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83450 Stats News Feb.Indd statistical society of australia incorporated newsletter February 2005 Number 110 Registered by Australia Post Publication No. NBH3503 issn 0314-6820 Symposium and dinner in honour of Joe Gani’s 80th birthday On Tuesday and Wednesday 14-15 December 2004 the Centre for Mathema- tics and its Applications (CMA) of the Australian National University (ANU) held a National Research Symposium entitled “A Celebration of Modelling and Applied Probability”. The venue was the Shine Dome of the Australian Academy of Science (AAS) in Gordon Street, Acton, Canberra. The Symposium honoured Professor Joe Gani, currently a member of the CMA, who turned 80 on Wednesday 15 December. The event was sponsored by the CMA, SSAI and ANZIAM (Australian and New Zealand Industrial and Applied Mathematics), a Valerie Isham, Joe Gani and Zari Rachev. Division of the Australian Mathematical Society (AMS). 1964 he launched the Journal of Applied In 1974 Joe returned to Australia, Professor Chris Heyde (CMA) opened Probability – the first of four journals as Chief of the CSIRO Division of the symposium with a brief biography currently published by the Applied Mathematics and Statistics (originally of Joe, who has been a close colleague of Probability Trust. Joe found the statistical the Division of Mathematical Statistics), his for over 40 years. During that time scene in Australia in the 1960s somewhat with headquarters in Canberra. There he became instrumental in broadening Joe had contributed immensely to many restrictive; and moved first to the USA organisations – such as ANU, SSAI (of the spectrum of activities of the Division. at Michigan State University, and then which he has been an Honorary Life For example, in collaboration with the in 1965 to Britain at Sheffield University, Member since 1983), CSIRO, AAS (of Australian Universities, he instituted a which he has been a Fellow since 1976) where he founded the Department of regular international program of visiting and AMS (of which he had been President Probability and Statistics. In 1967, he mathematicians and statisticians from during 1978-80). organized the joint Manchester-Sheffield overseas. However, following a Divisional Joe was born in Cairo, Egypt, in School of Probability and Statistics, which Review which proved to be unfavourable 1924. After completing a degree in continues to exist to this day. to some of these initiatives, he resigned Mathematics at Imperial College, London, he emigrated to Australia in 1948. After two and a half years as a lecturer at the University of Melbourne, and a variety of labouring and clerical jobs, he was awarded a Commomwealth ISI 2005 is fast approaching! Postgraduate Scholarship at ANU in November 1953. There he began to study Have you registered? for a PhD under Professor Pat Moran. Don’t miss this great opportunity to attend an ISI Session in Sydney and take Having completed his doctorate at the advantage of this cost-effective and enjoyable way to stay in touch with the latest end of 1955, Joe spent a year as Nuffield statistical developments. Discounted rates are available for SSAI members! Fellow at the University of Manchester in Details on the scientific program, satellite meetings and social program are given 1956-7 with Professor Maurice Bartlett, on pages 10 and 11 in the Newsletter. Further details can be found at the website and several years at the University of www.tourhosts.com.au/isi2005 Western Australia under Professor Larry 2005 Session of the International Statistical Institute (ISI) Blakers, before returning to ANU as Sydney, Australia – 5-12 April 2005 a Senior Fellow at the end of 1960. In . in honour of Joe Gani’s 80th birthday from his position and returned to the London (“Macroparasite population The symposium dinner was held on USA. There he spent four and a half models: Persistence, population scale and Tuesday evening 14 December in the years at the University of Kentucky, cross-species interactions”); Niels Becker Great Hall of University House at ANU. followed by a decade at the University of ANU (“Control of transmission with Following an introduction by Professor of California, Santa Barbara, where he two types of infection”); Kostya Borovkov Alan Welsh (CMA), talks in honour of Joe set up and developed the Department of of Melbourne University (“On the asymp- were given by Professor Neil Trudinger Statistics and Applied Probability. Joe’s totic behaviour of a simple growing (CMA) and Dr Neville Bartlett (President wife Ruth became seriously ill with breast point process model”); Jeff Hunter of of SSAI). Neil spoke of Joe’s great cancer in 1992 (she died of it in 1997), and Massey University (“Mixing times and generosity and sense of humour, and he retired in 1994, returning to Canberra Neville