Speaker # 7 (Jacob Ryten)

16:00

Speaker #8 (Tadeusz Toczynski)

16:30

Open discussion

Evening

Reception/Dinner -
a social gathering where all visitors to the conference are welcome.
It is hosted by GUS, the Polish Central Statistical Office.
Time and venue to be advised.

Aug 9

 

Personnel in statistical organisations (Organiser: Jean-Louis Bodin)

 

9:00

Speaker #9 (Ovidio Crocicchi)

9:20

Speaker #10 (Josef Olenski)

9:40

Open discussion

10:15

Coffee break

Dissemination of Statistical Information in a Knowledge Based Society (Organiser: Janusz Witkowski)

 

10:30

Speaker #11 (Tadeusz Walczak)

11:00

Speaker #12 (Heinrich Brüngger)

11:30

Open discussion

11:45

Luncheon

User considerations (Organiser: Joris Nobel)

 

13:15

Speaker #13 (Joachim Lamel)

13:45

Speaker #14 (Denise Lievesley)

14:15

Open discussion

14:30

Coffee break

Strategic Planning & Management in Statistical Organisations (Organiser: Photis nanopoulos)

 

14:45

Speaker #15 (Len Cook)

15:15

Speaker #16 (Jan Plovsing)

15:45

Discussant (Marc Roure)

16:00

Open discussion

16:15

Closing Ceremony

For more information, please see the conference website at ( http://www.stat.gov.pl/ISI.htm ) 

or contact: 

• Barbara Domaszewicz, Central Statistical Office of Poland

Phone: + 48 22 608 30 50; Fax: + 48 22 608 38 70; E-mail: B.Domaszewicz@stat.gov.pl 

 

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News from ISI Sections in Volume 27, No. 2 (80) 2003