BIOMETRIC
Vol. 32 No. 4 • October–December 2015
BULLETIN
International Biometric Society Internationale Biometrische Gesellschaft Société International de Biométrie
“Biometry, the active pursuit of biological knowledge by quantitative methods.” - R.A. Fisher, 1948
President’s Corner
Greetings!
How time flies. It
seems only yesterday
that I was writing my
first President’s Corner
column for Biometric
Bulletin, and now this is
my last. Well, it has been
an amazing two years.
When I took over from Clarice it was with an
air of trepidation at the task ahead – would
I be able to live up to the great honour
of being selected to serve as the Society’s
President? Well, I will leave others to decide
on that. All that I can say is that the past two
years have been an amazing experience.
Certainly it has been hard work, and the
President is kept busy by the demands of
running such an international and geographically dispersed Society. But perhaps what I
hadn’t expected was how much fun it was
going to be. For me, this has come through
the interactions with the regions and the
energy and enthusiasm of the volunteers
who make things happen.
introduce policies and initiatives to help them
to fulfill their goals. Indeed we have several
funding streams in place to help with this, and
these are proving very effective. The travel
awards to developing country members support travel not just to IBCs but also to regional meetings and have been made good use of
this year, see some reports in this Bulletin. The
Education Committee has funds to support
travel for short course presenters and speakers to developing countries. Finally, the new
Network and Inter-Regional Activities Funding
Programme will formalise the sort of ad-hoc
support that we have been providing over
the last year, and we hope that this will lead
to many exciting new interactions within the
Society. A recent example of this was the East
Africa Conference in Kampala that is reported
on elsewhere in this Bulletin. This seems to
have been a great meeting with good relevant science and international interaction – I
would like to congratulate the organiser, Dan
Kajunga, and all of those involved in making
it such a success and establishing a basis for
future developments in the area.
Our regional structure is a real strength and
provides local focus for some great meetings
and gives a sense of community. Most significantly the regional groups reach out to students and aspiring members of the biometric
community. I am so impressed by the efforts
that our regions take to encourage and support our younger members – they are indeed
our future and it is wonderful to see them
being made welcome. Personally, I would like
to thank all of the regions that have invited
me to their meetings – it has been great to
have the opportunity to help cement the link
between regional and international aspects
of the Society. I have learned a lot about the
concerns and challenges facing the regions
and hope that the central IBS organisation can
I would like to take this opportunity to thank
a number of people who have helped me in
my period of office. First, I am very grateful
to the support from the Bostrom staff in our
Washington International Biometric Office –
specifically, Dee Ann Walker as our Executive
Officer, Alphonsus Baggett for his work on
Biometric Bulletin, webinars and the IBC planning, and Mik Bauer, who has recently joined
the team and looks after the membership and
other administrative matters. James Carpenter
(Secretary/Treasurer) has been great to work
with and, hopefully, together we have made
a few changes to improve the running of
the Society. Thinking of which, I would also
like to thank the two past Presidents – Kaye
Basford for leading all of the work on the IBS
1
Biometric Bulletin
IN THIS ISSUE
President’s Corner. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1
From the Editor. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 2
Region Key . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 2
Biometrics . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 4
JABES . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 5
Region News . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 5
Australasian Region. . . . . . . . . . . . 5
Belgian Region. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 6
Brazilian Region. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 6
British & Irish Region. . . . . . . . . . . 7
Eastern Mediterranean Region . . . 8
Eastern North American Region. . . 8
French Region. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 9
Indian Region. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 9
Japanese Region . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 9
Nordic-Baltic Region . . . . . . . . . . 10
Spanish Region . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 11
Ugandan Region. . . . . . . . . . . . . . 12
Western North American Region.13
Announcements and News . . . . . . . . . . . . 13
Meetings. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 19
Governance revision and Clarice Démetrio
for overseeing the transition to our new system. I think that it is clear that we now have
a much more streamlined and responsive
system, which I hope will be able to deliver for
the Society. The Executive Board is working
well and provides both oversight and strategic
direction, hence the decision to discontinue
the Strategic Issues Committee as set out in
the recent ballot on the revision to the Bylaws.
Andrea Berghold has also been working hard
to give purpose to the Representative Council,
and I am delighted to report that she has
been elected for a second two-year term in
this role.
I now pass the baton on to Elizabeth
Thompson, who will take over as IBS
President on 1 January 2016. I wish her well
Continued on p. 3
BIOMETRIC BULLETIN
ISSN 8750-0434
Copyright © 2015
International Biometric Society
Biometric Bulletin is published four times a year in
March, June, September and December for US$40 per year by the:
International Biometric Society
1444 I Street, NW, Suite 700 • Washington, DC 20005-6542 USA
Telephone: +1 (202) 712-9049 • Fax: +1 (202) 216-9646
Email: <[email protected]>
Website: http://www.biometricsociety.org
The Biometric Bulletin is available to members of the Society as
part of their annual dues. The views of contributions to this publication should not be ascribed to the International Biometric Society.
Reproduction for commercial purposes is allowed if the source is
acknowledged.
Editor
Dimitris Karlis, Dept. of Statistics, Athens University of Economics &
Business, e-mail: <[email protected]>
Regional Correspondents
Liesbeth de Wreede (ANed), Sally Galbraith (AR), Richard Emsley
(BIR), Hein Putter (Channel Network), Axel Benner (DR), Anil
Barak (EMR), Leslie McClure (ENAR), Mamadou Diedhiou (GEth),
Olayemi Oluwasoga (GNi), Zofia Hanusz (GPol), Cornelia Enachesu
(GRo), Peter M. Njuho (GSAf), Wellington Mushayi (GZim), Babu
L. Verma (IR), Satoshi Hattori (JR), Esa Läärä (NR), Cecilia Bruno
(RArg), Sophie Vanbelle (RBe), Luzia Aparecida Trinca (RBras),
Novie Younger (RCAC), Anabel Forte (REsp), Robert Faivre (RF),
Stefano Salvadori (RItl), Seung-Ho Kang (Rko), Andrea Berghold
(ROeS), Henry G. Mwambi (SUSAN), Megan Othus (WNAR),
Jialiang Li (SING), Dan Kajungu (GUgan), Agnes Ankomah (GGha),
John Mwangi (GKe), Njoku Ama (GBot), Innocent Zebaze (GCam),
Cristian Meza (GCl), Katja Ickstadt (CEN), Alia Sajjad (PKSTAN),
Andrew Zhou (CHINA).
International Biometric Society Executive Board
President: John Hinde, Ireland
President-Elect: Elizabeth Thompson, United States
Secretary-Treasurer: James Carpenter, United Kingdom
Directors: Karen Brandeen-Roche, United States; Frank Bretz,
Switzerland; Krista Fischer, Estonia; Joel Greenhouse, United
States; Freedom Gumedze, South Africa; Tae Rim Lee, Korea;
Sharon-Lise Normand, United States; José Pinheiro, United
States; Paulo J. Ribeiro, Brazil; Alan Welsh, Australia; Ernst Wit,
the Netherlands; Andreas Ziegler, Germany
Editors of Biometrics
Jeanine J. Houwing-Duistermaat, Department of Medical
Statistics and Bioinformatics, Leiden University Medical Centre,
Postzone S-05-P, P.O. Box 9600, 2300 RC Leiden, The Netherlands,
Tel: 31-71-5269707, Email: <[email protected]>
Yi-Hau Chen, Academia Sinica – Institute of Statistical Science,
Taipei 11529, Taiwan R.O.C., Tel: 886-2-27871968, Email:
<[email protected]>
Michael J. Daniels, University of Florida, 207 Briffin-Floyd,
Gainesville, FL 32611, Tel: 352-273-1845. Email: <mdaniels@
stat.ufl.edu>
Marie Davidian (Executive Editor), North Carolina State
University, Department of Statistics, Box 8203, Raleigh, NC
27695-8203, USA, Tel: +1-919-515-1940, Fax: +1-919-5157591, E-mail: <[email protected]>
Editor of Journal of Agricultural, Biological and
Environmental Statistics (JABES)
Montserrat (Montse) Fuentes, North Carolina State University
Department of Statistics, Box 8203, Raleigh, NC, 27695, USA,
Tel:+1-919-515-1921, Fax: +1-919-515-1169, Email: <fuentes@
ncsu.edu>
International Business Office
Executive Director: Dee Ann Walker, CAE
Director of Education: Alphonsus Baggett, MEd
Director of Administration: Mik Bauer
From the Editor
Dear Reader,
A new issue of our Bulletin is out. The Time
passes so quickly... I have been Editor of the
Bulletin for the last three years, and now it is
time to step over and say goodbye.This is my
last piece; it seems to me that it was just yesterday when I was preparing my first piece for
this column. It has been three amazing years
for me, and I know that I will miss it.
These three years I have devoted quite a
lot of time going through old issues of this
Bulletin. There has also been a lot of discussion about the future of the Bulletin whether
to move to an electronic only version or not
and others. What I feel is most important
is that the Bulletin carries over the history
of IBS in such a detailed manner that it is
really impressing. Going back to old issues,
one can see information for all conferences
(regional or worldwide), pictures of many of
us through the years as well as the evolution
of our Society in every aspect – the journals,
the topics, the problems and the programming for the future. I really enjoyed being
part of all this.
This issue has some more goodbye messages. John Hinde steps over as President
of IBS, and I would like to thank him as well
as the previous President, Clarice Demetrio,
for their support, help and kindness. Being
my last piece, I would like to thank all the
Regional Correspondents who’ve contributed to the Bulletin these past three years.
You have helped me a lot with your material, ideas and discussions. And finally, I’d
also like to thank Alphonsus Baggett for his
help behind the scenes at the International
Biometric Office on the Biometric Bulletin.
