Newsletter – June 2007 Member News
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ewsletter June 2007 Number 119 N statistical society of australia incorporated Young Statisticians’ Conference 2007 Although I have attended several conferences, this was the first one where there were so many people from my own age group – I wonder if the title “Young Statisticians’ Conference” had anything to do with it. I learnt a great deal from some of the senior statisticians who spoke. I particularly found Michael Adena’s talk interesting, as I never knew about GStat and AStat accreditation before. Terry Neeman’s talk on “statistics and ethics” made me think about what I would do if I had to choose between compromising scientific principles and keeping a client happy. It is easy for me to think I have high moral standards, because I am single, but would I be able to keep this standard if I had a family that relies on my income? Of course, I also enjoyed many of the talks given by young statisticians. I learnt that I should prepare for and expect the Young Statisticians on their Sunday tour following the Young Statisticians’ unexpected from Lisa Yelland, such as a Conference 2007. blown up letterbox that contained filled- in surveys, or that one of your study On the 13th and 14th of April, the As well as the keynote speakers, participants may end up in jail. One of my Young Statisticians section of the statistical participants were encouraged to present favourite talks was Damien Kennedy’s talk society held a conference at the Australian a ten minute presentation relating to on “Data Visualisation”, as this has always National University, Canberra. The theme the work that they do. Official statistics been an interest of mine. I was fascinated of the conference was “We’re young and (both from the ABS, and Statistics New by the resources on the web and the we count”. Exactly how important young Zealand), Academia and Industry were quality of the dynamic graphics. statisticians are to the discipline was all well represented, and the range of Of course, being a student I cannot shown by the array of presentations given topics was huge. The prize for the best forget to mention the conference dinner. by participants. talk was presented to Jason Rabbitt from Both the quality and quantity of food were Keynote addresses were made by some Data Analysis Australia who discussed excellent. Having finished my presentation prominent statisticians, each showing the his analysis of the water quality in the before the dinner, I was able to relax and wide variety of interesting paths that Cockburn Sound, where a desalination enjoy the food, with a few sips of wine are available to early career statisticians, plant has been commissioned. every now and then. and the genuine need for these skills in On the Friday evening, a conference Finally, I’d like to thank Jane Waslin official statistics, research, and industry. dinner was held in University House, and the conference organising committee These keynote speakers were the where we were all able to talk over a great for organising one of the best conferences Australian Statistician Mr Brian Pink, dinner, and even have a go at making I have ever attended. I would also like to Dr Amy Salter from the University of things from balloons. As well as the thank the Canberra Branch for sponsoring Adelaide, Mr Michael Johnson from conference dinner, the following evening me with a Student Grant. Roche Products, and Mr Neville Bartlett Kevin Wang from NR Bartlett consulting. continued on page 2 Young Statisticians Conference 2007 From page 1 Having the conference in Canberra was an advantage as we had easy access to many we hit the streets of Civic for dinner and government employers of statisticians drinks at King O’Malleys. Both of these who sent staff to the conference and evenings proved to be a great opportunity also came along and spoke at the careers to catch up with people we already knew, session at no cost to us. At the careers and also to get to know other people we session employers gave talks about their had just met a bit better. organisation and opportunities that exist. I would like to thank the organising The feedback from this session was really committee who made sure that the good, especially from students, who conference was a huge success: Janice really want to know about career options Wooton, Richard Hutchinson, Simon available. I would highly recommend Bartlett, Theresa Nunan, Penny Bennett, having a careers session at the 2008 Lisa Yelland, Pam McCaskie, Kevin Australian Statistical Conference. On Wang, Kris Jamsen, Liz Jermyn and Jane the downside of having the conference Waslin. Thanks also to the sponsors: ABS, Rhianon Marchant receiving her GStat in Canberra there was some criticism CSIRO, Roche Products, Covance, and Certificate at the conference. that the conference did not have a large Data Analysis Australia. commercial presence. This is something conference of this size nor the time In short, I thought that the 2007 Young we will keep in mind for next time. to do so (all are studying or working Statisticians conference was a great success, full time). Without Jane and Liz’s help The conference program over the and I hope that we can meet again in the conference would not have been as two days was very full. We managed to two years time for an equally successful professional looking as it was (unless fit in all the talks that were submitted conference. In the meantime, I hope that we had hired a professional conference before the deadline, but this meant that all early career statisticians get involved in organiser at considerable cost). We thank contributed talks could only be about the young statisticians section, because we Jane and Liz for all of their effort. 10 minutes. This was commented on as are young, and we do count. Having Jane and Liz to handle the being quite short and rushed and it was Stephen Bush administrative aspects of the conference suggested that next time we should have As a member of the organising committee allowed the organising committee to parallel sessions. It is nice to have this for the Young Statisticians’ Conference put together a program and make other problem to think about as a result of so 2007, I would like to share some reasons for decisions in line with their expertise. The many people wanting to present. the success of the conference. organising committee had representation Summing up, I think the Society Jane Waslin (Executive Officer of the from New South Wales, Victoria, should aim to have a Young Statisticians SSAI) and her assistant Liz Jermyn took Western Australia, South Australia and Conference every 2 years, during the ASC care of all the administrative work in the ACT. Each representative promoted off-year. There was a lot of enthusiasm organising the conference from the SSAI’s the conference in their state/territory and energy from young statisticians during office in Canberra. Having Jane and Liz through their local Branch as well as by this year’s conference and it would be nice to contact and liaise with sponsors and putting the word out to key organisations, to keep this momentum going. keynote speakers, produce the poster and such as universities. At final count, there On the Sunday after the conference registration form, organise the venue, were 88 delegates from every single a small busload of delegates toured handle registrations, create and update state and territory of Australia as well as Canberra for a few hours of sightseeing the website, and all the other tasks I am New Zealand. This great turnout would and networking. sure I have missed, was invaluable as not have been achieved without having the rest of the organising committee had committee members from right around Richard Hutchinson no experience in organising a national Australia acting as local contacts. [email protected] In this issue Young Statisticians Conference 2007 1 Environmental Statistics Section 8 Member News 3 Annual General Meetings Notice 9 Editorial 4 Obituary 10 President’s Corner 5 Biometrics by the Beach 11 Statistics Undergraduate Vacation Program 6 CensusAtSchool International Workshop 12 Three Doors 8 Branch Reports 13 2 SSAI Newsletter – June 2007 Member News Eugene Seneta receives the 1996) an ingenious method for visualising Today?” In his 30 minute address, Peter Hannan Medal in 2007 conditional probability densities, and gave persuasive evidence that today’s Eugene Seneta has done much seminal (in the American Statistician in 1996) a statisticians live in interesting times. work in probability and statistics in remarkably useful tool for data analysis— New technologies have driven innovation connection with Markov chains and the “highest density regions’’ boxplot. The in statistical methodologies. Computing non-negative matrices, branching latter is used today in forecasting, when power allow us solve much more the forecast densities are multimodal (as processes, the history of probability and complex problems than were possible 50 can occur in nonlinear forecasting), and statistics, and in such diverse areas as years ago, but also new technologies are in Markov Chain Monte Carlo studies. slowly varying functions, Bonferroni type creating new types of data which demand bounds on probabilities of unions of sets, Peter Hall new statistical techniques. Units of data on modelling of the price of a risky asset, from olden times were predominantly and in the scaling of Higher School New Fellows Day at the Australian single values, or small vectors of values. Certificate marks. The implications of Academy of Science Today’s data units include may be large some of his research are considerable. The Science at the Shine Dome is an annual dimensional vectors, functions and variance-gamma finance model, proposed three-day event in early May celebrating surfaces.