Travel Support for the 4th International Joint IMS-ISBA Conference

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This grant provides support for the Fourth International Joint Meeting of the IMS (Institute of Mathematical Statistics) and ISBA (the International Society for Bayesian Analysis), to be held on Wednesday, January 5 to Friday, January 7, 2011. A central theme of the conference will be Markov chain Monte Carlo (MCMC) and related methods and applications. The lion's share of the funding will be used to support the travel expenses of junior biostatistical investigators, i.e., persons pursuing a PhD or DrPH in statistics, biostatistics, or a closely related field, or who have received such a degree within the five years preceding the conference. Such investigators are often doing research that is among the most novel, interesting, and important for international dissemination, yet lack the travel funds necessary to attend such a conference, since they have not yet established a publication track record sufficient to attract external travel and other funding for their work. We have a commitment from ISBA to provide partial travel support for 10 young recent PhDs from economically disadvantaged countries, and are also seeking support from NSA for support for 10-15 additional young investigators. Specific goals and anticipated benefits of the conference include promoting the continued development of statistical theory and applications in finance, technology, environmental science, biomedicine and other areas, and a fuller exploration of the interplay of classical and Bayesian statistical methods in the context of specific areas of research.Statisticians play an indispensable role in the analysis of biomedical, environmental and public health data, from the study design stage all the way through to final analysis and report-writing. Statisticians also serve on a myriad of scientific review and advisory panels, as well as provide statistical training and consulting to substantive area researchers. Finally, the development of new statistical methodology for interpretation of data from clinical, observational, and laboratory studies is a key area of statistical endeavor. As a result, scholarly conferences where new ideas can be exchanged are important for statistical science to move forward. The benefit of and need for attendance at such meetings by junior statistical researchers is particularly great, since they contribute mightily to their professional development and help "level the playing field" with more established senior investigators. This grant provides support for the Fourth International Joint Meeting of the IMS (Institute of Mathematical Statistics) and ISBA (the International Society for Bayesian Analysis), to be held Wednesday, January 5 to Friday, January 7, 2011. The lion's share of the support we seek is to support the travel expenses of junior investigators.