It is also time to give a warm welcome to
the next Editor, Dr. Havi Murad. I know her
very well; we both belong to the Eastern
Mediterranean Region (EMR) of IBS, and
we have collaborated exceptionally well
over the years. It is my pleasure to pass this
role over to her. She has previously been
President of EMR, and I know that she has
fresh ideas for this Bulletin.
As in every issue, many new meetings have
come to our attention and are listed in the
Meetings section. In particular preparations
for the IBC in Victoria, Canada, 10-15 July
– see the conference website for more
details: www.biometricconference.org. The
deadline for contributed talks and posters,
6 January 2016, is nearing. As always, the
Bulletin welcomes announcements, news,
Biometric Bulletin
2
and comments from the designated Regional
Correspondents as well as other readers.
Thank you very much for these last three
years.
Warmest Regards,
Dimitris Karlis
Region Key
Regions
RArg - Argentinean Region
AR - Australasian Region
ROeS - Austro-Swiss Region
RBe - Belgian Region
RBras - Brazilian Region
BIR - British and Irish Region
RCAC - Central American-Caribbean Region
ECU - Ecuadorian Region
EMR - Eastern Mediterranean Region
ENAR - Eastern North American Region
RF - French Region
DR - German Region
IR - Indian Region
RItl - Italian Region
JR - Japanese Region
RKo - Korean Region
ANed - the Netherlands Region
NR - Nordic-Baltic Region
SING - Singapore
REsp - Spanish Region
WNAR - Western North American Region
GBot - Botswana
GCI - Chile
CHINA - China
GEth - Ethiopia
GGha - Ghana
GKe - Kenya
GNi - Nigeria
PKSTAN - Pakistan
GPol - Poland
GRo - Romania
GSAf - South Africa
GUgan - Uganda
GZim - Zimbabwe
Networks
CEN - Central European Network
CN - Channel Network
SUSAN - Sub-Saharan Network
Appreciation Expressed to Members
of the Representative Council
The Society is indebted to the retiring members of the
Representative Council (RC) who have given selflessly of their
time in service to IBS. Nineteen (19) of our long-time members
completed terms of service this year; moreover, many of these
members also served on the Council that existed prior to the
reorganization of the IBS governance structure.
Many of the retiring RC members have served as Committee
Chairs, chaired the Local Organizing Committee (LOC) and
International Program Committee (IPC) and participated in
special task groups of the Society.
Appreciation is expressed to the following members of the
Representative Council:
David Barclay Baird
Australasia
Bruno Mario Cesana
Italy
Bernard Chasekwa
Zimbabwe
David Conesa
Spain
Dalton de Andrade
Brazil
Argentina
Julio A. Di Rienzo
Ho Kim
Korea
Lothar Kreienbrock
Germany
Nordic-Baltic
Esa Läärä
Raúl MacchiavelliCentral America-Caribbean
Christine McLarenWestern North America
Chile
Cristian Meza
Sreekumaran Nair
India
Benjamin ReiserEastern Mediterranean
France
Stephane Robin
Alia Sajjad
Pakistan
Girma Taye
Ethiopia
Richardus Vonk
Germany
British & Irish
Sue Welham
Committee Thank You
We’d like to thank the following members who have completed
their term of service on IBS Standing Committees. All of their
outstanding work has contributed greatly to the overall success
of the Society. Thank you!
Awards Fund
Renato Martins Assunção
P. Venkatesan
Committee on
Communications
Peter Colman
Julio Di Rienzo
Alex Sánchez Pla
Mary Putt
Sue Welham
Khangelani Zuma
Conference Advisory
David Conesa
Hans-Peter Piepho
Toshiro Tango
Editorial Advisory
Tim Friede
Jeanine HouwingDuistermaat
Dimitris Karlis
Frank Bruce Lauckner
Thomas A. Louis
Byron Morgan
Jeremy M.G. Taylor
Stijn Vansteelandt
Ernst Wit
Education
Scarlett Bellamy
Bruno Mario Cesana
Urania Dafni
Jhonny Demey
Zofia Hanusz
Tae Rim Lee
Vincent Oeba
Budget & Finance
Jose Luis González Andújar
Ken Koehler
Geert Molenberghs
Laura Pla
Stergios Tzortzios
Strategic Initiatives
David Baird
Hans Ulrich Burger
Daniel Commenges
Legesse Debusho
Jinheum Kim
Annette Kopp-Schneider
Cristian Meza
Guilherme Rosa
Toshiro Tango
Weng Kee Wong
President’s Corner
Continued from p. 1
in this role and look forward to supporting her over the coming
year as Vice-president. I know that she will serve the Society with
great dedication, and I hope that she has as much fun as I have had.
Elizabeth has already been working hard on appointing members and
chairs to the various Standing Committees, replacing those whose
term of office is coming to an end. A full list of those who are stepping
down is given elsewhere in this Bulletin, but I would like to express
my personal thanks to all who have worked with me over the last
two years and especially the committee chairs: Renato Assunção
(Awards Fund), Sue Welham (Communcations), Andrew Zhou
(Conference Advisory), Esa Läärä (Editorial), Pascale Tubert-Bitter
(Education), Marinus Eijkemans (Finance), and David Baird (Strategic
Issues). As I remarked above, the intention is to disband the Strategic
Issues Committee, so I would like to thank David and his committee
members for their service to the Society and for helpful discussions
on how, under the new governance structure, its role is best taken
over by the Executive Board. I would also like to thank our retiring
Editors for their service to the Society: Jeanine Houwing-Duistermaat
(ANed) is finishing her three-year term with Biometrics, Montserrat
Fuentes (ENAR) steps down after five years as Editor of JABES,
Taesung Park (RKo) finishes as Biometrics Book Review Editor, and
Dimitris Karlis (EMR) completes his term as Biometric Bulletin Editor.
3
As we come to the end of one year, it is time to look forward to the
future, and for 2016 that means the IBC in Victoria, Canada, 10-15
July – see the website biometricconference.org. We already have a
great programme of invited sessions and short courses in place and
the deadline for contributed talks and posters, 6 January 2016, is fast
approaching, so do get to work on that abstract.
It is also the time of year for membership renewal and with again no
increase in our international dues (USD 60; USD 14 for developing
country members) we are still the best-value statistical society. Your
membership makes you part of our great international biometric
community and helps support the activities and developments that
we hope will ensure the future of biometry and a flourishing Society.
So please be prompt with your renewal, and also spread the word
to your colleagues, students and friends.
Best wishes for the Holiday Season and a Happy New Year. See you
in Victoria!!
John Hinde
[email protected]
Biometric Bulletin
Biometrics
March 2016 Issue Highlights
The March issue includes diverse articles from a range of applications and methodological areas. The Biometric Methodology section
features “Comparing treatment policies with assistance from the
structural nested mean model,” by Xi Lu, Kevin G. Lynch, David W.
Oslin, and Susan Murphy; “Detection of gene-gene interactions using
multistage sparse and low-rank regression,” by Hung Hung, Yu-Ting
Lin, Penweng Chen, Chen-Chien Wang, Su-Yun Huang, and Jung-Ying
Tzeng; “A general class of recapture models based on the conditional
capture probabilities,” by Alessio Farcomeni; “Rediscovery of GoodTuring estimators via Bayesian nonparametrics,” by Stefano Favaro,
Bernardo Nipoti, and Yee Whye Teh; and “Mixed effects models for
recurrent events data with partially observed time-varying covariates: ecological momentary assessment of smoking,” by Stephen L.
Rathbun and Saul Shiffman.
In Biometric Practice, articles include “A Bayesian joint model of
menstrual cycle length and fecundity,” by Kirsten J. Lum, Rajeshwari
Sundaram, Germaine M. Buck Louis, and Thomas A. Louis; “A twostep semiparametric method to accommodate sampling weights
in multiple imputation,” by Hanzhi Zhou, Michael R. Elliott, and
Trviellore E. Raghunathan; “Movement prediction using accelerometers in a human population,” by Luo Xiao, Bing He, Annemarie
Koster, Paolo Caserotti, Brittney Lange-Maia, Nancy W. Glynn,Tamara
B. Harris, and Ciprian M. Crainiceanu; “Test for rare variants by environment interactions in sequencing association studies,” by Xinyi Lin,
Seunggeun Lee, Michael C. Wu, Chaolong Wang, Han Chen, Zilin Li,
and Xihong Lin; and “The cross-cut statistic and its sensitivity to bias
in observational studies with ordered doses of treatment,” by Paul
R. Rosenbaum.
As always, lists of papers to appear can be found at the Biometrics
website. Papers to appear in future issues may also be found under
the “Early View” link at the Wiley-Blackwell website, which may
be accessed by IBS members by visiting http://www.biometricsociety.org/, selecting “Biometrics” from the drop-down menu at the
“Publications” link at the top of the page, and accessing the “Click
here” link.
Move to ScholarOne Manuscripts Complete
As we reported in previous columns, our publishing agreement with
Wiley-Blackwell includes a provision that the publisher will provide
an Electronic Editorial Office (EEO) system such as ScholarOne
Manuscripts (SO) to manage manuscript submission and review
functions at no charge to the IBS. Biometrics has been one of the
few statistics journals still not using an EEO, mainly as a consequence
of preferences expressed by many authors and members of our
Editorial Board and of the more friendly web-based system for the
Co-editors (CEs) developed by our Editorial Manager, Ann Hanhart.
