IASS News June 2021

/ August 22, 2021

June 2021 Newsletter: International Association of Survey Statisticians

About the IASS

Links to more information:

The TSS is an open access journal. If you would like to contribute an article to the Ask the Experts, New and Emerging Methods, and Book and Software Review sections please approach the TSS editors or James Chipperfield (email below)

The IASS Executive Committee encourage members to subscribe and contribute articles to the Statistics Journal of the International Association of Official Statistics. Website: https://officialstatistics.com/aims-scope .

Please feel free to send items to publish in future IASS newsletters to James Chipperfield james.chipperfield@abs.gov.au  

List of Candidates for the IASS 2021-2023 Executive Committee

The IASS Nominating Committee has submitted to the IASS Executive the following list of candidates for election:

First NameSurnameRegionPosition
NatalieShlomoEuropePresident
JairoArrowAfricaVice-President
AbdulhakeemEidehAsiaVice-President
ParthaLahiriAmericaVice-President
Maria GiovannaRanalliEuropeVice-President
AndreaD. da SilvaAmericaVice-President
NikosTzavidisEuropeVice-President

Members have four votes for Vice-President (four vacancies and six candidates). Profiles of the candidates standing for election can be found on the ISI website. The voting will close on 13 July, 23:59 CEST.

In Memoriam: Dr Hukum Chandra

No words are powerful enough to express how extremely grieved we are to have learnt about the tragic death of Dr Hukum Chandra on April 26, 2021 in Delhi, India.

Born in Raigarh, Uttar Pradesh on 7 November 1972, Hukum studied at the University of Delhi for a BSc in Physics, Chemistry and Mathematics (1993) and then for an MSc (1995) and MPhil (1998) in Statistics. He arrived at the University of Southampton in 2004 as a Commonwealth scholar to study for a PhD (awarded in 2008) on improved direct estimators for small areas under the supervision of Ray Chambers. This led to much of his subsequent internationally renowned work in small area estimation and in particular, on direct, indirect and mean squared error estimation, the use of transformations in small area models, spatial models and outlier robust small area estimation. Hukum’s passion for collaborative research transcended geographic boundaries. Before returning to India, he spent time at the Office for National Statistics in the UK working on the development and implementation of small area estimation methodologies. He also spent extended research visit periods at the Universities of Wollongong and Pisa.

Upon his return to India, he resumed his role as Senior Scientist at the Indian Agricultural Statistics Research Institute (IASRI), more recently holding the prestigious position of National Fellow and Principal Scientist leading several research projects of national importance. His research interests revolved around small area estimation with focus on multivariate small area estimation and spatial multivariate modelling. This led to his work on statistical methodology for improving agriculture and livestock statistics, energy management in agricultural production and the evaluation of agriculture censuses and surveys. Hukum was instrumental in strengthening research capacity and fostering research collaboration across national level institutions within India.

Hukum was the author of important papers in survey and official statistics and applications of statistics to demography, many co-authored with colleagues across the world in India, the UK, Australia, Italy, the US and Bangladesh to name a few. His papers have been published in leading statistics journals for example, the Journal of the Royal Statistical Society B, the Journal of Official Statistics, Survey Methodology, the Journal of Survey Statistics and Methodology, Spatial Statistics and the Journal of Computational and Graphical Statistics.

Hukum was the recipient of several national and international awards. In 2009, he was awarded the prestigious Cochran-Hansen prize by the International Association of Survey Statisticians. He was Fellow of the National Academy of Agricultural Sciences (India), elected member of the International Statistical Institute, Council Member of the International Association of Survey Statisticians (2015-2019) and was the recipient of the C.R. Rao Young Statisticians National Award. He worked as International Consultant for the United Nations Food and Agriculture Organization in Sri Lanka, Ethiopia and Myanmar on strengthening the Agricultural Statistics systems.

Hukum was a caring friend and colleague to many. He was the very essence of dedication, duty, humility and unconditional friendship. Colleagues around the world have always been impressed not only by his enthusiasm for research but also by his integrity and collegial approach. Those who worked closely with Hukum agree that his smile, generosity and kindness were contagious. He will be remembered by our community as a wonderful person, a dear friend, a researcher and statistician of exceptional technical ability.

Hukum is survived by his wife Shaily, daughter Amishi and son Naitik. 

