Candidate Statements for the 2008 ISBA Election (Oct 15-Nov 15)

President 2010 (President Elect 2009, Past President 2011)

• Peter Müller (MD Anderson, Univ Texas, USA)

  Affiliation and Current Status:

  Professor of Biostatistics, University of Texas M.D. Anderson Cancer Center, Houston, USA.

  Areas of Interest:

  Nonparametric Bayes, Bayesian computation and MCMC, Bayesian decision problems, biostatistics, Bayesian clinical trial design, hierarchical models.

  Journals:

  Bayesian Analysis (of course!), Applied Statistics, Biometrics, Bayesian Statistics 8, JASA, JRSSB.

  Previous Service to ISBA:

  Board member (1995-98, 2005-07), treasurer (2002-04), chair of Savage Prize Committee, Program Committee (chair 2006, vice-chair 2007-08).

  It is a great honor to be nominated for ISBA president. ISBA is now arguably the prime professional society in Statistics. I would be proud to contribute towards maintaining and improving this strength. The means to achieve this are continued support of outstanding scientific meetings, continued excellence of our journal, and service to the Bayesian community and outreach beyond. We now have a well established and functioning routine of regular ISBA world meetings and it is a good time to increase our activities beyond the world meetings. Some progress is easy by co-sponsoring good meetings. Most organizers welcome ISBA co-sponsorship as an important endorsement of scientific excellence.

  Another direction is the organization of more special topic meetings and workshops and regional chapter meetings. Closely related to focused workshops is the organization of sections. ISBA has reached sufficient membership and maturity as a professional society to initiate sections within the society. The formal process to start a new section is amazingly simple and straightforward and has been part of our bylaws for a while. I would like to understand why we have not yet formed sections, and what it would take to make it more attractive, or why it is just fine to continue without sections. Perhaps simple mechanisms like designated invited sessions at the world meeting, space in the Bulletin and last not least financial and organizational support for section activities could help.

  Besides membership and meetings a third big strength of ISBA are our publications. Bayesian Analysis and the ISBA Bulletin are in competent hands, and I believe are doing very fine. Ensuring continued strength of our publications I believe is one of the important responsibilities of the executive committee.

• Fabrizio Ruggeri (CNR-IMATI, Milano, IT)

  Affiliation and Current Status:

  Research Director, Consiglio Nazionale delle Ricerche, Istituto di Matematica Applicata e Tecnologie Informatiche, Milano, Italy

  Areas of Interest:

  Bayesian inference in stochastic processes, Bayesian robustness, Reliability, Industrial statistics, Bayesian nonparametrics

  Journals:

  Journal of Computational and Graphical Statistics, Bayesian Statistics 7, Risk Analysis, Reliability Engineering and Systems Safety, Bulletin of Mathematical Biology, TEST.

  Previous Service to ISBA:

  Board member (2002-04), Member of ISBA Nominations Committee (three times), Member of Savage Prize Selection Committee (three times, once as Chair of Theory and Methods), Member of De Groot Prize Selection Committee, Chair of ISBA2004 Scientific Committee, Founding (and current) Editor of Bayesian Analysis, Production Editor of Bayesian Analysis (2005-06), Editor of ISBA Bulletin (formerly ISBA Newsletter, 1999-2002), Chair of ISBA endorsed workshops.

  I am flattered by the nomination, with my friend Peter, for President of a very authoritative society like ISBA. After a B.Sc. thesis on nonparametric Bayes in Milano and a M.Sc. at Carnegie Mellon, I got my Ph.D. at Duke (again nonparametrics). My research interests and cooperations are wide, from Fréchet derivative, concentration function and wavelets to reliability, project management, clinical trials, prey-predator systems, telecommunications, etc.

  Attracting and involving young researchers is a top priority. As Chair of ISBA2004 Scientific Committee, I worked hard with Pilar Iglesias to bring many young people to Chile and last year some of us promoted a Fund named after her to support young researchers' participation in future. Within ISBA meetings and activities, young researchers should be encouraged to take responsibilities. ISBA should organise courses on specialised topics, like the ABS (Applied Bayesian Statistics) summer school in Italy, of which I am Co-Director since 2004. ISBA should promote diffusion of Bayesian methods and practice in developing countries; nowadays, I am giving my small contribution in Algeria.

  ISBA should encourage workshops on both established and hot topics (I promoted those on robustness in the 90's, the first of the current nonparametric series and the BISP, Bayesian Inference in Stochastic Processes, series where most talks are by young researchers).