As the publisher has moved toward consolidating aspects of the
journal production process within SO, it became evident that
moving to that system would greatly simplify the flow of accepted
manuscripts to the publisher. Moreover, most authors, referees, and
Associate Editors (AEs) are now well-acquainted with SO and
similar systems. The IBS Executive Board approved moving the editorial process to SO, and Ann and the Executive Editor (EE), Marie
Davidian, worked with the publisher over the summer of 2015 to
customize the system to the journal workflow and to minimize burden on authors, referees, AEs, and CEs.
As of 1 October 2015, all new manuscript submissions to Biometrics
are required to be made through the journal’s SO site at https://
mc.manuscriptcentral.com/biom. Authors and referees for these
papers now use the SO portal to submit papers and associated
materials, upload invited revisions, retrieve papers and associated
materials for review, and submit referee reports. Authors can check
on the status of their submitted manuscripts by logging into the
system.
So far, the transition has proceeded smoothly, and AEs, CEs, the EE,
and Ann (who serves as the SO site Administrator) have reported
at most minor problems. As we gain experience with the system, we
will be tweaking some features, such as schedules for reminders to
be sent to referees.
All submissions made prior to 1 October (new and revised) will
continue under the previous system and will be by email to [email protected]. The editorial process for papers submitted before
1 October will be completed by email and will not involve the SO
system. Authors should continue to check the previous manuscript
status system, as noted in correspondence from our Editorial Office,
for updates on their submissions. This system will be disabled in April
2016 as the editorial processes for these papers conclude.
If you encounter challenges or have questions about using the
SO system as an author or referee, please contact the Biometrics
Editorial Office at [email protected].
Biometrics Showcase Session
A Biometrics Showcase Session will be held at the International
Biometric Conference (IBC) in Victoria, Canada, 10 - 15 July 2016. As
is convention, the session will feature the winners of the Best Paper
Published in Biometrics by an IBS Member Awards for 2014 and 2015.
A selection committee of current and former Co-editors will nominate the recipients of these awards in early 2016.
Biometric Bulletin
4
Journal of Agricultural, Biological,
and Environmental Statistics
(JABES)
The Journal of Agricultural, Biological, and Environmental Statistics
(JABES) has had a very exciting year, and it will be undergoing some
transitions as this year draws to a close. Earlier this year, JABES
hosted an invited session at ENAR, a showcase session at JSM 2015
in Seattle, and it will be releasing a special issue in December and
another one in March. Also, at the end of this year I will step down as
the Editor-in-chief after having completed two terms in this position.
The Journal will be in great hands, having Steve Buckland, a statistics
professor from the University of St. Andrews, taking over as Editor.
This December, we will release a special issue of JABES co-edited
by Dan Nettleton and Rob Templeman. This issue is titled “Statistical
Genomics and Transcriptomics in Agriculture” and features eight
great articles discussing cutting-edge techniques in agricultural statistics. A lot of hard work has gone in to prepare this special issue,
and we are very confident it will be very successful. The articles
included are authored by: O. Montesinos-Lopez, A. MontesinosLopez, P. Perez-Rodriguez, K. Eskridge, X. He, P. Juliana, P. Singh, and
J. Crossa’s “Genomic Prediction Models for Count Data,” C. Chen
and R. Tempelman’s “An Integrated Approach to Empirical Bayesian
Whole Genome Prediction Modeling”, R. Templeman’s “Statistical and
Computational Challenges in Whole Genome Prediction and GenomeWide Association Analyses for Plant and Animal Breeding”, Y. Nguyen,
D. Nettleton, H. Liu, and C. Tuggle’s “Detecting Differentially Expressed
Genes with RNA-seq Data Using Backward Selection to Account for the
Effects of Relevant Covariates”, F. Liu, C. Wang, and P. Liu’s “A SemiParametric Bayesian Approach for Differential Expression Analysis of
RNA-seq Data”, S. Perez-Elizalde, J. Cuevas, P. Perez-Rodriguez, and J.
Crossa’s “Selection of the Bandwidth Parameter in a Bayesian Kernel
Regression Model for Genomic-Enabled Prediction”, J. Niemi, E. Mittman,
W. Landau, and D. Nettleton’s “Empirical Bayes Analysis of RNA-seq
Data for Detection of Gene Expression Heterosis”, and A. Lithio’s and
D. Nettleton’s “Hierarchical Modeling and Differential Expression
Analysis for RNA-seq Experiments with Inbred and Hybrid Genotypes.”
I would like to thank everybody for giving me the opportunity to
have five absolutely wonderful years of service to JABES as Editor. I
have enjoyed watching the Journal grow, and I look forward to seeing
how it continues to evolve. It has been a pleasure working with a
superb group of Associate Editors and the outstanding staff from
Springer and IBS. It is because of all of you that this became such an
incredible experience. I will very much miss working with all of you.
Thank you again for your hard work, dedication, and enthusiasm for
JABES, and I wish you all the best moving forward.
Region News
Australasian Region (AR)
IBS-AR Student Scholarships
On behalf of the Australasian Region of the International Biometric
To help attract enthusiastic and talented students to career paths in
biometrics, the Australasian Region offers scholarships for suitably
qualified students who intend to undertake a fourth or honours
year of study, or a coursework Masters, in statistics, mathematical
statistics, biostatistics, bioinformatics or biometrics. We are delighted
to announce the winners of this year’s highly contested award: Stuart
Lee (University of Melbourne), Kevin Wang (University of Sydney)
and Oliver Stevenson (University of Auckland). Congratulations!
Stuart Lee
I am currently an MSc student in bioinformatics at the University of Melbourne doing
research at the Walter and Eliza Hall
Institute with Associate Professor Melanie
Bahlo. We are investigating methods for
inferring natural selection from sequencing
data in malaria parasites. The reliability of
these methods is important for understanding genes that may be conferring drug
resistance to malaria treatment. Next year
I am looking forward to continuing my work
with Dr. Bahlo as a research assistant.
Kevin Wang
I am doing an applied statistics Honours
project in fMRI data, investigating the
effects of different measures of associations
on connectivities of brain regions; in particular, measures that can detect strong local
associations. Some areas I’m working on
include correlation analysis, network visualisations and statistical inference in general.
In the past, I also worked on model selection and averaging in a summer project in
the Australian National University. In the
coming summer, I am hoping to work with the University of Sydney’s
bioinformatics group on genomic data.
Oliver Stevenson
Montse Fuentes
Editor in Chief
5
Biometric Bulletin
I am currently studying at the University of
Auckland, completing a Bachelor of Science
(Honours) in statistics. My current research
has focused on graphical applications for
large-scale conservation projects in New
Zealand. These applications give conservation volunteers the ability to explore and
view their data in ways that were previously unavailable to them. In 2016 I intend to
complete a Master’s of Science in statistics
at the University of Auckland.
Royal Society of New Zealand
Celebrates Thomas Lumley
Thomas Lumley, fellow of
the Royal Society of
New Zealand.
Congratulations to Professor Thomas
Lumley (University of Auckland), recently elected Fellow of the Royal Society of
New Zealand. The award recognizes
that Thomas has made outstanding contributions both to statistical theory and
to statistical practice. He has developed
new statistical methodology, most notably network meta-analysis and
case-crossover designs, and developed
specialist software packages.
From Otago to Canterbury
David Fletcher and Sonya Hamel.
David Fletcher will leave the
Mathematics and Statistics
Department at the University of
Otago in April 2016 to take up as
Chair in Statistics at the University
of Kent. He will be leading the
Statistical Ecology Group (SE@K),
replacing Byron Morgan, who has
officially retired. David is delighted at the opportunity to move
to Kent, both professionally and
personally.
Biometrics on the Western
Frontier of the IBS Australasian
Region
meeting. This year’s speaker was Dr. Simon Diffey, a Senior Research
Fellow at the Centre for Crop and Disease Management (CCDM).
Simon’s research is funded by the Grains Research & Development
Corporation (GRDC) through the Statistics for the Australian
Grain Industry (SAGI) project, a collaboration of 20 Statisticians
employed in six organisations across Australia which provides innovative statistical research, support and software for the Australian
grains industry. Simon spoke on the topic “Moving towards a hybrid
REML Expectation Maximisation (EM) and Average Information
(AI) algorithm”.
Vanessa Cave
Belgian Region (RBe)
Annual Meeting of the Belgian Statistical Society
The 23rd Annual Meeting of the Belgian Statistical Society was held
in Antwerpen, during 14 – 16 October 2015. The Quetelet Society
(Belgian Branch of the International Biometric Society) was invited to
organize two sessions. The first one intended to promote the work
of young researchers. To that end, Koen Van den Berge (University
of Gent), Ewoud De Troyer (University of Hasselt) and Marijke Van
Moerbeke (University of Hasselt) who were rewarded in 2015 with
a Quetelet Prize for their Master thesis were invited to present their
work with great success. The Quetelet Prize is a possibility given to
Institutional Members of the Quetelet Society to award one or
more students for the excellence of their Master (PhD) thesis in
Statistics. Koen Van den Berge presented his work on “Quantifying
expression divergence of duplicated genes with microarrays”. Ewoud
De Troyer presented the R package “BiclustGUI, a Graphical User
Interface for bicluster analysis of high dimensional data Biclustering”
and Marijke Van Moerbeke “An intergrate analysis of Mulit-Source
Data obtained in the early stages of drug development”. The second
session focused on adaptive study designs which are receiving lately
more and more attention.
The invited speaker, Michael Rosenblum, from John Hopkins
University, captivated the auditorium with a very clear talk on optimal tests of treatment effects of the overall population and two subpopulations in randomized trials, using sparse linear programming.
On Friday afternoon, the Quetelet Society, jointly with the Belgian
Statistical Society, co-hosted a workshop on adaptive designs, also
presented by Michael Rosenblum and attended by approximately
15 participants.