Nikos Tzavidis (Southampton), Ray Chambers (Wollongong), Vinod Gupta (Delhi), Nicola Salvati (Pisa), James Brown (Sydney)

IASS Webinar Series

The current timetable for IASS webinars is below. Note that CET is Central European Time. More details, including registration, will be advertised in future IASS newsletters. A list of previous IASS webinars is Webinar | International Association of Survey Statisticians (IASS) (isi-iass.org)

and recordings are available Webinars – ISI (isi-web.org).

25th June 2021, 1pm CET:Methodology for a Household Based COVID-19 Testing Survey in Paraíba State – Brazil. More details including abstract are in April IASS news. To register, use the link https://attendee.gotowebinar.com/register/8674275244716129807.

26th August 2021, 1:00 PM (CET): Building a Sample Frame of SMEs Using Patent, Search Engine, and Website Data (Sarah Kelley, Sanjay K. Arora).

September 2021: Targeted or lagged walk sampling for estimation of finite-order graph parameters (Li-Chun Zhang)

Late November or early October 2021: Implementing Adaptive Survey Design with an Application to the Dutch Health Survey (Barry Schouten and Kees van Berkel)

23rd November 2021 12pm (noon) CET: Presentation by the Inter-secretariat Working Group on Household Surveys, United Nations.

December 2021: To be Advised (Ray Chambers)

February 2022: Three-Form Split Questionnaire Design for Panel Surveys (Paul Imbriano)

Conferences

Upcoming IASS-Supported Conferences in 2021

ICES VI – The International Conference on Establishment Statistics will take place 14-17 June 2021 in New Orleans, U.S.

Website: https://ww2.amstat.org/meetings/ices/2020/conferenceinfo.cfm/   

EESW21– European Establishment Statistics Workshop 2021 will take place virtually 14 – 17 September 2021. Website: https://statswiki.unece.org/display/ENBES/EESW21

SUMMER SCHOOL ON SURVEY STATISTICS will be held virtually 3, 10, 17 and 24 September. Website: Summer School on Survey Statistics 2021 – Baltic-Nordic-Ukrainian Network on Survey Statistics – University of Helsinki Confluence

SAE2021- BigSmall – Conference on Small Area Estimation, with the theme “Big Data for Small Areas”, will be held virtually 20-24 September, as a satellite conference to the World Statistics Conference in 2021.

Website: https://sae2020.org/ 

11e Colloque International Francophone sur les Sondages – 11th International Francophone Conference on Surveys will take place 6-8 October 2021 in Brussels, Belgium.  Website: http://sondages2020.sciencesconf.org.

Other Conferences on survey statistics and related areas

Statistics in the Big Data Era will take place 2 – 4 June 2021 in Berkeley, USA. Website: https://simons.berkeley.edu/workshops/statistics-big-data-era

Symposium on Data Science & Statistics is planned to take placeJune 2-5, 2021 in Missouri, USA–. Website: https://ww2.amstat.org/meetings/sdss/2021/ 

ANZSC 2021 – Australian Statistical Society and New Zealand Statistical Association Conference will take place 5 – 9 July 5, Gold Coast, Australia.  Website: https://anzsc2021.com.au/

Conference and Special Issue of Journal of the Royal Statistical Society Series A in memory of Fred Smith and Chris Skinner will be held in Southampton, UK, 7‐9 July 2021. Website: Conference in memory of Fred Smith and Chris Skinner | Southampton Statistical Sciences Research Institute | University of Southampton

63rd ISI World Statistics Congress will take place 11-16 July 2021 and will be virtual.  Website: https://www.isi2021.org/

Joint Statistical Meetings 2021 will take place 7 -12 August in Seattle, USA. Website: https://www.amstat.org/ASA/Meetings/Joint-Statistical-Meetings.aspx

2021 Women in Statistics and Data Science Conference will take place 7-9 October in Pittsburgh, USA. Website: https://ww2.amstat.org/meetings/wsds/2021/

2021 International Methodology Symposium, ”Adopting Data Science in Official Statistics to Meet Society’s Emerging Needs”, will take place virtually from October 15 to November 5. Website:https://www.statcan.gc.ca/eng/conferences/symposium2021/index

The Survey Research Methods Section (SRMS) of the ASA Information on activities of the Survey Research Methods Section of the American Statistical Association (ASA) are available at: https://community.amstat.org/surveyresearchmethodssection/home

Related posts