The Statistics and the Environment Section annual open business meeting and mixer is tentatively scheduled for the evening of Monday, August 2, at JSM 2010. Please join us for appetizers, drinks, and mingling. This is a great networking opportunity and way to meet other members of our section. In addition, several awards will be presented, and you will be able to voice your opinions about the section’s activities.

Competition Winners

The section congratulates the Student Paper Competition winners, David Dail and Ying Sun. Dail, a PhD student in statistics at Oregon State University, won first place for his paper titled “Models for Estimating Population Size from Repeated Counts of an Open Population,” coauthored by Lisa Madsen, also of Oregon State.

Sun, a PhD student in statistics at Texas A&M University, was runner-up for her paper, “Functional Boxplots for Complex Space-Time Data Visualization,” coauthored by Marc Genton, also of Texas A&M.

ENVR-Sponsored Sessions

Roundtables
“Comparing Climate Models to Weather Data”
Organizer: Peter Guttorp, University of Washington/Norwegian Computing Center
Invited and Topic–Contributed Sessions

“Environmental Statistics in the Real World: Research from Scientists at Government Agencies”
Organizer/chair: Veronica J Berrocal, SAMSI

“Spatial Statistical Methods for Environmental Extremes”
Organizer/chair: Catherine Calder, Ohio State University

“Statistics and Public Policy: Some Case Studies”
Organizer/chair: James R. Thompson, Rice University

“Advances in the Theory and Methodology of Spatial Point Processes”
Organizer/chair: Jun Zhu, Colorado State University

“Environmental Statistics”
Organizer/chair: Yasmin H. Said, George Mason University

“Statistical Methods for Multivariate Spatial and Spatial-Temporal Processes”
Organizer/chair: Mikyoung Jun, Texas A&M University

“Statistical Complexities Arising from Ecological Simplifications: Possible Solutions or Further Complications?”
Organizer: Megan Higgs, Montana State University
Chair: Mark Delorey, Centers for Disease Control and Prevention

“Climate Extremes and Paleoclimate”
Organizer/chair: Richard Smith, University of North Carolina

“Geostatistical Modeling for Environmental Data”
Organizer: Brian Reich, Department of Statstics, North Carolina State University
Chair: Michele Guindani, University of New Mexico

“Sampling, Estimation, and Inference for Natural Resource Problems”
Organizer: Ronald E. McRoberts, U.S. Forest Service
Chair: Lance Waller, Emory University

“Distance Sampling: Advances and Applications”
Organizer: Joel Howard Reynolds, U.S. Fish & Wildlife Service
Chair: Daniel Cooley, Colorado State University

“Challenges in Interdisciplinary Spatial and Spatiotemporal Analysis”
Organizer/chair: Alexander Kolovos, SAS Institute Inc.

For more details, please visit the JSM online program online here.

JSM 2011 in Miami Beach, Florida

If you have ideas about topics for invited sessions for the 2011 JSM, to be held July 30–August 4, 2011, in Miami Beach, Florida, please contact ENVR program chair Devin Johnson, Devin.Johnson@noaa.gov

ENVR Workshop

The workshop “Space-Time Statistics to Evaluate the Impacts of Climate on Health and Renewable Energy” will take place October 14–16 at the National Center for Atmospheric Research in Boulder, Colorado. This workshop covers state-of-the-art applications and statistical methods needed to assess the impacts of climate change on health and renewable energy. Sessions on applications include recent advances in climate change research, impacts on human health, and challenges in development and penetration of renewable energy. The spatiotemporal data collected in health and energy applications present some interesting and challenging statistical problems such as modeling of space-time correlation, synthesis of data from multiple sources, and assessment of uncertainties. Technical sessions will cover recent developments in space-time statistical methods, Bayesian methodology, and extreme value analysis. A one-day short course will be offered October 14, and there will be a poster session.

For more information, visit the conference web site or contact Amanda S. Hering (mathematical and computer sciences department, Colorado School of Mines) at ahering@mines.edu or Bo Li (department of statistics, Purdue University) at boli@purdue.edu.