THE STATISTICAL SOFTWARE NEWSLETTER 113

IASC 2 nd World Congress, Pasadena, USA,

February 19-22, 1997

Malcolm Hudson

Dept. Statistics, EFS, Macquarie University, ' NSW, Australia, 2109

Phone: +612.850-8555, Fax: +612.850-7669, E-mail: mhudson@laurel.ocs.mq.edu.au,

(SSNinCSDA 25, 113- 114 (1997))

The IASC Second World Congress was held in Pasadena, southern California, from 19-22 Febru- ary.

Meeting participants experienced a stretch of near perfect sunny warm weather in the middle of win- ter, so their expectations of Californian climate were well reinforced! This aided and abetted the general congenial environment provided by our hosts.

Stan Azen, with the assistance of the Local Or- ganizing Committee, played a huge role in setting up and the smooth running of the meeting. Stan chaired the meeting on behalf of host institutions, University of Southern California and University of California, Los Angeles, sponsoring society, IASC, and co-operating organisations, The Inter- face Foundation of North America,

American Statistical Association (ASA) Sections on Statistical Computing and Statistical Graphics, and the Southern Californian Chapter of ASA. We are most grateful for the breadth of support experi- enced.

The Congress was most successful in attracting a high standard of Statistical Computing contribu- tions. At a rough count, the number of papers pre- sented at the meeting exceeded 300 and the topics presented ranged across many fields and new tech- nologies. It was pleasing to see that the meeting attracted participants not only from countries around the Pacific Rim, but also from USA, Can- ada and Europe, and in substantial numbers.

The titles of Invited Paper sessions are listed be- low.

Keynote addresses: Bradley Efron "The Statistical Century";

Malcolm Pike "Computational and Statistical Risk Factors in Epidemiological Research".

While Efron highlighted many of the technical ad- vances in Statistics and the thought processes it engenders that have changed modern science and made it a "Statistical Century", Pike presented a romp rich in personages of our history as well as a passionate call for Statisticians to see themselves in a different light. Using current controversies in public health to illustrate his argument, Pike es- poused the primacy of the Statistician in leading effective research.

IPI: Monte Carlo Methods in Genetics;

IP2: New algorithms for Generating Efficient Designs;

IP3: Algorithms for Sparse Categorical Data; IP4: Use of Computer Modeling for Policy

Analysis IP5: Statistics and Causality

IP6: Bayesian Probability Models and Networks IP7: Data Mining and Statistics for Large, Com-

plex Data sets

IP8: Making Statistical Sense of Earth Observa- tions from Satellites

IP9: Computational Methods for Model Selec- tion

IP 10a: Statistical Processes;

IP10b: Categorical Data Modeling and Analysis IP1 la: Estimating Distributions of Pharmacoki-

netic Models; IP1 lb: Fuzzy Methods;

IPI2: Network Tools for Teaching Statistics; IP13: Multivariate StatisticalModeling and Data

Analysis: I IP14: Statistical Computing in Clinical Trials; IP15: Data Mining Applications in Science Data

Analysis;

Statistics in Molecular Biology; Computers in Statistics Education:I Graphical Methods;

Computers in Statistics Education:II Pharmacokinetics and Pharmacodynamics;

IP16: IP17: IPI8: IP19: IP20:

114 THE STATISTICAL SOFTWARE NEWSLETTER

IP21: Multivariate Statistical Modeling and Data Analysis: II

Papers will be collected in Conference Proceed- ings (forthcoming). This is a most welcome sup- plement, for there were very many outstanding pa- pers presented, with experience and information that many IASC members will value.

USC hosted a pre-conference workshop on Ge- netic Pedigree Analysis.

There were numerous opportunities, of course, to share with other participants the congenial atmos- phere of Pasadena, and thanks are due to our hosts for their inclusiveness and effort in adding so much to the scientific activities.

Ed Wegman (Chair, Program Committee) and Stan Azen (Chair, Local Organizing Committee) and their Committees are to be congratulated on their outstanding contributions.

IASC News IASC General Assembly, Istanbul

Notice is given to all members if IASC, ISI of the forthcoming Members are warmly invited to attend the General Assembly, IASC during 51st ISI, Is- tanbul.

Please note the following arrangements for the IASC General Assembly meeting:

The meeting will be held at 4.30 pro, Wednesday 20 August, 1997 at the Lutfi Kyrdar Istanbul In- ternational Congress Center, Istanbul.

Notice will be given at the Meeting of the room location.

Agenda:

1. Approval of the Agenda

2. President's Report

3. Secretary's Report

4. Treasurer's Report 5. Introduction of New Officers

6. Incoming President's Statement

7. Membership Issues 8. Regional Sections

9. Forthcoming Meetings

10. Any Other Business

~ Malcolm Hudson, Scientific Secretary, E- mail: Malcolm.Hudson@ mq.edu.au

IASC Program for ISr99 in Helsinki, Finland

The program of "invited paper meetings" in ISI 99 in Helsinki, Finland, will be decided during the ISI Session in Istanbul in August 18-26, 1997.

All IASC members are invited to suggest topics for the IASC's share of the ISI Session in Helsinki.

Suggestions are welcome on any aspects of statis- tical computing including those suitable for joint topics with other Sections.

Suggestions of possible names (and contact infor- mation) for organizers, speakers and discussants are also encouraged.

Please address your suggestions to:

~ Yutaka Tanaka, Department of Environ- mental & Mathematical Sciences, Okayama

University, Tsushima, Okayama 700, Japan. Fax: +81.96.254 0074, E-mail: tanaka@ stat.ems. okayama-u.ac.jp

Interface '97 Houston, Texas, May 14-17, 1997

The twenty-ninth meeting on the interface of com- puter science and statistics was held in Houston, Texas on May 14-17, 1997. The meeting was hosted by the Department of Statistics at Rice University, with David Scott as program chair. The theme for the conference was "Mining and modeling massive data sets in science, engineering and business, with a subtheme in environmental statistics." The IASC is a cooperating society in sponsoring the Interface conferences.

Because the Interface conference was immediately preceded by a three-day NSF-sponsored workshop on smoothing, the Interface included a large inter- national, largely European, contingent interested in