Sophie Vanbelle
Brazilian Region (RBras)
The 61st Annual Meeting of
the Brazilian Region (RBras
2016) will be held in
Salvador, Brazil, from 23 – 25
May 2016. The purpose of
the meeting is to bring
together researchers who
use statistical methods for
decision making, to share
and discuss ways to improve
the access to knowledge,
and to promote interdisci-
Simon Diffey, speaker at the joint Western Australia SSAI and IBS-AR
Meeting.
In August the Western Australian branch of the Statistical Society
of Australia (SSAI) and local members of the Australasian Region
of the International Biometric Society (IBS-AR) held their third joint
Biometric Bulletin
6
plinary collaborations. The theme of the 61st RBras is “Biometry and
Biostatistics in the Era of Big Data.”
The Scientific Program Committee is now welcoming proposals for
Invited Paper Sessions (IPS), short courses and roundtables. Please
submit formal proposals before 31 January 2016 by emailing the
Chair of the Local Organizing Committee (paulocanas@gmail.
com) or by completing the online form at http://rbras2016.ufba.br/
call-for-invited-sessions/.
Each IPS (90 minutes long) can include three speakers or three
speakers and a discussant or two speakers and a discussant. For your
proposal please include title, brief description of the topic, and a list
of speakers and discussant who have agreed to be part of the session. For short courses (two to four hours long) please include title,
instructor(s), summary description and aims. For roundtables (60 to
90 minutes long) please include title, aims and a list of discussants
who have agreed to take part in the roundtable.
year anniversary of the landmark meta-analysis paper “Meta-analysis
in clinical trials” by Rebecca DerSimonian and Nan Laird (1986,
Controlled Clinical Trials 7, 177-188). To celebrate this very influential
paper, the IBS-BIR is organising the event 30 Years of DerSimonian and
Laird’s Methodology – A Celebration! Some details are available on the
society website at http://bir.biometricsociety.org/events/30year, and
further details and information concerning registration will appear
here in due course.
We have an extremely distinguished set of four speakers for the day.
Julian Higgins (University of Bristol) will present a celebration of the
1986 paper, Kerry Dwan (University of Liverpool) will discuss the
applied implications of the paper, Richard Riley (University of Keele)
will discuss subsequent methodological development and Theo
Stijnen (LUMC, Netherlands) will discuss more modern statistical
methods. The day will be concluded with a talk from a specially invited guest discussant – more details to follow soon.
We anticipate that this will be a very special day for those involved
in meta-analysis, and although we plan to cater for more than 150
people, places will be limited, so we encourage early registration in
order to avoid disappointment.
Food Security Meeting: The Role of Biological
Modelling
The final Regional meeting of 2015 was held at the Rothamsted
Research Conference Centre on 8 October, following the AGM.
There were three excellent talks based around the broad theme of
food security.
View of Praia do Porto da Barra, Salvador.
General questions about the scientific program should be directed to the Chairs, John Hinde ([email protected]) or Paulo
Canas Rodrigues ([email protected]). For questions about local
arrangements do not hesitate to contact [email protected] or
[email protected]. Further information and important dates
can be found here: www.RBras2016.org.
Follow us on Twitter (https://twitter.com/rbras2016) and on
Facebook (https://www.facebook.com/groups/1638730143069415)
for up-to-date developments. We look forward to see you in
Salvador in May 2016!
Luzia Trinca
British and Irish Region (BIR)
30 Years of DerSimonian and Laird’s Methodology – A
Celebration! 13 April 2016
On Wednesday, 13 April 2016, the society is organising a very special
event at University College London. The year 2016 will mark the 30
7
The first talk was given by Jim Smith (University of Warwick) on
“Decision Support for Addressing Food Poverty in the UK: from
Production to Consumption”. Jim explained how his team had been
awarded an EPSRC contract to develop a fully formal Bayesian
framework for integrating decision support tools in general and
for food security in particular. There are numerous difficulties in
setting up such a framework, such as: the need for decision support
to be dynamic, in order to be able to respond to unfolding crises;
and crucially, the need to integrate a wide range of different data
sources, much of it derived from expert elicitation. The second talk
was presented by Nicole Augustin (University of Bath) on “Spacetime modelling of blue ling for fisheries stock management”. Nicole
discussed the importance of fish stock management, as fish protein
represents a substantial proportion of global food intake. Fish stocks
can be estimated from fishery catch data, but the information on
abundance is conflated with survey effort and fish movement. Nicole
used a Generalized Additive Mixed Model, with a spatio-temporal
interaction term defined by a tensor product term combining a soap
film smooth over space with a penalized regression spline over time.
Finally, Nik Cunniffe (University of Cambridge) presented work
on the “Mathematical models for the spread and control of plant
pathogens”. The problem of plant pathogens is also important to
global food security, as they can dramatically reduce crop yields. Nik
showed how spatial individual-based models can be fitted to data on
the spread of two pathogens, citrus canker and citrus greening. Nik
went on to show how the fitted models could be used to optimise
cultural disease controls.
Biometric Bulletin
Michael Sweeting
Eastern Mediterranean Region
(EMR)
Professor Yoav Benjamini Elected as Member of Israel
Academy of Sciences & Humanities
We would like to congratulate our colleague and member of the
EMR-IBS, Professor Yoav Benjamini, on his election as a member of
the Israel Academy of Sciences and Humanities. This is a recognition
given only to Israel’s most distinguished scientists and scholars.
Israeli Biostatistics Forum to Honor the Memory of
Professor Marvin Zelen
The Israeli Biostatistics Forum held its annual meeting on November
19, 2015. The meeting honored the memory of Professor Marvin
Zelen of Harvard University who passed away November 2014.
The day opened with a review of Marvin’s vast contributions to
Statistical Science and the conduct of Clinical Trials, and continued
with four one-hour lectures in areas in which Marvin had an interest (Stochastic Process, Biased Sampling, Experimental Design and
Survival Analysis). It concluded with a panel discussion of scientific
and statistical leadership.
Next EMR conference
The 9th EMR-IBS Conference will be held in Thessaloniki, Greece in
May 2017. Details will follow in the next Bulletin.
Giota Touloumi
Eastern North American Region
(ENAR)
2016 ENAR Spring Meeting, 6-9 March, Austin, TX,
USA
The 2016 Spring Meeting of the IBS Eastern North American Region,
in conjunction with the Institute of Mathematical Statistics (IMS) and
sections of the American Statistical Association (ASA), will be held
6-9 March at the JW Marriott Austin. Situated in the heart of downtown Austin, this luxury hotel is just a 15-minute drive from Austin
International Airport, and is within walking distance of outstanding
restaurants and bars, 6th Street, the Capitol and local attractions.
Austin is the live music capital of the world and has an active and
thriving nightlife.
The scientific program will once again be outstanding, with a wide
variety of topics including data science (big data), genomics, precision
medicine, clinical trials, neuroimaging, biomarkers, health policy, electronic health records, ecology, and epidemiology.
The Presidential Invited Speaker will be Dr. Xihong Lin, the Henry
Pickering Walcott Professor of Biostatistics and Chair of the Department
of Biostatistics at Harvard University.The title of her talk is “Biostatistics,
Biomedical Informatics, and Health Data Science: Research and Training.”
Dr. Lin has been a role model to many and has made significant contributions to the development and applications of statistical methods for
complex data in areas such as observational studies and genetic and
genomic data. She received the 2002 Mortimer Spiegelman Award from
the American Public Health Association and the 2006 COPSS Award. Dr.
Lin is an elected fellow of the ASA, IMS and ISI.
We are also very pleased that Dr. Peter J. Diggle, Distinguished
University Professor of Statistics in the Faculty of Health and Medicine
at Lancaster University, will be presenting the IMS Medallion Lecture.
Dr. Diggle also holds adjunct appointments at Johns Hopkins, Yale
and Columbia Universities, and is the current President of the Royal
Statistical Society (2014-16). Professor Diggle’s research involves
the development of statistical methods for longitudinal and spatial
data, motivated by applications spanning numerous fields. He has
published several books and manuscripts in these fields and has been
recognized repeatedly for his outstanding contributions to statistics.
In 2001, Dr. Diggle was elected as a Fellow of the ASA. Dr. Diggle’s
talk is entitled: “Model-based Geostatistics for Prevalence Mapping in
Low-resource Settings.”
A complete listing of the many invited sessions to be presented at
the meeting can be found at www.enar.org. In addition, the program
will feature both full and half-day short courses: “Missing Data in
Regression Models” (Joe Ibrahim); “Statistical Analysis of Network
Data” (Eric Kolaczyk); “Introduction to Statistical Machine Learning”
(Yufeng Liu, Genevera Allen); “Statistical Genetic and Genomic
Analysis of Complex Traits with GWAS and Next Generation
Sequencing Data” (Hongyu Zhao, Fei Zou); “Bayesian Evidence
Synthesis in Medicine” (Heinz Schmidli, David Ohlssen); “Practical
Solutions for Simple Problems with Bad Consequences in Clinical
Trials” (Peter Thall); “Causal Inference Using Observational Data in
Comparative Effectiveness” (Laura Hatfield, Sherri Rose).
In addition to the short courses, several tutorials will once again be
offered, running concurrently with the scientific sessions. The topics
range from clinical trial design to using R for quantile regression for
survival analysis, and many more! Additionally, roundtables will allow
an opportunity to interact with experts and peers in a less formal
setting. Many of the roundtables will focus on developing statisticians
as leaders and are an opportunity to interact with some of the outstanding ENAR leaders!
Once again, the Fostering Diversity in Biostatistics workshop will take
place on Sunday afternoon, and Sunday evening will feature the new
member reception, opening mixer and poster session, during which
the ENAR Regional Advisory Board poster competition will be held.
