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The sixth edition of the joint meeting of the Bernoulli Society and the Institute of Mathematical Statistics was held in Barcelona, 26-31 July 2004. Scheduled every four years, the joint IMS/BS meetings are the major worldwide events in Probability and Statistics.
On this occasion the meeting gathered more than 700 participants and scheduled 474 talks arranged in 35 invited paper sessions and 68 contributed paper sessions. Special lectures have been given by the following main speakers: David Aldous (Kolmogorov Lecture), Wendelin Werner (Lévy Lecture), Jun Liu (Bernoulli Lecture), Steffen Lauritzen (Laplace Lecture), Iain Johnstone (IMS Wald Lectures) and Peter Bickel (IMS Rietz Lecture); Vladimir Koltchinskii, Evarist Giné, Cun-Hui Zhang, Alison Etheridge, and Dominique Picard were the IMS Medallion Lecturers.
The dense and appealing scientific program covered a wide range of topics in statistics and probability and it was designed by the Scientific Committee chaired by Wilfrid Kendall. The high quality of the contributed papers presented in the conference and the great number of distinguished invited speakers ensured the success of the congress.
The site of the congress was the historical building of the University of Barcelona. The opening ceremony, some of the plenary lectures and the reception of the IMS took place in the Paranimf, a magnificent and tall room that impressed all the participants. The botanical gardens that surround this building were used for the coffee-breaks and the reception on Monday night where the participants had the opportunity to meet and talk in a friendly atmosphere with live music. Also, posters and stands exhibitions were located at the main entrance hall of the University building.
The sessions on Mathematical Finance on Monday and Tuesday were organised at the Borsa de Barcelona (Barcelona Stock Market).
A satellite meeting on "Particle and Monte Carlo methods" took place on 24-25 July at the Aula Magna of the University of Barcelona.
On Tuesday night there was a reception on the Palau Reial de Pedralbes offered by the Town Hall. Everybody enjoyed very much this reception and the beautiful gardens of this Palace. This Italianate-style palace was built by the citizens of Barcelona at the beginning of the XX century as a gift for King Alfonso XIII, the grandfather of the present king of Spain, Juan Carlos, and it was officially opened in 1926.
The conference dinner on Thursday night, which took place at the Palauet Luca located in the heart of the Eixample in Barcelona, was attended by a large number of participants in a very warm atmosphere with live music and dancing. Finally, on Friday there was a Congress Concert by the prestigious Coral Sant Jordi in the Gothic church Santa Maria del Mar.
There was an accompanying persons program with a half day visit on 27 July to Modernist Barcelona and a full day visit on 29 July to the Museo Dalí and the Costa Brava.
The participation of students and new researchers in the Congress was promoted by means of grants offered by European Science Council through its Marie Curie Conferences program, and by the IMS through the LAHA travel grants. Also, the Congress was sponsored by the Ministerio de Ciencia y Tecnología (Spanish Gouvernment), the Generalitat de Catalunya (Catalan Government), "La Caixa", the Barcelona Stock Market, the City Hall, the University of Barcelona and the Universitat Autonoma de Barcelona.
This Congress was also an activity associated with the Forum Barcelona 2004, which is an international multicultural event.
More details on the congress can be found at www.imub.ub.es/events/wc2004/ .
— David Nualart
The University of Lugano hosted the first Summer School on Imprecise Probabilities, organised by the Society for Imprecise Probability Theories and Applications (SIPTA). The school was intended for doctoral students and young researchers, as a wide and deep view on the following topics in imprecise probability
Abstracts of the lectures and electronic copies of the speakers' slides are available at the web address of the school: www.idsia.ch/~zaffalon/events/school2004/topics.htm .
Given the interest raised by the school, which was attended by 45 students, SIPTA is considering now to make the school a regular event in the future.
Regarding this, or other activities related to imprecise probabilities, please see the web site of SIPTA ( www.sipta.org ) for up-to-date information.
— Marco Zaffalon
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