ISBASA
2002 Workshop, Stellenbo
The 1st
ISBASA Workshop has taken place on 3, 4 and 5 April 2002 at the University of
Stellenbosch (US). It was an official activity of the Southern Africa ISBA
Chapter and the Department of Statistics and Actuarial Science of Stellenbosch
University have hosted it.
The Executive
Committee did invite Jim Berger to participate in the Workshop and were
extremely pleased that he had accepted our invitation. Anders Madsen of Hugin,
Denmark agreed to host a session in Bayesian Networks at this Workshop. His
visit was sponsored by the CSIR with the help of Alta de Waal. A third prominent Bayesian from the USA, Peter
Mueller did also accept our invitation. The visit of professors Berger and
Mueller was partly sponsored by the National Research Foundation of South Africa.
Daan de Waal from the University of the Free State presented a
workshop on the Gibbs sampler, with numerical examples and illustrations. Our international guests are world leaders in Bayesian Statistical Analysis and
its application. Their participation in that Workshop made it truly a world
event. Their practical experience of data analysis is evident in the tens of
papers and books they wrote.
The workshop has been attended by a number of statisticians from Southern African and abroad. Amongst the delegates, were young researchers in the Southern African region. The aim of this Workshop was not only to promote Bayesian activities in Southern Africa, but also to expose young statisticians to the Bayesian approach. Therefore, all sessions started with basic theory and applications. A total of 80 Bayesians and quasi-Bayesians have attended this workshop.