Proposals Sought for Late-Breaking JSM Sessions

Xuming He, JSM 2010 Program Chair

JSM Program Committee members begin planning the JSM program a year before the meeting takes place, allowing them to organize such a large meeting. However, to include sessions on new developments of high interest, they hold back two invited session slots for late-breaking talks. Members of the American Statistical Association, Institute of Mathematical Statistics, Statistical Society of Canada, International Biometric Society (Eastern/Western North American Region), International Chinese Statistical Association, and International Indian Statistical Association are encouraged to submit a proposal for one of these sessions by April 17.

A late-breaking session must cover one or more technical, scientific, or policy-related topics that arose in the one-year period prior to JSM 2010. Proposals for late-breaking sessions must be emailed to JSM 2010 Program Chair Xuming He at xuming.he@gmail.com with a copy to the ASA Meetings Department at meetings@amstat.org and include the following:

• Session description, including title, summary of statistical and scientific content, explanation of timeliness, and comments about the target audience
• Session format (e.g., chair and four panelists; chair, two or three speakers, and discussant)
• Names, affiliations, and contact information for the session organizer, chair, and all participants
• Title for each presentation
• Web links to relevant technical reports or news reports, if applicable

Organizers should make sure all participants agree to participate before the proposal is submitted. The JSM participation guidelines state that a speaker can give a main presentation and participate in a late-breaking session.

Two late-breaking sessions will be selected from the proposals received by April 17. Proposals will be judged on statistical and scientific quality, novelty, timeliness of the subject, potential audience appeal, and completeness. A description of the late-breaking sessions and other special sessions will appear in a later issue of Amstat News.