Brajendra C. Sutradhar, Memorial University, was the General Chair of the recent International Symposium in Statistics (ISS) 2015 On Advances in Parametric and Semi-parametric Analysis of Multivariate, Time Series, Spatial-temporal, and Familial-longitudinal Data. He reports:

The International Symposium in Statistics (ISS) 2015 was hosted by the Department of Mathematics and Statistics at Memorial University, and it took place in Holiday Inn, St. John’s, Canada from July 6 to 8, 2015. The Institute of Mathematical Statistics (IMS) was a co-sponsor of the symposium, among others. This meeting covering five specialized research themes: Multi-dimensional data analysis in continuous setup; Multivariate analysis for longitudinal categorical data; Time series with financial and environmental applications; Spatial-temporal data analysis; and Familial longitudinal data analysis in semi-parametric setup, was attended by 46 delegates from many countries such as Brazil, France, India, Switzerland, USA and Canada, covering a large part of the globe. The meeting was a grand success with an excellent academic program complemented by two social events: the symposium banquet, and a whale- and puffin-watching tour.

The symposium welcome address was given by Dr. Charmaine Dean, former President of the SSC (Statistical Society of Canada) and the current Dean of Science of the University of Western Ontario. Dr. Alwell Oyet, Deputy Head, welcomed the delegates on behalf of the host department. Dr. Brajendra Sutradhar, General Chair of the symposium welcomed all guests and provided a brief history of the past two symposiums (ISS-2009, ISS-2012) and their connection to the present symposium (ISS-2015). He thanked all sponsors, in particular to Memorial University, CANSSI (Canadian Statistical Sciences Institute), and AARMS (Atlantic Association for Research in the Mathematical Sciences) for their support in organizing this meeting.

There were four keynote speeches in four different areas given by three speakers. Professor Anthony C. Davison from EPFL, Switzerland gave his keynote address on Max-stable processes on river networks, under the theme of spatial-temporal data analysis. Professor Brajendra C. Sutradhar from Memorial University, Canada gave part 1 of his keynote presentation on Advances and challenges in correlated data analysis in non-Gaussian multivariate setup; and part 2 of the presentation on Advances and challenges in analyzing ordinal categorical data in semi-parametric setup. The final keynote address was given by Professor Andrew Harvey from Cambridge University, UK, on New developments in modeling dynamic volatility. Nine special invited talks over three days of the symposium were given by professors Paul D. Sampson, University of Washington; Grace Y. Yi, University of Waterloo; Nairanjana Dasgupta, Washington State University; Roman Viveros-Aguilera, McMaster University; Julio M. Singer, Universidade de Sao Paulo; David E. Tyler, Rutgers–The State University of New Jersey; Refiq Soyer, The George Washington University, Charmaine Dean, The University of Western Ontario; and Richard J. Cook, University of Waterloo.

The symposium had another two invited speakers, Drs. Alwell Oyet from Memorial University, and Ashis SenGupta from Indian Statistical Institute. Also contributed papers were presented by seven speakers including four graduate students. Thus, the goal of the symposium was well reached. Furthermore, it is planned that a selected number of papers presented in the symposium will be published in the near future as lecture notes in Springer’s lecture notes series.

Brajendra Sutradhar invites Professor Charmaine Dean to deliver the welcome address

Brajendra Sutradhar welcomes Dr. Alwell Oyet to present the greetings from the department

Brajendra Sutradhar invites Professor Anthony Davison to deliver his keynote address

ISS-2015 Delegates