The Council for Emerging and New Statisticians will hold a student
mixer on Monday night, and the Career Placement Center will take
place throughout the meeting to offer assistance to those seeking
employment.
The Tuesday night social event will include a unique combination of
dining, entertainment and networking, beginning with dinner at the
Iron Cactus, one of Austin’s best known Mexican restaurants. After
dinner, we will walk a couple of blocks to Esther’s Follies, “Texas’
premiere magic and musical comedy troupe since 1977.” The show
combines elements of political and social satire (imagine Second City,
Texas style!), stage magic, musical parody and old-style burlesque.
ENAR is grateful for the outstanding service of the 2016 Program
Committee Chair and Associate Chair Wei Sun (University of North
Carolina-Chapel Hill), and Laura Hatfield (Harvard University); IMS
Program Chair Babak Shahbab (University of California, Irvine); local
arrangements Chair Mike Daniels (University of Texas at Austin), and
all of the committee members.
2016 JSM 30 July-4 August, Chicago, IL, USA
The Joint Statistical Meetings will be held in Chicago, Illinois in 2016,
and ENAR is fortunate to have Bin Nan as our representative to the
Program Committee. If you have ideas for the meeting, feel free to
contact Bin: [email protected].
Biometric Bulletin
8
2017 ENAR Spring Meeting, 12-15 March, Washington,
DC, USA
Stay tuned for information about the 2017 ENAR Spring Meeting in
Washington, DC!
ENAR Webinar Series!
Details about upcoming ENAR webinars can be found at http://
www.enar.org/education/index.cfm. Please contact Lynn Eberly
([email protected]) if you have suggestions for webinar topics.
Leslie McClure
French Region (RF)
A new Council for the French Region was elected in June 2015. It
includes Daniel Commenges (ISPED Bordeaux) - President, Pascal
Wild (INRS Nancy) - Treasurer, Pascale Tubert-Bitter (laboratoire
B2PHI, Inserm - Université Paris Saclay) - Secretary (also member of the IBS Council), David Causeur (Agrocampus, Rennes),
Robert Faivre (INRA, Toulouse), Mounia Hocine (CNAM, Paris) and
Hélène Jacqmin-Gadda (ISPED, Bordeaux) (as a member of the IBS
Council). The French Region coincides with the Société Française de
Biométrie (SFB): see the website http://www.sfb.asso.fr.
In 2016, the French Region will organize a session within the
Conference of the French Statistical Society which will be held in
Montpellier (May 30 – June 3); website http://jds2016.sfds.asso.fr/.
The two invited speakers will be Per Kragh Andersen (Copenhagen)
and Stéphane Robin (INRA, Paris), and their talk will follow the talk
of Hein Putter, invited by the French Statistical Society.
The French Region is member of the Channel Network, which
also includes the British and Irish, the Belgium and the Netherlands
Regions. The last Channel Network Conference was held in
Nijmegen (the Netherlands) in April 2015; the next one is to be
held in Belgium in 2017.
Manipal University, Manipal:Venue for 2016 IBS (IR) Meeting.
health communication, systematic review and meta-anal¬ysis, health
economics, bio-informatics, big data analysis, health sciences research,
biometrics and health communi¬cations. There will be two oral
sessions exclusively for postgraduate students and research scholars
in biostatistics. Young researchers and students are encouraged to
share the platform with eminent speakers.
For more details about the conference visit: www.phesa.manipal.edu/
documents/IBS%20brouchure%20final.pdf.
Anil C Mathew
Japanese Region (JR)
The 2015 Japanese Joint Statistical Meeting
The Biometric Society of Japan is one of the six sponsoring organizations of the meeting, and the 2015 Japanese Joint Statistical Meeting
was held on 6-9 September at Tsushima Campus of Okayama
University in Okayama, Japan.
13th Biennial Conference of IBS Indian Region,
January 11 – 12, 2016, Manipal, Karnataka, India
The 13th Biennial Conference of International Biometric Society
Indian Region (IBS-IR) is going to be held from January 11 – 12, 2016
at Manipal University, Manipal, Karnataka, India. The Department of
Statistics, Manipal University, Manipal is organizing this conference.
This will be a joint conference of the IBS-IR & Public Health Evidence
South Asia (PHESA).
The Biometric Society of Japan organized the Biometric Symposium
entitled “How to promote sound medical researches?” This session
is motivated by several recent inappropriate handlings of data, which
have led a serious social issue in Japan. The topics in the symposium
cover current issues in organization to support medical researches
by statisticians, reporting issues in medical researches and certificates
of biostatisticians working in clinical trials. The Society is also organizing two more invited sessions. One is the lecture by winner of the
Young Biostatistician Award conferred by the Society. Dr. Nakazuru
gave his lecture on multiplicity issues in clinical trials due to his recent
publication “A new procedure of one-sided test in clinical trials with
multiple endpoints” in the Japanese Journal of Biometrics. The other
session provides an opportunity for continual education on the
statement and the guideline on research ethics, which the Society
has released.
The theme of the conference is “Converging to Better Health with
Statistical Methods”. The conference aims at providing a common
platform for statisticians, biostatisticians, biometricians, epidemiologists and public health researchers to share their research works.
It also provides an opportunity for new collaborations within the
Region. There will be 12 invited talks, 6contributed sessions and two
poster presentation sessions during the conference on the following
topics: ep-idemiology, biostatistics, social sciences and public health,
EAR-BC2015 and the Biometric Seminar
The EAR-BC was initiated in Tokyo in 2007, and the second to
fourth EAR-BCs were held in Manipal (India), Seoul (Korea) and
Beijing (China). On behalf of the Organizing and Scientific Program
Committees, it is a great pleasure to invite you to attend the Fifth
Regional Conference of East Asia Regions of the International Biometric
Society (EAR-BC2015) from December 20 to 22 in Fukuoka. Fukuoka
is the largest city in Kyushu Island and located in the southwest part
More information can be found on our website: www.sfb.asso.fr.
Robert Faivre
Indian Region (IR)
9
Biometric Bulletin
in Japan. Kyushu Island is close to East Asia countries. EAR-BC2015
will provide good opportunities for participants from East Asia
Regions working in academic institutions, government agencies,
and industry to make good friendships and exchange ideas on the
latest advances in biometry, biostatistics and bioinformatics. Prof.
Hinde, President of the IBS, will give us his plenary lecture entitled
“Translational Statistics”. Prof. Truong (University of North Carolina)
also gives us a plenary lecture. More than 70 scientific presentations
have been registered. Please visit the conference website for more
details: http://biometrics.gr.jp/earbc2015/index.html.
We invite you to attend the conference and are looking forward to
seeing you in Fukuoka!
the ongoing research there. The conference dinner took place at the
historic building Iðnó which is a restaurant and theatre at the heart
of Reykjavik. A stand-up comedian came for a visit to the conference
dinner, adding even more to the fine atmosphere of the evening.
On behalf of the participants I would like to thank the Chair of
the Local Organizing Committee, Birgir Hrafnkelsson, for excellent
local organization of the conference, taking good care of all practical
details.
Some photographs (taken by Mait Raag, Regional Treasurer, IBS
Nordic-Baltic Region) of the conference are shown here:
The 2015 Biometric Seminar
The Biometric Seminar entitled “Missing data and estimand in clinical
trials” will be held in the afternoon, December 22, just after EARBC2015, as its satellite meeting at the same venue. Current issues
on missing data arising in clinical trials will be discussed from methodological and practical viewpoints.
The 2016 Annual Meeting of the Biometric Society of
Japan
The 2016 Annual Meeting of the Biometric Society of Japan will be
held on 18-19 March, 2016 at the Institute of Statistical Mathematics,
Tachikawa, Tokyo, Japan. An invited session on statistical issues in
pharmaceutical research will be organized. A tutorial seminar will
also be held on statistical modeling with the generalized linear and
hieratical models.
From left: IBS NBR President Krista Fischer, IBS President John Hinde and
Lithuanian members of IBS NBR, Rimantas Eidukevicius and Marijus Radavicius enjoying the coffee break.
Satoshi Hattori
Nordic-Baltic Region (NR)
Nordic-Baltic Biometric Conference (NBBC) 2015
The Nordic-Baltic Region gathered for its 5th Regional Conference
from June 8-10, 2015 in Reykjavik, Iceland. The conference was held
at the Hilton Hotel and was hosted by the University of Iceland.
The conference was very successful and attracted about 110 participants from more than 15 different countries. The Scientific Program
Committee, led by Magne Thoresen (Norway), did a great job putting together an exciting program with three keynote talks, six invited
sessions, more than 50 contributed talks divided into up to three
parallel sessions, and a number of poster presentations.
Conference Room A.
Talks by the keynote speakers could be considered the highlights
of the conference. IBS President, John Hinde, gave a talk on translational statistics and highlighted the importance of reproducible data
analysis; Norwegian statistician, Odd Aalen, gave a talk on new developments in causal inference; and statistician at deCODE Genetics,
Daníel Guðbjartsson, fascinated the audience with the results of
analyses of the whole genomes of a large fraction of Icelanders.
Not less interesting were the contributing talks from different fields
of biometric research, including fisheries, molecular biology, registry-based research, causal inference, forest structure modelling and
analysis of psychiatric data.
In addition to the excellent Scientific Programme, an enjoyable social
programme provided opportunities to mingle.The participants were
invited to visit the high-tech company deCODE Genetics where
they got the opportunity to learn more about the company and
Lovely Reykjavik.
