Dear all,
This message is addressed to members of the ISI family and serves as an invitation to those who are not (yet!) part of it to consider joining us. It is an exciting time for ISI, with much ongoing activity. We just held our online General Assembly, which provided an overview of what is happening within ISI and its seven Associations (Bernoulli, IAOS, IASC, IASE, IASS, ISBIS, TIES). Due to space constraints, I cannot discuss the great successes of our Associations, and I invite you to visit their websites.
Let's start with the events
We just concluded the 5th ISI Regional Statistical Conference (RSC) in Malta: 350 participants, a rich scientific program, a splendid location in an ancient palace in the charming centre of Malta, an excellent social dinner, and a great networking opportunity. We have just received numerous session proposals for the 66th World Statistical Congress, to be held in Zambia, 11-15 July 2027, which will be evaluated by the Scientific Programme Committee (SPC). There is still time to submit your work for a Contributed Paper Session (CPS)! Check out WSC 2027 website
Based on previous WSCs and the 2023 RSC held in Zambia, I expect the event to be exceptional. As part of ISI's policy of increasing its local presence, two new RSCs are planned: in Montevideo, Uruguay, in February 2028, and in Bali, Indonesia, in July 2028. Finally, ISI is closely involved in the Regional Data & Community Development Forum on 20 and 21 January 2027 in Sharjah, United Arab Emirates, where it is organising numerous sessions and a high-level workshop on 19 January.
I do not want to reveal too much, but I invite you to follow the projects of the ISI Young Statisticians Committee: there is exciting news coming soon!
In Malta, we presented the second issue of our new magazine, vISIon, with articles showing how statistics helps make hidden realities visible. I invite you to read the first two issues following these links, vISIon No.1 and vISIon No.2.
The ISI Academy is expanding its activities at an incredible pace.
In addition to the webinars that we started some time ago, we now have some exciting news. Thanks to a collaboration with our affiliate association IISA (International Indian Statistical Association), the Academy (actually Nalini Ravishanker, ISI President-elect) is offering a two-week course on time series, and another course on spatial statistics will be taught by colleagues from India, Arnab Hazra and Suman Majumder. These courses will be available online (more details coming soon). A webinar was organized by Veronica Gonzalez-Lopez through our affiliate association Institute of Applied Statistics, Sri Lanka (IASSL) for undergraduate students to introduce them to doctoral opportunities around the world. This is a benefit of being an affiliate association! Discussions are underway with organisations of young African statisticians (YASA and WAYSA) to extend similar courses on their continent. An online course on data science, developed for ISI some years ago by Ed Boone, Ann Maharaj, and Delia North, will be hosted on the ISI website (more details coming soon). Another recorded course on Introduction to Julia programming, developed by Carlos Trucios, will be hosted as well. Yet another synchronous course will almost certainly be offered to undergraduate students in Saudi Arabia and other interested places. The number of contacts with people interested in hosting courses/webinars and institutions interested in receiving them is rapidly growing. But the ISI Academy is not just about courses and webinars: it is involved in launching the national statistical association in Burundi and in quality assurance training for the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO), and other major agencies are interested in ISI training, as discussed at the UN Statistics Division meeting in New York in March. These are ably handled for the ISI Academy by Pietro Gennari and Alper Gucumengil. The Academy has proposed a Master’s Degree in Official Statistics in the Gulf Area (work is well underway) and has submitted proposals for other projects. To learn more about the Academy, visit this web page.
Godambe Prize
We are very grateful to the Estate of the late Prof. Godambe, who has made a significant financial contribution to ISI to establish the Godambe Prize. We are working on defining the award's characteristics, with the hope of recognising someone willing to create "something" that is in the spirit of Prof. Godambe’s legacy and will endure and contribute to capacity building. The award will be launched at WSC 2027, a committee, involving also other societies, will select the first winner(s) who will be announced at WSC 2029.
Strategy and future role of the ISI
Finally, perhaps the most important issue is the discussion (and the actions taken so far and to be taken) on the strategy and future role of the ISI. The first question concerns the role of statistics in the AI era and what ISI can do. I believe that decisive action, coordinated with other statistical societies, is needed to clarify that statistics underpins many methods used by AI and that leaving the development of new methods exclusively to other scientists, such as computer scientists, is not the right path forward. We have just started the discussion within the ISI Executive Committee, but any input is welcome! We have created the Innovation Lab, chaired by Steve MacFeely (OECD Chief Statistician), which will be responsible for providing ideas to increase the ISI's impact on the statistical community and society, ensure its financial sustainability, and improve its efficiency. We are very excited about this new step in the ISI's history.
As you can see (if you have read this far!), there are many reasons to be proud of ISI and grateful to the many people who work for it. What can you do? Renew your ISI membership or become a member (and remember, there are seven associations!). If you meet the requirements, you could even become an Elected Member of ISI: it is an important recognition of a person's work in academia, official statistical offices, business and industry, and anywhere else they have made a significant impact! You can volunteer for the Academy or for other activities.
Finally, you can contribute with a donation or by proposing a fund named after a colleague: these are important contributions to support the many activities undertaken by ISI!
If you have comments, please contact me.
Best
Fabrizio
