A View from the President

Let me begin with my closing remarks to the General Assembly of the ISI World Congress in Dublin. “It is a humbling privilege to step into the legacy of leadership of the Bernoulli Society for Mathematical Statistics and Probability. We have heard about a few of the multitude of challenges that are upon us in this emerging age of information. Like many of the tools spawned by the previous ages, there are also advantages. Let us remember that the mission has not changed. I look forward to working closely with president-elect Wilfrid Kendall, the executive committee and the council of the Bernoulli Society to the best we can to see that the Bernoulli Society fulfills its mission. I have had an amazing mentor in past-president Victor Perez-Abreu, and I thank him immensely for his remarkable efforts on all of our behalves. He has taught me a great deal by his example.”

This is also time to thank exiting and continuing council members, and to announce and welcome new council: Neville Weber, Arturo Kohatsu-Higa, Mikhail Lifshits, Alejandro Ramirez, Alice Guionnet and Martin Barlow. Transparency and diversity in subject expertise, geographic distribution and gender remain important organizational goals. You will read about a number of new editors and committee members in this and the next edition of Bernoulli News. The Bernoulli Society simply could not function without the altruistic efforts of committee members working behind the scenes: http://www.bernoulli-society.org/index.php/organization

My broad goals for the coming two years are two-fold: (i) reinforce currently active initiatives, and (ii) engage the participation of our members, from new PhDs to emeritus. As for (i), my most recent predecessors Jean Jacod and Victor Perez-Abreu, spearheaded a remarkable number of initiatives that, properly nurtured, can sustain our society for years to come. Specific activities within these goals are: (a) the mentorship programs in Africa now being piloted by Arnoldo Frigressi and another by Etienne Pardoux, (b) numerous involvements in the International Year of Statistics (IYStat) for 2013 coordinated by a new special committee Adam Jakubowski (chair), Claire Gormley, Victor Perez-Abreu, (c) continued subsidies of PhD student memberships, (d) special `information age’ publication evaluations and negotiations with our publishers, aided by a special committee Michael Sorensen, Frank den Hollander, Thomas Mikosch and Maria Eulalia Vares, (e) our flagship world congress (Istanbul 2012), SPA conferences (Boulder, 2013), and (f) various collaborations with other professional societies. The latter provide multiple resonant voices for probability and mathematical statistics worldwide.

So it is important that we effectively manage the outgrowth of these initiatives and interconnected activities through standing committees and advice of Bernoulli executive committee and council. We are fortunate to have such an outstanding diversity of colleagues from around the world with whom to interact and consult in the Bernoulli Society organization.

Going forward in this new information age, we are being forced to re-evaluate reasons for membership in a professional society, let alone multiple memberships. Many members from my generation joined a professional society to obtain journal subscriptions; clearly an obsolete motivation now. However, this age is leading us to even more compelling reasons for individuals to unite, and for societies to collaborate. The solidarity of professional societies helps to protect individuals and small groups who become the object of misconceived political forces. They provide the integrity and infrastructure to gain support of professional meetings that is so easy to take for granted. This, in turn, facilitates networking and personal contacts among researchers evaluating the present, and steering the future. IYStat and MPE13, http://www.mpe2013.org/contact.php grew out of multi-societal collaborations in efforts to celebrate and communicate the historic and future value of our profession to society. The unified recognition of outstanding scientific accomplishments through awards and prestigious lectures, e.g., see http://www.bernoulli-society.org/index.php/prizes, is accomplished through the scrutiny of diverse special committees. Support of mentorship programs in under-developed countries, e.g., see http://www.bernoulli-society.org/files/Distance-Mentoring-in-Statistics.pdf, provides opportunities for members to become significantly involved, right now! The list goes on. The bottom line is that it is important that we communicate, and actually teach the importance of membership to the present and future generations of our graduate students and post-docs. The Bernoulli Society will continue to subsidize memberships of PhD students as an investment into our rapidly changing future.

In the language of Chris Rogers’ plenary 2011 SPA lecture in Osaka, a stable, efficient and economical model for the open global access, archive and distribution of substantiated research that will continue to serve society, now and into posterity, is a “real P&L” problem. It is also an opportunity for collaborations with library scientists, archivists, commercial publishers and information technologists to find truly innovative solutions to a complex social problem on a global scale. It involves a future also not to be taken for granted by any of us as we look for new ways in which to pursue the basic mission of the Bernoulli Society.

Let me end with the homework assignment for the General Assembly in Dublin (and now for all Bernoulli members).

HOMEWORK ASSIGNMENT (DUE 2013): Initiate collaborations between academic, business, industrial organizations within your local geographic regions (large cities, provinces, states) for special activities under the auspices of the Bernoulli Society*, IYStat and/or MPE13, e.g., a weekend conference or public lecture event that will recognize and carry our mission to the world citizenry who support the scientific enterprise.

Sample Solution: Ars Conjectandi provides a historic cornerstone to Monte-Carlo simulation and its implications in Bayesian inference and applications to finance, biology, health and other areas of mainstream interest to the public. Recruit speaker(s) who can best communicate the relevance in a public lecture in your region of the world.

*A web mechanism to submit proposals for formal approval of a Bernoulli Society sanctioned event is forthcoming. Watch for more information on the web and in future issues of EBriefs and Bernoulli News.

Ed Waymire, Corvallis, USA
President of the Bernoulli Society