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First of all I would like to warmly thank Jean Jacod for being President of
the Bernoulli Society for Mathematical Statistics and Probability (BS) during
the last two years and the Executive Committee and Council members who ended
their term. I would like to take the opportunity to also thank Eric Cator and
Erik van Zwet who served as editors of the Bernoulli News (BNews)
for the last two years and to welcome Vicky Fasen and Robert Stelzer as its new
editors.
For almost fifteen years BNews has been an important publication to share news
about Bernoulli Society activities and members. In the contents of BNews and the
BS Website we find some of the most important values and strengths of the
Society; its History; the high level standards of regional and international
meetings organized or sponsored by the Society; the strong traditions of the
Conferences on Stochastic Processes and their Applications; the role played by
BS in the organization of meetings during ISI Sessions; the consistent work done
by some of the standing committees and, very relevantly, the increasing
prominence of the Bernoulli Society World Congresses.
Part of my work as BS President Elect was to promote a diagnosis process with
the contribution of points of view, initiatives and comments kindly provided by
several members. Many of the strengths of the Society have been confirmed and we
have also learned various problems that BS has had for several years; some of
them are similar to those currently faced by other scientific and professional
societies but some are BS weaknesses in particular. Part of this diagnosis
includes what has already been pointed out by Arnoldo Frigessi in his Word
from the Outgoing Scientific Secretary (BNews,
Vol. 15, No. 2, 2008) and by Jean
Jacod in his last A Word from the President (BNews,
Vol. 16, No. 1, 2009).
Strengths of the Society are also the high level standards of its official
publications the Bernoulli Journal and Stochastic Processes and Their
Applications, as well as the new co-sponsored open access publications
Electronic Communications in Probability, Electronic Journal of Probability,
Electronic Journal of Statistics, Probability Surveys and Statistics Surveys.
Members of past publications committees and editors should be congratulated for
the work they have done. A challenge for the present BS Executive and
Publications Committees is to continue – in a strategic framework – negotiations
and decisions for favorable and reasonable commercial conditions for the
official publications. These were a source of tensions in the past.
Stochastics is the paradigm of the 21st Century, as was highlighted by Peter
Jagers in his first A Word from the President (BNews
Vol. 12, No.2, 2005). This is a
challenge for our disciplines as a whole, not specific or exclusive to a single
society or institution. This calls for the existence of several strong societies
that assure equilibriums and necessary broadness of views. The Bernoulli Society
for Mathematical Statistics and Probability must reinforce its own niche in the
fortunately competing scenery of several good and bigger existing societies and
continue seeking friendly cooperation with ISI and IMS, as well as with other
societies.
In particular, as a Section of the ISI, a natural question is the role that
the Bernoulli Society should continue playing within ISI. I have addressed this
question and about the 2013 initiative in the BS contribution to the ISI
Newsletter Vol.
33, No. 3 (99), 2009. The present issue of BNews has a contribution
by Council member Adam Jakubowski also on the 2013 initiative and other
diagnosis thoughts.
There is a call to discuss activities and initiatives to go beyond what the
Bernoulli Society has already achieved. This may include a more truly worldwide
society, impacting and interacting with regional and national formations in our
disciplines, as well as with learned societies in other disciplines where
mathematical statistics, probability and stochastic processes continue playing
relevant and increasing roles.
Finally, I would like to welcome the new members of the Executive Committee and
the Council. The forthcoming years’ agendas must be defined by the challenges
and opportunities already detected. In addition to these, members are welcome
and encouraged to make suggestions for a stronger Bernoulli Society for
Mathematical Statistics and Probability.
Last but not least, I would like to ask you, our members, to encourage your
colleagues and postdocs and especially your Ph.D. students – for whom membership
is free – to join the Bernoulli Society (see details here). Moreover,
please suggest to your library to subscribe to our official journals – Bernoulli
(see
http://isi.cbs.nl/bernoulli/index.htm) and
Stochastic Processes and Their Applications (see
http://www.elsevier.com/locate/spa) – if it does
not do so yet. For the later journal, there is an alternative institutional
subscription due to negotiations of Bernoulli Society with Elsevier during the
last few years.
Víctor Pérez-Abreu, Guanajuato
The deadline for the next issue is March 31, 2010.
Please email submissions as plain text to the
Editors:
Vicky Fasen & Robert Stelzer.