Biometric Bulletin
Esa Läärä
10
Spanish Region (REsp)
XVth Spanish Biometric Conference and Vth IberoAmerican Biometric Meeting
The XVth Spanish Biometric Conference and the Vth Ibero-American
Biometric Meeting was held in wonderful Bilbao between the 22nd
and 25th of September 2015. The University of the Basque Country
(UPV/EHU) hosted this event with a total of 169 attendees. In this
occasion, the meeting had the particularity of matching up with the
30th Anniversary of the Spanish Biometric Society, and an exposition
of photos and materials of previous meetings commemorated this
jubilee.
Opening Session, from left to right: Vicente Nuñez Anton (President of the
Scientific Committee), David Conesa (president of the Spanish Biometric
Society), Fernando Plazaola (Vice-chancellor of the University of the Basque
Country), Julio Alejandro Di Rienzo (from the Argentinean Region, representing the Ibero-American IBS Regions) and Inmaculada Arostegui (President
of the Organizing Committee).
The material provided for the conference which included an interesting app.
containing the Scientific and Social Programmes and some useful information about the city.
The Local Organizing Committee was led by the President,
Inmaculada Arostegui, who, together with the Secretary, Arantza
Urkaregi, and their team are to be congratulated on the success of
the conference. Also, the Scientific Committee, led by Vicente Nuñez
Antón, deserves a special mention, given the high scientific quality of
the conference.
In particular, the Scientific Programme included an introductory
course (by Carmen Armero from Universitat de València); three
plenary sessions (David Conesa from Universitat de València,
Hélène Jacqmin-Gadda from Université Bordeux Ségalen and
Alvaro Muñoz from Johns Hopkins University); and three invited
sessions. The first one was the Young Statistician Showcase where
Young Statistician Showcase (YSS), from left to right: David Conesa (YSS
Selection Committee), Manuel Higueras (Spanish Region), Gustavo Giménez (Argentinian Region), Diego A. Ayma (Chilean Region), Luis H.Vanegas
(Central American and Caribbean Region), Julio Alejandro Di Rienzo (YSS
Selection Committee), Jhonny Demey (YSS Selection Committee) and Vicente Nuñez Anton (YSS Selection Committee).
young researches, previously selected by the Scientific Committee
among more than 20 candidates, presented their work. It is worth
noting that these four young statisticians received a grant from the
International Biometric Society to attend this meeting. There was
also an EMR-Italian-Portuguese-Spanish Session (in line with the usual
session between these Regions) and a Latin-American Session with
five and four speakers respectively. The rest of the speakers (up to
78) participated at the 18 parallel thematic sessions (Multivariate
Analysis, Statistical Methods in Medical Research, Mixed Effects
Models, Clinical Trials, Bayesian Statistics, Spatio-Temporal Models,
etc.). Finally, a total of 61 posters were presented and discussed in
two very interesting sessions.
A nice social program was also planned. From the welcome reception on the evening of the 22nd of September at the beautiful
City Hall to the Gala Dinner on Thursday the 24th in the old and
nice Hesperia Zubialde Hotel (just by the new and brilliant San
Mames Stadium). A very interesting guided visit to the city was also
Welcome Reception at the beautiful City Hall.
11
Biometric Bulletin
performed on Wednesday the 23rd. In this visit (done by bus) we
learned about the importance of the architecture in the city and
the integration between the old and the new buildings. The visit also
helped us to understand how much the city has improved in the last
few years becoming one of the most beautiful cities in Spain.
Anabel Forte
Ugandan Region (GUgan)
2ND IBS – Ugandan Region International Biometric
Society Conference in East Africa
12 – 13 November 2015
The 2nd IBS Conference took place at Mildmay, Uganda with the
theme; “Applying standard and advanced statistical methods to public health data”. The first conference whose theme was “Modelling
infectious diseases in Africa” was held in September 2013 in Kampala,
Uganda.
During this 2015 IBS – Ugandan Region Conference, day one was
divided into three main sessions – session one was mainly keynote
addresses from different speakers; session two focussed on analysis
of routinely collected health data; and session three focussed on
Statistical Methodologies for datasets collected in medical research
and public health settings. The second day had two parallel sessions
– one being a short course in longitudinal data analysis given by Dr.
Ann Mwangi from Moi University, Kenya, and the other was about
Biostatistics collaborative initiatives in Africa. The discussions covered
four main topics, which overlapped considerably: i) teaching and
training, ii) research and analysis, iii) communication, and iv) software.
This session was Co-chaired by Prof. Krista Fischer and Prof. Jim Todd.
The conference provided an opportunity for interesting presentations on biostatistical analysis applied to health data. It also gave the
delegates the opportunity to network and share experiences and
ideas for future collaboration. This is important when there are limited conferences on Biostatistics in sub-Saharan Africa. Finally, and very
importantly, it gave delegates the chance to see a working hospital
in Uganda – Mildmay – which collects large amounts of routine data
and is seeking collaborative arrangements to help analyse their data
and get the maximum value from their hard work.
A total of 90 participants applied to attend, and the majority applied
through the conference website. Out of the 34 from outside Uganda
that applied/expressed interest, we had 20 attending the two-day
conference. Most of those who didn’t attend could not mobilise
funds for their flight. With the support of $5000 received from IBS,
the IBS – Uganda Region provided accommodations, meals and
waived registration fees for participants from other countries. For
Ugandan participants, we provided the meals and waived conference
registration fees. The longitudinal data analysis course was free of
charge for all. We thank the Makerere University School of Public
Health, Department of Biostatistics and Epidemiology for the support of $400 and Mildmay Uganda for their support of waiving the
cost of a conference hall.
There were 16 abstracts submitted online, but some did not attend.
In the end we had 16 presentations from both keynote speakers
and other participants. To summarise sessions, the major highlights
were: the presentations on routine data showed that there was
need to characterise routine data well. There was a huge effect of
missingness from attrition. It was suggested that researchers needed
to engage with service providers to understand the data they are
provided. It was also recommended the need to check the model
for malaria prediction because the result of uniform prevalence of
malaria over the years may not be right. There were a number of
PhD students who presented their work which was commendable.
The presentations were basically divided into two types of analysis
(survey and genetic).The presentations challenged statisticians to use
complex methods like the Generalized Additive Models and GWAS.
Presentations about genetic analysis by Linda and Prof. Krista was
much appreciated, since this was still a field with very little analysis
being done and hence very few statisticians in the field.
Country
Expressed
interest
1
2
1
1
9
2
1
1
1
1
7
1
7
1
62
95
Botswana
Belgium
Estonia
Ghana
Kenya
Malawi
Zambia
Nigeria
Rwanda
Senegal
South Africa
Sudan
Tanzania
USA
Uganda
Total
Attended
0
1
1
1
6
0
1
1
0
0
5
0
3
0
43
62
On behalf of the conference organisers, we thank the participants
who came from many countries (including Uganda), committee
members, all the speakers for honouring the invitation to be a part
of the conference. Many thanks go to the leadership of the IBS
Executive Board for supporting the conference by sponsoring five
participants to attend and sending a representative –Prof. Krista
Fischer all the way from University of Tartu in Estonia. Special thanks
go to specifically IBS President, Prof. John Hinde and Ms. Dee Ann
Walker for believing in the Region President, Mr. Dan Kajungu and
encouraging him to organize another international conference in the
Participants at the East Africa Conference pose outside the lecture hall in
Kampala, Uganda. Dan Kajungu (front row, far right) developed a proposal
to host the conference in Uganda and received partial funding from the
IBS Executive Board and the Education Committee.The conference was a
great success and good example of an innovative initiative by one of the
IBS Regions.
Biometric Bulletin
12
Region. The support for organising the conference was $5000 which
was received promptly to enable smooth organization. Prof. Fischer
made a commendable presentation about IBS and the available
opportunities for support and collaboration.
Dan Kajungu
Western North American Region
(WNAR)
2016 WNAR/IMS Meeting
WNAR is the local host to the 2016 IBC Meeting, to be held in
Victoria, Canada from 10-15 July 2016. Meeting information is
available at: http://biometricconference.org. Details about WNAR
sessions at IBC and the WNAR student competitions will be posted
on the WNAR web page www.wnar.org as they become available.
2016 WNAR Student Paper Competition
WNAR has a tradition of holding a student paper competition at
its annual conference. We plan to continue the tradition at IBC2016.
Monetary prizes will be awarded to the best papers in written and
oral competitions. Information on the 2016 WNAR Student Paper
Competition, registration information, and program details for the
meeting will be posted as they become available: http://www.wnar.
org. We look forward to seeing you there.
Megan Othus
Announcements and News
Awards Fund Committee Had Very
Successful Year!
The newest program of the Awards Fund Committee turned out to
be quite successful! The Committee, Chaired by Renato Assunção
of Brazil, instituted the new program which assists members from
developing countries to attend Regional IBS sponsored conferences.
Most of the travel funds allowed members to attend conferences in
different Regions, satisfying one of the impetuses for the program:
enabling members to collaborate with colleagues from another part
of the world.
The Committee reviewed applications from 18 members and
awarded grants to 11 IBS members totalling $12,760 USD. The
grants provided funds for travel to one of the Regional/Network
conferences held in 2015. Those members receiving travel funds
included:
Jeno Reiczigel (Hungary) to Nordic-Baltic Conference in
Reykjavik, Iceland
Denitsa Grigorova (Bulgaria) to Eastern Mediterranean
Conference in Cappadocia, Turkey
Emmanuel Benyin (Ghana) to East African Conference in
Kampala, Uganda
Olgun Aydid (Turkey) to Spanish Biometric Conference in
Bilbao, Spain
Yehenew Getachew Kifle (Ethiopia) to East African
Conference in Kampala, Uganda
Guillermo Sabino (Argentina) to Spanish Biometric
Conference in Bilbao, Spain
13
Danjuma Jibasen (Nigeria) to East African Conference in
Kampala, Uganda
Luis F. Grajales (Colombia) to Spanish Biometric Conference
in Bilbao, Spain
Linda Chaba (Kenya) to East African Conference in Kampala,
Uganda
Kuman Swain (India) to East Asian Regional Conference in
Fukuoka, Japan
Abraham Lagat (Kenya) to East African Conference in
Kampala, Uganda
Congratulations to all of these members, and look for their reports
in this (see below) and upcoming issues of Biometric Bulletin.