  The President's job is not only about science, but also about supervising ISBA operations and keeping constant interactions with its members. I can rely on my recent experience as President of ENBIS (European Network for Business and Industrial Statistics), a larger and less established society than ISBA. I found cooperation with other scientific societies very important. ISBA should look forward to more strict cooperation not only with international and national statistical societies but also with other scientific communities and organise joint workshops, sessions and projects to favour cross fertilisation. The cooperation, and the involvement of Bayesians outside ISBA, should benefit by the expansion of national chapters and their activities and the creation of thematic working groups.

  I like challenges, like being Editor-in-Chief of the 4-volumes Encyclopedia of Statistics in Quality and Reliability (2007) and, since 2007, of Applied Stochastic Models in Business and Industry, now the official ISBIS (an ISI section) journal. In 1999 I completely reshaped the ISBA Newsletter, producing a Bulletin which, with minor changes, is still a stimulating reading. I have been involved in Bayesian Analysis even before its launch. I believe Bulletin and journal are among the best achievements by ISBA, and Brad should be supported in his hard work to make Bayesian Analysis a top statistical journal.

  If elected, I promise it will not be a dull year!

Board of Directors 2009-2011 (4 openings, listed randomly)

• Jonathan Rougier (University of Bristol, UK)

  I am a Lecturer in Statistics at the U. of Bristol, and have been a statistician for nearly twelve years (before that I was, for my sins, an economist). My interest is in the statistical representation of uncertainty in science, notably for the prediction and control of complex physical systems like the climate, or avalanches. This is a broad area that includes some philosophy and epistemology, but the value-added is in core statistics: the design of experiments, statistical modelling, elicitation, Bayesian updating, and visualisation and communication. I work closely with scientists, and try to understand their concerns and their language, and to promote statistical methods that are intuitive and not overly-complicated. For this reason I favour a Bayes linear approach. As well as papers in mainstream Statistics journals (e.g. JASA, JCGS, Applied Statistics, JSPI), I also publish in general and specialist science journals (e.g. Phil. Trans. Roy. Soc., SIAM J. Sci. Comp., Climatic Change, J. Hydraulic Res.)

• Brunero Liseo (Università di Roma La Sapienza, IT)

  Brunero Liseo (PhD Sapienza, Roma, Statistics). I am a professor of Statistics at Sapienza, Business School. I started my career working on some foundational issues related to Likelihood Principle and the use of reference priors in objective Bayes analysis. After moving to a Business school I became aware of the emergence of so many opportunities of disseminating Bayesian ideas in areas like Official Statistics, Econometrics, data mining. You can find more on my webpage http://3w.eco.uniroma1.it/utenti/liseo

  I am particularly interested in creating more interdisciplinary conversations with both natural and social scientists, in order to make Bayesian philosophy and practice more popular than it is actually among practitioners.

• Márcia D'Elia Branco (Universidade de São Paulo, BR)

  I am Associate Professor of Statistics at the University of Säo Paulo (USP), Brazil. I am the current vice-coordinator of the PHD Statistics Program at USP. My research interest includes skewed symmetric distributions, reference prior and Bayesian analysis in linear and generalized linear models. I have published papers in Canadian Journal of Statistics, Journal of Multivariate Analysis, Biometrics, Statistics in Medicine, Journal of Statistics Planning and Inference and Bayesian Analysis.

  I co-founded the Brazilian Chapter of ISBA, known as ISBrA (2000). I have helped to organize the First Latin-America Bayesian Meeting in Ubatuba, SP, Brazil (2002), which was held along with the 6^th Brazilian Bayesian Meeting. From March 2006 to February 2008, I was president of the ISBrA and organized the 9^th Brazilian Bayesian Meeting ( 9 EBEB). I would be pleased if my work experience could be useful for ISBA, as a member of the Board.

• Colin Fox (University of Otago, NZ)

  I am Assoc. Professor of Physics at Otago University in New Zealand. My main research interests are computational (Bayesian) inference for inverse problems (big Physics-based likelihoods), and mathematical acoustics. I have recently written reviews of Bayesian methods for Measurement Science and Technology, and Inverse Problems in Science and Engineering, with the desire of seeing Bayesian methods properly used in those fields. I do quite a bit of consultancy, mostly building Bayesian solutions in the 'measurement' industry. Most of my papers are in applications journals but you will find a few in JCGS and CompStat. For over ten years I have taught Bayesian inference and MCMC to Physics and Math graduates who seem to soak it up. (Why do Stat departments claim it's hard?)