noted that Joe had accomplished their application to perturbed Markov where he has continued to publish and all three of the things which, according to chains”); John Blake of Birmingham remain active at many levels. a Jewish proverb, define a successful life: University (“Vigorous non-linear, non- He had fathered a child, written a book Following Chris Heyde’s introduction, spherical bubble dynamics: Applications and planted a tree. Finally, Joe responded Professor Svetlozar (Zari) Rachev of the to biology, medicine, chemistry, physics University of Karlsruhe gave the first by saying how absolutely overwhelmed and engineering”); Linda Stals of ANU talk of the Symposium, entitled “A he was by the warmth of the assembly. (“A plantation-nursery system”); Glenn generalized heteroscedastic asset price He also spoke of the writer Isaac Bashevis Fulford of QUT (“Spatial modelling of process: Properties, parameter estimation Singer – one of a rare few who wrote in infectious diseases”); Frank De Hoog of and pricing”. The other talks were by: Yiddish – and related three jokes. One CSIRO (“Predicting winding stresses for Dr Mark Westcott of the CSIRO (“How of these was about a young Jewish man many buses?”); Dr Tony Pettitt of the wound coils with large deformations”); who was convinced by his father to see a Queensland University of Technology Belinda Barnes of ANU (“An ecological psychiatrist regarding a possible neurotic (QUT) (“Statistical modelling for framework linking scales based on condition which might be preventing him nosocomial infections: Estimating trans- self-thinning”); and Geoff Aldis of the from marrying. Later the son told his mission rates for infection control and Australian Defence Force Academy (“An parents that he had been diagnosed with developing surveillance schemes”); Yoshi integral equation model of the control of an Oedipus Complex. To this his mother Ito of Aichi-Gakuin University (“Further a smallpox outbreak”). The Symposium replied: “Oedipus Shmedipus! What geometric methods for the distribution was followed on Wednesday afternoon does it matter? Everything is all right so of the sample correlation coefficient”); by the ANZIAM Canberra Branch Annual long as you love your mother.” Valerie Isham of University College, General Meeting. Borek Puza Report on BioInfoSummer 2004 Following the success of last year’s to do the Educational Computer Lab and How to Read It: A Geneticist’s View”. BioInfoSummer event, the Australian session while others attended Contributed NIB prizes were awarded to Ian Wood of National University’s Centre for talks. The Graduate Course Award was QUT (best poster), Brett Easton of ANU Bioinformation Science hosted yet another very popular, with nineteen students (best student talk) and Alicia Oshlack of extremely successful International Centre enrolled and sixteen on the waiting list. WEHI (best talk by a researcher within of Excellence for Education in Mathema- There are plans to expand the class size ten years of receipt of PhD). tics (ICE-EM) Summer Symposium in during next year’s BioInfoSummer to Next year’s BioInfoSummer will Bioinformatics, with the theme “Genome cope with the demand. focus on the theme of “Open Problems to Phenome Modelling”, 6-10 December The list of speakers this year expanded in Bioinformatics”. It is proposed that 2004. Sponsors also included Cray, Ceanet, to include international as well as it will be held during the week of 28 the Australian Partnership for Advanced local experts. The keynote and invited November – 2 December 2005. Details Computing and ANU’s National Institutes speakers were Warren Kaplan (Garvan will be confirmed by March 2005, and for Bioscience (NIB), Health and Human Institute, Sydney), Gavin Huttley (ANU), posted on the events page of ANU’s Science (NIHHS) and Engineering and Matthew Wakefield (ANU), Bill Pearson Mathematical Sciences Institute: http:// Information Sciences (NIEIS). There were (University of Virginia, USA), Michael wwwmaths.anu.edu.au/events/ approximately 150 registrants. Wise (University of Western Australia, The days were organised into Themes, Perth), Ziheng Yang (University College allowing attendees who were unable to London, UK), Allen Rodrigo (University attend the whole week to select those of Auckland, NZ), Geoff McLachlan areas of particular interest. The Themes (University of Queensland, Brisbane), were: Introduction to Molecular Biology; Conrad Burden (ANU), Hilary Booth Sequence to Structure; Comparative (ANU), Ian Dodd and Keith Shearwin Genomics; Analysis of Gene Expressions (University of Adelaide) and Terry and Regulatory Networks. Each day Speed (Walter and Eliza Hall Institute, started with Educational Lectures Melbourne). A poster session was held followed by a mix of Educational, Keynote
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