Like Pierre, after reading Kristian’s courageous wake-up call, I was thinking of waiting a few days before blogging on the fundamental problem this harrowing story of hers exposes, while moving to actively make ISBA safe, along with Kerrie Mengersen and other members, especially j-ISBA. So in the meanwhile, here is Pierre’s blog entry that I completely endorse, with an additional feeling of failed responsibility as a senior man and president of ISBA:
Archive for j-ISBA
A big problem in our community
Posted in Statistics with tags ISBA, j-ISBA, sexual harassment on December 15, 2017 by xi'anISBA 2016 [#3]
Posted in pictures, Running, Statistics, Travel, University life, Wines with tags ABC, approximate likelihood, Calasetta, ISBA 2016, j-ISBA, loss function, restricted inference, San' Antioco, Sardinia, Statistical Science, summary statistics on June 16, 2016 by xi'an
Among the sessions I attended yesterday, I really liked the one on robustness and model mispecification. Especially the talk by Steve McEachern on Bayesian inference based on insufficient statistics, with a striking graph of the degradation of the Bayes factor as the prior variance increases. I sadly had no time to grab a picture of the graph, which compared this poor performance against a stable rendering when using a proper summary statistic. It clearly relates to our work on ABC model choice, as well as to my worries about the Bayes factor, so this explains why I am quite excited about this notion of restricted inference. In this session, Chris Holmes also summarised his two recent papers on loss-based inference, which I discussed here in a few posts, including the Statistical Science discussion Judith and I wrote recently. I also went to the j-ISBA [section] session which was sadly under-attended, maybe due to too many parallel sessions, maybe due to the lack of unifying statistical theme.
BAYSM ’14 im Wien, Sep. 18-19
Posted in Kids, Mountains, pictures, Statistics, Travel, University life, Wines with tags Austria, BAYSM, Duke, Großglockner, j-ISBA, Johannes Kepler Universität, Linz, O-Bayes 2013, Studlgrat, Wien, WU Wien on April 6, 2014 by xi'an
It all started in Jim Berger’s basement, drinking with the uttermost reverence an otherworldly Turley Zinfandel during the great party Ann and Jim Berger hosted for the O’Bayes’13 workshop in Duke. I then mentioned to Angela Bitto and Alexandra Posekany, from WU Wien, that I was going to be in Austria next September for a seminar in Linz, at the Johannes Kepler Universität, and, as it happened to take place the day before BAYSM ’14, the second conference of the young Bayesian statisticians, in connection with the j-ISBA section, they most kindly invited me to the meeting! As a senior Bayesian, most obviously! This is quite exciting, all the more because I never visited Vienna before. (Contrary to other parts of Austria, like the Großglockner, where I briefly met Peter Habeler. Trivia: the cover picture of the ‘Og is actually taken from the Großglockner.)
MCMSki 4, 5… [rejuvenating suggestion]
Posted in Kids, Mountains, pictures, Statistics, Travel, University life with tags BAYSM 2014, Chamonix, j-ISBA, job market, MCMSki IV, Wien on January 16, 2014 by xi'an
Another thing I should have included in the program. Or in the organising committee: a link with the Young Bayesians (j-ISBA) section… As pointed out to me by Kerrie Mengersen, ISBA meetings are obvious opportunities for young researchers to interact and network, as well as for seeking a job. Thus, there should be time slots dedicated to them in every ISBA sponsored meeting, from a mixer on the very first day to a job market coffee break the next day (and to any other social activity bound to increase the interactivity. Like a ski race.). So I would suggest every ISBA sponsored event (and no only the Bayesian Young Statistician Meetings!) should include a j-ISBA representative in its committee(s) to enforce this policy… (Kerrie also suggested random permutations during the banquet which is a neat idea provided the restaurant structure allows for this. It would have been total chaos in La Calèche last week!)