  I am a relative latecomer to ISBA. Since joining for Valencia 2006 I have been impressed by the high quality of practice and debate (and cabaret) sponsored by ISBA. I'd say it's a great thing. You can check me out at URL http://www.physics.otago.ac.nz/people/fox/

• David Dunson (Duke University, USA)

  My methodologic research interests include nonparametric Bayes, functional data analysis, model selection, multivariate analysis using latent variable and random effects models, and (most recently) image analysis and signal processing. I am also interested in applications to challenging high-dimensional problems in epidemiology, genetics and machine learning. I have published papers in JRSS-B, JASA-ACS, JASA-TM, Biometrika, Journal of the American Medical Association and Statistica Sinica. I have served on the Savage Award committee, and have been very active in organizing invited sessions on Bayesian statistics for the Joint Statistical Meetings and the International Biometrics Society. I am co-editor of Bayesian Analysis, and am an Associate Editor for Biometrika, JASA-ACS and Psychometrika. I am excited about the possibility of contributing to ISBA as a member of the Board.

• David van Dyk (Univ Calif Irvine, USA)

  I am a Professor in the Department of Statistics at the UC Irvine. I received my Ph. D. from Chicago (1995) and was elected ASA Fellow (2006). My scholarly work focuses on methodological and computational issues involved with Bayesian analysis of highly structured statistical models and emphasizes serious interdisciplinary research, especially in astronomy. I am particularly interested in improving the efficiency of computationally intensive methods involving data augmentation, such as EM-type algorithms and various MCMC methods. My research appears in JASA, Biometrika, JRSSB, Bayesian Analysis, Statistical Science, and the Astrophysical Journal. I am currently Editor-in-Chief of the Journal of Computational and Graphical Statistics and have served as an Associate Editor for JASA and Statistica Sinica. I was Program Chair for AISTATS 2008 and the ASA Section on Bayesian Statistical Science (JSM 2008) and served on the Scientific Program Committee for Statistical Challenges in Modern Astronomy III (2001), IPAM Conference on Mathematical Challenges in Astronomical Imaging (2004), the SAMSI program on Astrostatistics (2006), and Interface 2008.

• Satyanshu Upadhyay (Banaras Hindu University, IN)

  I am currently Professor at the Department of Statistics and associated with Dept. of Science & Tech. Centre for Interdisciplinary Mathematical Sciences at BHU as Principal Investigator, Bayesian Statistics. My current research interests include computation, reliability, accelerated testing, regression and survival analyses, etc. using Bayes paradigm. I have published papers in IEEE Trans. Reliab., Comm. Stat., JSPI, CSDA, Stat. Papers, Sankhya, among others.

  I have served in scientific and advisory committees of various conferences/workshops and organized a number of successful events including the one cosponsored by ISBA at BHU in Jan. 2005. This event was a landmark in the Indian Bayesian history.

  I am the member of ISBA since its inception and worked twice as member of nomination committee. I took a lead role in creating a Bayesian movement and unifying the Bayesian statisticians in India that finally resulted in the formation of Indian Chapter of ISBA and Indian Bayesian Society (with me as current Secretary). I am editor of Indian Bayesians’ Newsletter since 1996. I aim to bring people from developing countries under the umbrella of ISBA for strong global interactions of Bayesians.

• Katja Ickstadt (Technische Universität Dortmund, DE)

  I am a professor for mathematical statistics with applications in biometry at the Department of Statistics, Technische Universität Dortmund in Germany. My main areas of research comprise fancy Bayesian regression models such as the modeling of spatial phenomena, dose-response curve modeling and models for inverse problems, as well as clustering and classification for genetic and proteomic data. I have published papers in statistics and biostatistics journals such as JASA, Biometrika, Biostatistics and Biometrics, but also in scientific journals of other research areas such as the Journal of Toxicology and Environmental Health.

  I have served as an associate editor for Bayesian Analysis from the start of the journal until the end of last year and I am now an associate editor for Biostatistics and for Statistical Papers. I have also served on the Savage Trust Committee from 2005 until 2007. I am excited about this nomination and would very much enjoy to support ISBA as a member of the Board.

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  ISBA by-law D.6 permits additional nominations for any office to be made by petition of at least 30 ISBA members.