Steve MacEachern, 2012 JSM Program Chair
The technical program for the Joint Statistical Meetings (JSM) 2012 will start on the afternoon of Sunday, July 29, and continue through the morning of Thursday, August 2. In any one of the 13 regular time slots during this period, you have well over 40 sessions to choose from, including invited sessions, organized by the JSM program committee; topic-contributed sessions, organized by participants; and contributed sessions.
In addition, there are 350 invited and contributed poster presentations. The posters, located near the exhibits, will have high visibility. Strolling through the posters is a great way to meet a few people and have a conversation about the work the presenters have done. New this year are the “video posters” that will afford a few of the presenters with a more flexible format for presentation, including dynamic graphical displays. The poster sessions run Monday through Wednesday.
Every year since 2002, JSM has featured late-breaking sessions on recent topics of broad interest. For 2012, I am pleased to include the following session in the program:
The Role of Statisticians in Health Care Reform. The U.S. health care system faces many challenges, including cost, quality, access, equity, and safety. Improving the system is particularly challenging because the “system” is not a system, but rather a complex, shifting amalgam of delivery models and financing mechanisms. What can statisticians contribute to health care reform? John Adams, Marc Elliott, Arlene Ash, and others will tell us on July 30 at 2:00 p.m.
Introductory Overview Lectures (IOLs) are an always-popular offering. They provide an orientation to important and timely statistical topics. This year’s IOLs include the following:
Causal Inference in Statistics: A Gentle Introduction (July 29 at 4:00 p.m.)
Judea Pearl will provide a tutorial on the principles and tools of causal inference, with an emphasis on the role the counterfactual argument plays in establishing causality.
Adaptive Design and Personalized Medicine: The Future is Now (July 30 at 8:30 a.m.)
Don Berry will enlighten us with a description of the role adaptive trials can play in increasing the information gained from a trial and in personalizing treatment for subgroups of patients.
Sparsity (July 31 at 8:30 a.m.)
David Donoho will tell us about the importance of sparsity in the data-rich world in which we live and how modern statistical methods capture the concept to improve analyses. We also will be treated to glimpses into a broad selection of applications.
Statistics and Climate (August 1 at 8:30 a.m.)
Peter Guttorp will provide an introduction to the methods used to assess evidence on global warming. He also will provide an introduction to basic climate models, tell us of their connection to data, and describe how the models relate to decision making.
Additional highlights of the program include the following:
Memorial sessions for Martha Aliaga (July 29 at 4:00 p.m.), Tom Ten Have (July 30 at 2:00 p.m.), David Blackwell (July 31 at 8:30 a.m.), and Paul Meier (August 1 at 2:00 p.m.).
Keynote speakers: The Deming Lecturer is C. F. Jeff Wu (July 31 at 4:00 p.m.), and the COPSS Fisher Lecturer is Rod Little (August 1 at 4:00 p.m.). Also, don’t forget to see the ASA President’s Invited Address (July 30 at 4:00 p.m.) and ASA Presidential Address and Awards (July 31 at 8:00 p.m.).
Invited journal sessions; the Noether Award session; sessions organized by ASA chapters, committees, and interest groups; and several invited sessions organized by outside societies such as the Associación de Estadística Mexicana, the International Association of Survey Statisticians, Mu Sigma Rho, and the International Society of Bayesian Analysis.
There are many other interesting and unusual sessions taking place every day and at all times. The tough part is deciding which sessions to attend and keeping track of them. Visit the JSM online program and use the “My Program” tool to compile your own schedule. Enjoy the meetings and when you meet session organizers and section program chairs, be sure to thank them for their hard work. Also, if you bump into ASA staff members, thank them as well for their hard work in putting the meeting together. Assembling a program with well over 600 sessions and 3,500 speakers has been complicated, but these terrific people have made it all possible.
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