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This four week programme brought together mathematical scientists working in simulation physics, statistical Markov chain Monte Carlo, and genetics. There were tutorial series on
The intensity of the program built over the four week period, culminating in a research workshop with a wide variety of presentations. There was much to learn from people practising the same Monte Carlo techniques in other disciplines: I for one gained a great deal from listening to simulation physicists expounding their trade, as well as renewing old acquaintance and making new friends in my own discipline. The Institute for Mathematical Sciences (or IMS, to give it the local abbreviation!) provided an excellent setting for the workshop, with really first-class support from the Institute staff: all of us who attended are really grateful to them and to the director, Professor Louis Chen, and warmly recommend the Institute to you if ever you are fortunate enough to have the opportunity to visit!
— Wilfrid Kendall
The 2nd International Workshop in Applied Probability (IWAP2004) took place on 22-25 March 2004. In a year that the Olympic Games are returning to their ancient birthplace and the city of their revival (Athens, Greece), IWAP was hosted at the Department of Statistics and Insurance Science, University of Piraeus, Greece. It was sponsored by Bernoulli Society, IMS, NSA and a number of local companies and ministries.
IWAP2004 is the second in a series of workshops (the 1st International Workshop in Applied Probability, IWAP2002, took place at the University of Simon Bolivar, Venezuela, on 14-17January 2002) that are scheduled to take place every two years in different countries all over the world. The workshop Chairs for the IWAP series are Ricardo Baeza-Yates (Chile), Joseph Glaz (Connecticut), Henryk Gzyl, (Simor Bolivar), Juerg Huesler, (Bern), Markos V. Koutras (Piraeus) and Jose Luis Palacios (Simon Bolivar).
One of the objectives for the series of Applied Probability workshops is to survey recent research advances in probability and its applications in diverse areas of science and technology. By bringing together leading researchers who have a strong interest in applications with outstanding junior applied probabilists, it gives rise to stimulating discussions and exchange of ideas among participants, and provides guidance to the younger participants. It also promotes research in exciting and active areas of a wide variety of different fields, and strengthens ties and encourages collaboration between researchers in applied probability all over the world.
More than 160 participants from 32 different countries took part in IWAP2004, a fact proving that, although IWAP is a new-born baby, it has already been widely appreciated as a major academic event among the statistical community. It is planned to publish three to five special issues of research articles in Methodology and Computing in Applied Probability (Kluwer Academic Publishers), and a special volume with review articles.
During the conference more than 140 talks were presented in parallel sessions while eight plenary talks were delivered by
— Markos Koutras
(Workshop Organiser)
The 9th Latin American Congress on Probability and Mathematical Statistics (IX CLAPEM) took place in the Hotel San Rafael, Punta del Este, Uruguay.
It was organised by the Latin American Regional Comittee of the Bernoulli Society and the Universidad de la Republica (Montevideo, Uruguay). This event was organised under the auspices of the Ministerio de Educacion y Cultura del Uruguay, and sponsored by the Institute of Mathematical Statistics.
Short courses were delivered by Víctor de la Peña (USA), Hermann Thorisson (Iceland), Aad van der Vaart (Holland) and Nanny Wermuth (Germany). The opening address was given by Yuval Peres (USA). The invited conference speakers were Miguel Abadi (Brazil), Jean Bertoin (France), Tom Britton (Sweden), Alejandra Cabaña (Venezuela), Juan Cuesta-Albertos (Spain), Antonio Cuevas (Spain), Eustasio del Barrio (Spain), Georgina Flesia (Argentina), Michel Ledoux (France), Jose Rafael Leon (Venezuela), Marc Lavielle (France), Gabor Lugosi (Spain), Servet Martinez (Chile), Laurent Saloff-Coste (USA), Maria Eulalia Vares (Brazil) and Victor Yohai (Argentina). In addition, 67 oral presentations and 23 posters were delivered by participants from all over the world.
The congress had eight special sessions, devoted to specific subjects in probability and statistics. Each session comprised invited lectures of 30 minutes. The list of special sessions, with its respective organisers was as follows.
The international sponsors of the Congress were the Institute of Mathematical Statistics, the Regional French Co-operation Program, the Centre International des Mathématiques Pures et Appliquées, the Bernoulli Society, the International Mathematical Union, and the National Science Foundation USA. Local sponsors were Programa de Desarrollo de las Ciencias Básicas, Dirección Nacional de Ciencia y Tecnología de Uruguay, Facultad de Ciencias Facultad de Ciencias Económicas y Administración, and Facultad de Ingeniería.
The journal Publicaciones Matemáticas del Uruguay will print a special issue in 2004, with articles submitted by participants of the congress. In order to be published, the journal will follow its usual refereeing process.
See imerl.fing.edu.uy/clapem for further details.
— Ernesto Mordecki
(Chair, Local Organising Committee)
The 6th German Open Conference on Probability and Statistics was held at the University of Karlsruhe, 23-26 March 2004. This conference was organised by the Fachgruppe Stochastik (probability and statistics group, a subsection of the Deutsche Mathematiker-Vereinigung, DMV).
The local organisers of this meeting welcomed more than 430 participants from 24 countries who gave 16 invited and 250 contributed talks. Plenary lectures were presented by Jürg Hüsler (Bern), Kurt Johansson (Stockholm), Klaus Mecke (Stuttgart), and Hans-Georg Müller (UC Davis). The program covered a wide range of research domains including mathematical finance and insurance, stochastic analysis, stochastic geometry and spatial statistics, non-parametric and multivariate statistics and time series analysis. Many participants described the conference and its setting as an ideal environment for the exchange of new scientific ideas and results in the area of probability and statistics. The assembly of the Fachgruppe Stochastik has chosen the University of Frankfurt to host the next conference in 2006. More information is at mspcdip.mathematik.uni-karlsruhe.de/ stoch2004/.
— Norbert Henze, Günther Last
(Local Organising Committee)