Nancy Reid, University Professor of Statistical Sciences
The Canadian Statistical Sciences Institute (CANSSI) is now in its third year of funding from the Natural Sciences and Engineering Research Council. The scientific flagship program continues to be the suite of collaborative research team (CRT) projects, designed to build sustainable collaborations between statisticians and scientists.
CANSSI provides partial funding for several workshops each year. In October of 2016, the International Conference on Statistical Distributions and their Applications—jointly organized by CANSSI and the Department of Mathematics at Central Michigan University—welcomed 190 participants from 26 countries to Niagara Falls, Canada, including many ASA members.
CANSSI-Supported CRT Projects
- Advancements to State-Space Models for Fisheries Science
- Copula Dependence Modeling: Theory and Applications
- Statistical Modeling of the World: Computer and Physical Models in Earth, Ocean, and Atmospheric Sciences
- Evolved Marked Point Processes with Applications to Wildland Fire Regimes
- Statistical Inference for Complex Surveys with Missing Observations
- Modern Spectrum Methods in Time Series Analysis: Applications in Physical Science, Environmental Science, and Computer Modeling
- Joint Analysis of Neuroimaging Data: High-Dimensional Problems, Spatiotemporal Models, and Computation
- Rare DNA Variants and Human Complex Traits
- Statistical Analysis of Administrative Health Databases
The institute also has a program of post-doctoral fellowships and provides funding for Canadian undergraduate students to attend the undergraduate research workshops at the Statistical and Applied Mathematical Sciences Institute (SAMSI). CANSSI leverages its funding by promoting thematic programs at Canada’s mathematical sciences institutes. There is a program, “Risk in Complex Systems: Models, Applications, Perceptions, and Policy Implications,” being held at the Centre de Recherches Mathématiques in Montréal through December.
The institute continues to work on developing international collaborations. It has close ties to SAMSI and the National Institute of Statistical Sciences, and the director of Norway’s Big Insight—Arnoldo Frigessi—is a member of the board of directors. A goal is for there to be a national effort on data science in Canada with links to various organizations around the world.
CANSSI’s new distinguished visitor program provides for special lectures by leading statistical scientists. The first distinguished visitor was Peter Guttorp, who gave an talk at the University of British Columbia-Okanagan in 2016 titled “Understanding the Local Impact of a Warming Planet.” In November, Donald Rubin gave two lectures on causality and missing data at the Fields Institute as part of the CANSSI-supported Distinguished Lecture Series in Statistics. This year, Richard Cook of the University of Waterloo visited the University of Calgary, Hilary Parker of StitchFix visited McGill University, and Philippe Soulier of the Université Paris-Nanterre visited the University of Ottawa.
CANSSI provides support to Canadian universities so they can participate in the ASA DataFest and other ‘datathons,’ after great success at the University of Toronto in 2016. The institute also launched a small program to enable statistical scientists to ‘kick start’ new collaborations with scientists. It has established a series of six health sciences collaborating centers across the country to strengthen links with provincial and national health agencies and highlight the many biostatistical training efforts with which colleagues around the country are engaged.
For further information about CANSSI, or to discuss how the institute might build linkages with you, contact Nancy Reid.
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