Appreciation also goes to the Awards Fund Committee members for
all of the hard and dedicated work: Renato Martins Assunção (Brazil),
Dan Kugungu (Uganda), Daohai You (ENAR), Denis Enachescu
(Romania), Maria Durban (Spain), Saatoshi Morita (Japan), Tomi Mori
(WNAR), Benton Clarke (Australasia), P. Venkatesan (India), and
Serio Bramardi (Argentina).
Report on My Participation in
NBBC2015 in Reykjavik, Supported
by IBS
Thanks to IBS for supporting my participation in the Nordic-Baltic
Biometric Conference in Reykjavik on 7-10 June 2015. The conference
program was of high scientific quality, I enjoyed all sessions I could attend.
I was able to establish new connections to researchers working on projects related to my research interests, and also, I could get familiar with
research topics I had not been aware of in the past. One among those
was the investigation of genetic characteristics and biomarkers connected
to the predisposition of some diseases. This kind of research has strong
traditions in Iceland as they have very accurate family trees including
almost the whole Icelandic population.
I presented a talk titled “Exact test and confidence interval for the true
risk ratio with an imperfect diagnostic test” in the contributed session
titled Methodology I.
Although I wasn’t lucky with the flight to Iceland, as my suitcase was
lost and it was sent to me just after the end of the conference, even this
event could not prevent me from enjoying the conference.
Jeno Reiczigel
Report on the 2015 IBS – Ugandan
Region International Conference
for East Africa: Applying Standard
and Advanced Statistical Methods
to Public Health Data
The conference was two days packed activities for 12 – 13 November
2015 at Mildmay Uganda where 21 contributed oral presentations that
were shared during the conference, and likewise 19 poster abstracts
were published. Prof. Krista Fischer was the IBS invited guest speaker
for this event.
The first day was in three plenary sections, while the second day was in
two parallel sections; short course in longitudinal data analysis by facilitator Dr. Ann Mwangi and Biostatistics collaborative initiatives in Africa
Biometric Bulletin
– DELTAS/SSACBT, Chaired by Prof. Jim Todd and Prof. Krista Fischer. And
a final plenary session which the local organizing committee gave the
summary and the closing remarks to end the conference.
Day 2
Special Session: Short Course in Longitudinal Data Analysis
Dr. Ann Mwangi
Thursday, 12 November 2015 activities are below.
Special Session: Biostatistics Collaborative Initiatives in Africa
Chaired by Prof. Jim Todd and Prof. Krista Fischer
Plenary Session 1 (Keynote Addresses):
Dan Kajungu, President – IBS Uganda Region gave the welcome address
following the introduction of Prof. Krista Fischer as IBS Executive Board
Member and Prof. Nazarius Mbona Tumwesigye as chairman of Epi
and Biostat, Makerere University School of Public Health, Uganda. Prof.
Niko Speybroeck presented Public health trends of food-borne diseases;
Salmonella, Campylobacter and Listeria in Belgium as examples. Prof.
khangelani Zuma thought analysis of complex correlated HIV data; an
example from South African population based survey. Prof. Jonathan
Levin presented statistical issues in the analysis of data from quasi-experiments and observational studies in health research while Prof. Greg
Fegan spoke about massive open online courses for a lazy teacher.
Plenary Session 2 – Analysis of Routinely Collected
Health Data, Chaired by Prof. Jim Todd
Radia Ismaeel presented statistical analysis of the level of replication
within the UK public health laboratory service HIV and AIDS databases,
Elphas Okango spoke about relaxing the stationarity assumption in
spatial modeling with application to HIV and HSV-2 in Kenya. Simeon
Olawuwo presented the use of routine data for quality of care assessment in children in Kenyan hospitals, Dr. Agnes Kiragga spoke dealing
with missing data when analyzing routinely observational data in a large
HIV/AIDS treatment Centre while Barbara Mukasa thought profiling
routine data at a large HIV/AIDS treatment centre and the peripheral
public health facilities in Uganda. And there was recap and discussions
by Prof. Jim Todd and Prof. Greg Fegan.
Plenary Session 3 – Statistical Methodologies for
Datasets Collected in Medical Research and Public
Health Settings, Chaired by Dr. Rebecca Nsubuga and
Dr. Agnes Kiragga
Dawit Getnet Ayele spoke about the use of generalized additive models
to identify risk factors of HIV/AIDS, Niyigena jean de Dieu thoughts
modeling Ebola epidemic and impact of control. Linda Chaba presented
a comparison of a Bayesian and SAM methods for microarray data
analysis, Christian Holm Hansen thought 3 causes of bias in epidemiological studies that every biostatistician should know about, Prof. Krista
Fischer presented can genetics help to predict the risk of common
complex diseases? Statistical aspects of the development of genetic
risk scores, Simeon Olawuwo spoke about domestic violence and infant
mortality in Nigeria: evidence from 2013 Nigeria demographic health
survey, Annette Nabuduwa presented study on menstrual hygiene management among rural adolescent girls and women in Uganda, Michael
Johnson Mahande spoke about prevalence and determinants of modern
contraceptive methods use among women of reproductive age (15-49
years) in rural area in Kishapu district, Shinyanga region, Christian Holm
Hansen thought bias estimation and sensitivity analysis in questionnaire studies with “embarrassing” questions, Charles Festo presented
regression models for count data: when and where they should be
used while Kazaura Method spoke about use and misuse of chi-square
test in health-related research: an example from a medical university
in Tanzania And Danjuma Jibasen presented capture- recapture type
model for estimating elusive events incorporating tag gain. Prof. Jonathan
Levin did the discussion and recap for this session.
Plenary Session 4: Summary and Closing Remarks
Local Organizing Committee
Emmanuel Benyin
Many Thanks to the IBS for
Funding My Attendance to the
CEB-EIB 2015!
I would like to start with many thanks to IBS. Owing to a traveling fund
of IBS, I attended the CEB-EIB 2015, held in Bilbao, Spain, as an EMR
representative.
IBS is very important for youth researchers like me. IBS always encourages me with both its conference and its workshops. CEB-EIB 2015 was
amazing for me. I liked Bilbao and enjoyed the conference so much.
The organization was perfect. I would like to send many thanks to all
the people who worked on organizing the conference. The staff was so
helpful and kind.
I met with so many reputable academicians.They had so many important comments and critics about my study. I had a chance to discuss new
theories of statistics with the academicians. Now I am in contact with
some of the academicians to make collaborations. Also, I had a chance
to meet with Turkish academician, Mrs. Guler, who works in Spain and
two more academicians who work in Turkey like me.
I am really very grateful for participating in the CEB-EIB 2015. I’m looking forward to attending new conferences of IBS in the future.
A photo from my presentation.
Olgun Aydid
Thank you IBS for Supporting
My Participation in the 5th
Iberoaerican Biometric Conference
in Bilbao!
I want to thank the International Biometric Society for supporting my
participation in the 5th Iberoaerican Biometric Conference in Bilbao
from 22 to 25 of September of 2015.The conference program was very
Biometric Bulletin
14
Sabino Guillermo (left) of Argentina poses with the recently elected Spanish Region President, Inmaculada Arostegui, and outgoing President David
Conesa.
interesting and some aspects of the exposition were fruitful – especially
that related with Multivariate Analysis. In the session “Multivariate
Analysis 1”, I presented the work titled “Comparison of multivariate
analysis techniques for treatment of mixed data”.
Dan Kajungu (Uganda), conference organizer; Danjuma Jibasen (Nigeria),
travel award recipient; and Krista Fischer (Estonia) Executive Board Director,
pose together at the East Africa Conference in Kampala, Uganda.
I traveled with my teammate, Gustavo Gimenez, who represented the
Argentinian Region in the Special Session of Young Researchers. I made
contact with friends of the Central American Region and several Spanish
researchers. I invited them to present their works in the XXII Meeting
of Region Argentina that probably we will celebrate in Patagonia,
Argentina in 2017. When I returned to Buenos Aires, I assisted for the
20th Argentina Region Meeting, and I shared with colleagues about my
experience in the conference and its topics.
University, Kenya. She taught on sources, importance, objectives of analysis of longitudinal data and methods of analysis of longitudinal data, the
difference between longitudinal studies and cross section studies were
also taught. She reviewed how to perform simple and also the basic of
random effects models analysis. Statistical methods used for longitudinal
data such as simple regression, logistic and logit regression and multivariate methods were taught.
The conference organization’s team was awesome, especially President
Inmaculada Arostegui and the President of Spanish Region, David
Conesa. The Basque Country University’s students were amazing, too.
They worked a lot to have a great meeting.
I also had the opportunity of presenting my work in titled, “Capturerecapture Type model for Estimating Elusive Events with Tag gain” on the
Day 2. My interactions with participants revealed that Day 1 presentations were very educative and interesting.
Besides the IBS award, the Organization’s Committee gave me 1000
U$S for my plane tickets, a grant for the registration fee and for paying
a place to stay.
