First Announcement: Second International IMS/ISBA Joint Meeting
Bormio, Italy (Italian Alps)
"MCMSki": The Past, Present, and Future of Gibbs Sampling
Wednesday, January 12 to Friday, January 14, 2005
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Following up on the success of the first joint international meeting
of IMS (Institute of Mathematical Statistics) and ISBA (International
Society for Bayesian Analysis) last summer in Isla Verde, Puerto Rico,
the second such joint meeting will be held in Bormio, Italy (site of
the world ski championships) next winter, January 12-14, 2005. The
unifying theme of the conference is MCMC and its impact in the (by
then) 15 years since the appearance of the Gelfand and Smith paper.
Since this is a joint meeting of two diverse organizations, talks on a
wide variety of topics (both Bayesian and non-Bayesian) are
anticipated.
Our plan is to have 3 plenary speakers, each of whom will speak for 50
minutes at the beginning of each day. This will be followed by an
invited session (3 speakers), then lunch, and then an afternoon break
(where skiing and visiting the hot spring spa will be among the
options). Following the break will be another invited session, then
dinner and posters; in short, "Valencia style" with ski/spa time
replacing the usual beach time. There may also be "satellite" events
on Jan 11 or 15, such as short courses or workshops on topics of
particular interest.
The three plenary speakers will be:
Prof. Persi Diaconis, Stanford University
Prof. Alan Gelfand, Duke University
Prof. Sylvia Richardson, Imperial College London
In addition, the members of the program committee (see below) are well
on their way to assembling an invited program that is as attractive as
the conference venue. In particular, invited sessions are anticipated on:
molecular biology spatial and spatiotemporal methods
bioinformatics and genetics statistical data mining
MCMC algorithms and software modern nonparametrics
Buses (exact times to be determined) will be available to transport
participants between the conference site and Malpensa Airport in Milan
(approx 3-3.5 hour ride). Limited financial support for the travel of
junior investigators (< 5 years since PhD) is also anticipated for
those presenting in one of the two poster sessions (Wed and Thurs).
Further details are available on the initial conference flyer,
http://www.biostat.umn.edu/~brad/flyer.doc
or from the official conference website,
http://eco.uninsubria.it/webdocenti/IMS-ISBA-05/
as they become available. Please check the web site regularly. In
particular, more details on the registration fee and the accommodations
will be available shortly.
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Program Committee:
Brad Carlin, University of Minnesota (Co-Chair)
Antonietta Mira, University of Insubria (Co-Chair)
Steve Brooks, Cambridge University
Montserrat Fuentes, North Carolina State University
Paolo Giudici, University of Pavia
Giovanni Parmigiani, Johns Hopkins University
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Steve Brooks
The Statistical Laboratory Tel: +44 (0)1223 766535
CMS Fax: +44 (0)1223 337956
Wilberforce Road
Cambridge
CB3 0WB
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