I attended the special session on Biostatistics collaborative for Africa
DELTAS/SSACBT, briefly, where it was agreed among other things that
the way forward for Biostatistics and Biostatisticians in Africa is (i) Bring
awareness of career opportunities to students and lecturers, (ii) training
of Biostatisticians, (iii) provision of materials and resources to members,
(iv) creating opportunities for IBS members in Africa, (iv) creating of
information on IBS activities, etc.
I am happy to have traveled to Bilbao, and I appreciate this possibility.
Thanks to the IBS again.
Guillermo Sabino
Travel Award Took Me to
Conference in East Africa!
I had the opportunity to have attended the East African Conference
sponsored by IBS-Uganda Region which took place between 12th
to 13th November, at Midmay, Kampala, Uganda. The theme was,
“Applying Standard and Advanced Statistical Methods to Public Health”.
I was sponsored by IBS travel grants, thanks to Dee Ann Walker for
assisting me to update my membership and encouragement.
Though I could not attend the programme on Day 1 of the Conference
due to flight cancellations, I made it on the Day 2 of the Conference.
Day 2 was interesting; it started with a short course on Longitudinal
data analysis. The course Facilitator was Dr. Ann Mwangi of the Moi
15
I had the opportunity of meeting Prof. Krista Fischer, the current president of the IBS Nordic-Baltic Region and a member of IBS Executive
Board, Prof. Jim Todd, Senior Lecturer in the Department of Epidemiology
and Biostatistics in Kilimanjaro Christian Medical University College,
Moshi, Tanzania. The President of IBS - Uganda Region and the
Organizing President of the Conference Dan Kajungu is one hard working fellow I met in the conference. Congratulations Dan for organizing
such a successful Conference.
The short course and the discussions on Biostatistics collaboration for
Africa has added impetus to my quest to be better a Biostatistician.With
this, I hope to be at IBC 2016.
I want to thank IBS President, Executive Board members and the Travel
Grant Committee for this opportunity.
Biometric Bulletin
Danjuma Jibasen
International Biometry Meeting
Ugandan Region (GUGAN), Kampala
The conference was organized by the IBS Uganda (GUGAN) and held
on the 12th and 13th November, 2015 at the Mildway Uganda in
Kampala. This was my first time to take part in the IBS regional
meeting, meet IBS members from Kenya, as well as other regions
and become aware of the proceedings of an IBS meetings.
The presentations by different speakers across the biostatistical
field boosted my confidence in utilizing skills, knowledge and experience
using various statistical applications and communicating research
findings, as well providing me with the starting point to stepping from
theoretical to application. I have to admit that this was quite an
experience as well as learning time given the span of interesting areas
of application.
Linda Chaba of Kenya poses outside the venue of the East Africa Conference in Uganda.
Award Takes Me to IBS Conference
in Uganda!
First of all, I wish to acknowledge the travel grant from the International
Biometric Society, providing the great opportunity to attend the 2nd IBS
Uganda Region International Conference, which was held at MildMay,
Kampala, Uganda, from November 12 – 13, 2015. The theme of the
conference was “Applying standard and advanced statistical methods to
Public Health data”. It was indeed very exciting for me to attend my first
ever IBS regional meeting.
A good number of keynote speakers including Krista Fischer (University
of Tartu, Estonia), Jonathan Levin (Wits University, SA), Khangelani
Zuma (HSRC, SA),Yehenew Getachew Kifle (University of Limpopo, SA),
Nazarius Tumwesigye Mbona (MUK, UG) and Greg Fegan (KEMRI, KE)
among others attended the meeting.The oral presentations ranged from
analysis of routinely collected health data to statistical methodology. My
talk was in the statistical methodology section. There was also a training on longitudinal data analysis on the second day of the conference.
Krista’s presentation was certainly encouraging to novices like me given
that she was the only one presenting on genomic studies.
The short course at the end of the meeting on longitudinal data analysis gave me an opportunity to refresh my knowledge in the area. In
addition, the interactive online learning opportunities presented through
the Massive Open Online Courses for a lazy teacher session provided
the available learning platforms such as EDX and Coursera and other
online repositories as github through which learning materials and codes
can be shared.
Through such events, as was during the GUGAN Conference, is when
issues encountered in analysis and dissemination of data is communicated, and as a result, like me, the new biostatisticians learn on methodologies that may come in handy in the near future – such as handling
missing data, highly correlated data. It was only through the conference
that I was able to ‘accept’ to hear more on the term “micro-array”.
The conference also enabled me meet with IBS members across the
region and being part of the IBS Kenya (GKe) representatives in
the conference. Such events provide the rare opportunities through
which collaborative research, both geographically and field-expertise,
emanates as well as amongst data providers and the research experts
as was the case during the post-conference analysis.
Special thanks to the IBS Uganda (GUGAN) and the Conference
Committee for organizing such an awesome event and the IBS Awards
Fund Committee for granting me the opportunity to learn and realize
how I can actively contribute to the IBS.
Overall, I definitely gained a lot from attending the conference by getting to meet researchers from different countries and fellow doctoral
students who had such diverse views that I had to challenge my own.
I got great feedback from my presentation which I will study in detail
in the next couple of months to improve my work. The opportunity to
briefly introduce myself to a number of researchers whose work I intend
to follow and maybe ask for advice on different aspects on my study
was truly invaluable.
Apart from learning more about the emerging field and networking with
great people, I feel greatly encouraged to continue with my studies and
attend future IBS conferences. I am looking forward to attending the
next IBC in Canada in 2016.
Abraham K. Lagat (Kenya), travel award recipient, is pictured here with
Caroli-ne Amuor (Tanzania), both attendees at the East Africa Conference.
Linda Chaba
Biometric Bulletin
Abraham K Lagat
16
IB
2016 INTERNATIONAL BIOMETRIC CONFERENCE
July 10-15, 2016
Victoria, British Columbia, Canada
The 2016 International Biometric Conference (IBC)
sponsored by the International Biometric Society will be held
at the Victoria Convention Centre in downtown Victoria.
The IBC includes:
 Invited and Contributed Talks
 Young Statisticians Showcase
 Statistics in Practice Session
 WNAR Invited and Young Investigator Sessions
 Poster Session and Competition
 Student Oral Presentation Competition
Registration opens December 2015
Abstract submission deadline is January 6th, 2016
More information may be found at
www.biometricconference.org
17
Biometric Bulletin
IBS Membership Report (December 2015)
Region
Total
Members
Paid or
Reported
88
210
148
59
20
291
232
76
Regular Regular SR.
SR.
Supporting Student Student Honorary
DC
Retired Retired
DC
DC
Argentinean (RARG)
Australasian (AR)
Austro-Swiss (ROES)
Belgian (RBE)
Botswana (GBOT)
Brazilian (RBRAS)
British & Irish (BIR)
Central America-Caribbean
Region (RCAC)
Chile Region (CHILE)
China Region (CHINA)
Eastern Mediterranean (EMR)
Eastern North American
(ENAR)
Ecuador (RECU)
Ethiopia (GETH)
French (RF)
German (DR)
Ghana (GGA)
Indian (IR)
Italian (RITL)
Japanese (JR)
Kenya (GKE)
Korean (RKO)
Netherlands (ANED)
Nigeria (GNI)
Nordic Baltic (NBR)
Pakistan Region (PKSTAN)
Poland (GPOL)
Romania (GRO)
Singapore Region (SING)
South Africa (GSAF)
Spanish (RESP)
Uganda (UGDA)
Western North American
(WNAR)
Zimbabwe (GZIM)
10
Regional Total
At-Large
“5,292”
473
“3,252”
253
819
32
113
International Biometric Society “5,765”
(IBS)
“3,505”
851
113
23
143
195
“1,359”
48
19
99
918
0
63
88
330
10
83
114
121
69
16
13
16
28
28
142
42
191
173
131
53
88
1
17
13
1
20
182
122
5
34
991
1
7
10
4
4
6
87
1
23
141
23
1
103
17
40
1
6
14
6
30
8
113
345
37
19
2
19
1
11
91
860
8
31
26
32
10
1
21
68
284
20
46
10
63
93
5
20
15
1
3
10
1
121
55
16
5
8
16
22
6
22
2
4
83
59
18
24
119
3
2
66
1
20
17
844
161
214
26
13
1
20
17
“1,005”
240
14
10
Biometric Bulletin
18
IBC2016 Save the Date!
• 6 January 2016 – Deadline for submission of contributed papers
• 7 March 2016 – Notification of acceptance of contributed papers
• 1 April 2016 – Deadline for ‘early bird’ registration
IBS on LinkedIn - Join Our Group & Get Connected to Colleagues
Across the Globe
IBS has created a LinkedIn Group for biometrics industry professionals to become a part of…and network
with your colleagues instantaneously! Post discussions to
the Group and get comments/feedback from Group
members on their perspectives or experiences. A great
benefit of this Group is that it’s a very easy and free way to commu-
nicate with your colleagues who live all around the world. Being
connected to the IBS Group will allow you to see other connection
possibilities as well and broaden your professional network. The
possibilities are endless. Join our Group today by visiting www.linkedin.com, and search under Groups for ‘International Biometric
Society.
MEETINGS
2016
2018
6 – 9 March
8 – 13 July
2016 ENAR Spring Meeting
Austin, TX
XXIXth International Biometric Conference
Barcelona, Spain
http://www.biometricsociety.org/
14 – 18 March
62nd Biometric Colloquium within DAGStat Convention
2016
Göttingen, Germany
http://www.uni-goettingen.de/en/485701.html
18 – 19 March
The 2016 Annual Meeting of the Biometric Society of
Japan
The Institute of Statistical Mathematics, Tachikawa
Tokyo, Japan
10 – 15 July
XXVIIIth International Biometric Conference
Victoria, Canada
http://biometricconference.org/
19
Biometric Bulletin